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“What areyoudoing here?”
“Drinking my hot chocolate, duh,” she said with a grin and lifted her mug to her lips. Those eyes twinkled at him and he melted into his chair.
“I’ve never seen you here before.”
“Do you own this place?”
“Well, I’m here every Saturday,” he countered, arching an eyebrow and Oleander narrowed her eyes at him. The action reminded him of their first interactions and how different this was to that.
“Fine,” she sighed heavily and Jackson chuckled as he wrapped both hands around his mug. “I usually don’t have time before my classes, so I have my drinks on the go. My morning classes got canceled, so I was able to step in for a bit.”
“What classes? This seems pretty far from campus.”
“Oh! Dance classes,” Oleander corrected him and Jackson’s eyes widened, which made her narrow her eyes again. “What’s that look?”
“You’re a dancer.”
“I’m a danceteacher.”
“Sure, but you have to be a dancer to be able to teach someone else to dance.”
“I guess…” she trailed off and Jackson let his eyes wander over what he could see of her. She had on a top that readBrown Girls Do it Better, with a light denim jacket on over it.
“What kind of dance do you teach? Ballet?”
Oleander made apfftnoise and leaned back as she waved at herself, “Do I look like a ballet dancer?”
Jackson’s eyes dropped to the sliver of skin between her top and her pants. “What do ballet dancers look like?”
“Not this,” she told him, rolling her eyes as she adjusted her crop top.
“Okay, so not ballet, what do you teach?”
“Well, it’s a mixture of everything. I learned some ballet, so I mix it up with hip-hop and some freestyle stuff. And because they’re kids who have smartphones, lots of popular dance moves too.”
“Like the ones they do on TikTok?”
Oleander made a face and Jackson laughed, “I had to download the app the other day, just to learn some of the moves and it’s a mind-melting platform.”
“It’s okay once you get used to it, though.”
“I don’t want to get used to it. I want life to be the way it was with MTV playing music videos and the radio stations dedicated to heavy metal.”
Jackson just stared at her in amusement. “You are fascinating.”
Oleander laughed and tossed a napkin at him, “I’m old school, I like keeping things simple. I can’t keep up with the new shit.”
“I’m happy to teach you how to keep up with the new shit.”
Jackson was the last person to tell if he was flirting or not, but given how many words she’d said to him, maybe he was on the right track. He never wanted to stop talking to her, because there was something blooming in his chest and it felt so good, he never wanted it to go.
“This might seem odd, but the woman from the bar the other night and the one sitting in front of me are very different. This is a kind of test, right?”
“What are you talking about?” Oleander looked confused and Jackson winced.
“Last time we met, you basically told me to fuck off,” Jackson explained and saw the blush rise on Oleander’s cheeks as he continued. “But today, youinsistedI sit with you. What’s changed?”
“I dunno.” She mumbled something else, but Jackson wasn’t sure if he’d heard her right.
