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But to be chosen for a real date, I’d have to get selected after Friday’s date, and then I’d have to learn a second dance and do it again with her next week.
Would Jake give me the time off? What if he didn’t? Luckily, I didn’t have anywhere that I needed to travel to, but I did have training classes that I was teaching with Alex and Trevor. Maybe Greg would step in for me and cover. I knew Mike was tied up with all this new website stuff and technology crap that he played with, but Greg had been in hiding for a while, and I bet he would love to get his hands back into training. I’d give him a call tomorrow and ask.
That night as I lay down, my mind ran through all the steps to the dance, and I tried to picture someone else in my arms—other than my current dance partner—but I couldn’t. Maybe my mind just wouldn’t pull a stranger up and put her in place. For just a brief minute, the face of the woman from the corner popped into my mind as I mentally danced. Then I winced and shifted away from that thought.
Let’s just hope that when it was time to dance with someone else, my body responded as well as it did to my current partner.
Chapter Eight
Ali
Iyawned as I got out of my car on the outskirts of the park. It had been an incredibly long night, and I hadn’t slept well. The restaurant had been crazy busy for a Wednesday night, and after we’d gotten a late start on everything, we never seemed to be able to catch up entirely until the end of the night. I know that I wasn’t the only one that was exhausted, and I’d made sure to thank everyone several times before they left for the night.
It was only nine in the morning when I locked my car door and carried my small bag toward Holly, Cal, and Victor off to the side. There were no live cameras here today, but the film crew was here to oversee and discuss vantage points.
“Morning,” I called as I approached the group and then had to stifle a yawn again.
Holly chuckled as she turned to me. “Did you go out partying after work last night? You look like you’re dragging.”
“Hardly! I am dragging, and I’m sorry for leaving early yesterday, but I had a major problem at the restaurant, and it was a hectic night.”
“Everything get straightened out?”
“Yes and no,” I replied. “The health inspectors searched our kitchen but couldn’t find anything. The guy who got sick swears it was from our place because he’s been eating at home for the last two weeks and has eaten the same things as his wife, and she’s not sick. They tested her too.”
“Oh, no! That’s horrible, Ali. What happens now?”
“While they did quick checks for the bacteria, they took a bunch of swabs to have tested at the lab just to confirm. We are waiting for those to come back. If they come back positive, we could be fined or closed. I can’t imagine it was from our kitchen, and we are waiting to see if anyone else gets sick. It would be really rare for one person at a restaurant to get sick and no one else.”
“Yeah, that doesn’t make much sense, does it?”
“No, not really.”
“I hope they get it cleared quickly. Are you going to be able to focus on this?”
“Absolutely,” I said with more enthusiasm than I felt. “We are so close; I can’t give up now. Especially when I am finally starting to gather my courage to do this.”
“You’re ready to dance with strangers?”
“Ugh, when you put it that way, no!” We all laughed.
Cal threw his arm over my shoulders. “You are going to do fantastic, and I do not doubt that you are going to find love in this. You know, all three of us have bets on who you are going to pick.”
“You do?”
“Yep, we sure do, and what’s really funny is we all picked someone different, so one of us will be a winner!”
“I guess so.”
“Alright, so let’s go check out where you’ll be dancing, and you and Victor can run through it a few times.”
I thought they were going to head toward the park, but they didn’t. We ended up crossing the street, which luckily wasn’t busy, and Cal walked me through the dance, step by step.
While we would start the dance on this side of the street, we would cross over shortly after it began and move to the gazebo on the other side. A few moments in that area, and then we danced down the stairs to the small fountain, where we’d do the majority of the routine.
The first part of the dance was mostly flirting, coming close, moving away, chasing one another, and coming back together again. Then we’d meet in front of the fountain and dance together as a couple.
It was a beautiful area, and I was excited to try it out officially. When Victor and I took our spots, my stomach began to get all jittery. Tomorrow, I would be doing this three times, with three different men. If I was this nervous now, what was I going to be like tomorrow?
