AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Darren and his husband had been in the same tiny place for the past three years, but the zany blond had finally convinced his more cautious partner that it was time for them to find a new apartment. And thus began the Great Apartment Hunt of 2013. They’d already spent endless hours preparing—making lists of neighborhoods, amenities, schools (for when they had kids, Wayne intoned solemnly, with a twinkle in his eye), and figuring out a price range. Now it was finally time to begin the actual hunting.
“You think I’d miss the two of you in action?” she asked. “You guys are hilarious together. You know Wayne’s the perfect straight man.”
He gasped dramatically. “Don’t even joke!”
She grinned. “You’ve been together for five years, I’m pretty sure he’s all yours.”
“God, I can’t believe it’s been that long. I was just a baby when we met.”
“Because you’re so mature now.” She rolled her eyes playfully.
Darren jogged quickly out to reception, shouting over his shoulder. “I am! I’m looking for an apartment, aren’t I? That’s grown up and responsible.”
“Whatever you say!”
As she moved to the small desk to set up the iPod the door to the studio banged open. Stephen, one of the young boys from her beginners classes, skidded to a halt in front of them. “‘Scuse me, Miss Becker.”
Sophie breathed a sigh of relief at his arrival; she needed to work off the tension she was feeling from all the Henry talk. She winked at the boy. “Save that energy for the lesson, Stephen.”
She was on the floor before she realized what had happened, her students staring down at her with wide, startled eyes. A wave of hot shame washed over her. She’d been demonstrating a simple step, moving backward on her left leg, and it had just buckled beneath her without warning.
“Ms. Becker! Are you alright?” one of the younger girls asked her, panic lacing her words.
Sophie shook herself, anger and mortification burning in her cheeks. Her eyes stung with tears, and she blinked them rapidly back. “I’m fine. Really. I just slipped.” The girl took Sophie’s elbow in one hand and helped her to her feet. She didn’t protest; her knee was throbbing now.
The other students fluttered around her, bobbing nervously. This is what she had feared, the frightened looks and uneasy whispers. She steadied herself against a nearby wall and let out a slight laugh. “It’s okay everyone. Let’s get back to our places and begin again.”
“Soph?”
She sighed at the worried note in Darren’s voice. He must have heard the commotion from reception. Her shoulders slumped. He was going to come in and insist she sit down. Her spine stiffened at the idea of letting her injury get the better of her. But her knee was throbbing.
Sophie forced herself to smile at the ring of anxious faces. “I do feel a little dizzy. Maybe I overdid it today. Darren? Why don’t you finish the class and I’ll take over at the front desk.”
He was at her side in an instant, hand on her shoulder. “Everything okay?”
“It’s fine,” she assured him. “Just a little dizzy, like I said. You think you can handle this?” She motioned to the surrounding group. Darren snorted, rolling his eyes.
“They’re kids, Soph, not a pack of piranha.”
She grinned, pleased that she cajoled him into a lighter mood. He’d be less likely to hound her about the incident later. “Same difference,” she whispered with a wink. He grinned and shooed her toward reception.
Sophie closed the door behind herself, moving slowly toward the front desk. She slid into the chair, her knee a ball of hot pain. Even taking her weight off it didn’t help lessen the pulsing ache. She gritted her teeth, taking deep, even breaths, and squeezed her eyes shut.
She was not going to cry. She’d cried enough.
“I don’t know what you expect me to do,” Christian had said, throwing his hands up. “I can’t actually carry you through a performance, Soph.”
It was the second rehearsal since the doctor’s had proclaimed her healed. Or rather “as healed as she was going to get.” She reached for Christian, drawing him back into her embrace. “I’m just a little stiff, Chris. It’ll get better, I promise. With the physical therapy and practice.”
His blue eyes were hard, but he curved his arm around her back. “Just go for it. Give me one ‘wow’ moment today, and I’ll have a little more faith.”
She nodded, desperately grateful. She moved when he did, ignoring the stiffness in her knee and throwing herself into the rhythm of the dance. The music pounded in her ears, through her blood. Her breaths were short and hard as she pushed her trembling leg muscles as far as she could. She’d made it through the whole dance, all the ochos and colgadas, heart thundering in her chest. Sweat pricked her brow and slid down her neck, but she’d made it.
They were meant to end with her right leg hooked on his hip, her left carrying her weight. It was dramatic and had a strong visual flare for the judges. She was pressed against him, breasts heaving, as she stared into his eyes. She saw the ice melt from his gaze, saw the same flare of passion that had tumbled them into bed one night in a hotel in Paris when she’d finally come to the end of her resistance. And her heart sang with triumph.
But then she overbalanced. Her left knee wobbled, the atrophied tendons not strong enough to hold her up as she leaned into Christian’s arms. She toppled against him, right leg squeezing his thigh in an attempt to hold on. The heat in his eyes faded as he tried to right their position, but she was too off balance. They both tumbled to the floor.
Hot spikes of agony seemed to stab into the tender flesh of her knee and she cried out. Christian flinched, extricating himself from her and quickly getting to his feet. He didn’t offer her a hand up. “This is ridiculous,” he said bitterly, and then walked away. Sophie sat, sprawled on the floor of the practice studio, and wept
