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***
“Well?” Cress stood beside Ava’s stroller while Amel sat on the floor next to his sister watching something on his iPad. He’d run through the building freely while we toured. She and I stood in the center of the open space that resembled an old warehouse with its industrial charm—exposed brick walls, metal beams, high ceilings, large windows, and an open floor plan. The finishings, however, were modern with polished wood floors and stainless hardware and light fixtures.
“I think it’s perfect for a dance academy but you’ll have to do some renovations. There are only two other rooms outside of this one and I would assume you’ll need dressing areas for dancers and possibly a performance space.”
She frowned, almost shifting into a pout. “Which is my only complaint, but I love everything about this space and it feels good.”
“I agree. The space feels good but how are you going to do this and perform with Liberté?”
“This will be my last year dancing full-time.”
“Seriously…wow.”
I didn’t know much about Cress outside of dance because Cress Omariwasdance.
She shrugged. “I’ve danced all my life and as much as I love being on stage, I feel like I’ve missed so much, with life, with my family…” Something flickered in her eyes. “And my life now is so different than I imagined. I don’t want to miss anything with them…” She glanced at Ava and Amel. “Teaching still keeps me connected to dance and I’ll consider special productions, but my heart isn’t in it to dance full-time anymore.”
“That’s a tough decision to make but I understand.”
She shook her head. “It’s not tough for me. My children and Elias will always come first.”
“God, you make it seem so easy.”
“It is easy, when you’re with the right person. Do things feel hard or complicated with Ez?”
“No, not at all, but that’s the problem. I keep waiting for things to change, for something to happen to prove fairytales don’t exist.”
Cress laughed. “They don’t exist, but real love does. Trust me, this isn’t a fairytale and our marriage is not all sunshine and rainbows. As much as I love Elias, there are days when I don’t like him very much. I’m sure he would agree when it comes to me, but we’re in this andstayingin this. Stop waiting for the bad or it will come fast and hard because you’ll force it into existence. Trust what you feel. I can’t promise a fairytale ending, especially not being married to an Omari, but you’ll have something much better and much more real.”
Her words only confirmed what I felt in my gut. What I believed to be true about the man I was falling for, however…
“It’s hard to get out of your own way sometimes.”
“I get that too but it’s so worth it when you do.”
As if I needed further confirmation to get out of my own way, I got a call from the man in question, which had my smile spreading like wildfire.
“Oh, speak of the devil,” Cress stated with amusement in her voice as I turned away to distance myself a little for privacy when I answered.
“You either have me bugged or your intuition is on point,” I said after I swiped my finger across the screen and lifted the device to my ear.
“Why is that?”
“We were just talking about you.”
“Weas in who?”
“Me and Cress.”
“You’re with Cress. I thought you had a meeting with Zoree?”
“Scheduling conflict, she needed to cancel and Cress asked if I wanted to view a space with her. One she’s considering for a dance academy.”
“Why not Elias?”
“She doesn’t trust him to be objective, so she has me.”
He chuckled. “Translation, he’s going to tell her whatever she wants to hear.”
