The Dancer

Breaking The Ice

I walked into the studio the next day and Tom was already there warming up. When he saw me walking in, he threw me a smile and I returned the greeting with a playful wave and just as happy of a smile. For a moment, I wondered what had gotten into me. And clearly so had Tom.

"Well it's nice to see you're finally smiling at me. And all it took was a little argument?" Tom teased and threw me a wink as I plonked myself onto the floor and began putting my shoes on. "Where has this Emma come from?" He continued. I threw him a glare, then giggled when he returned it.

"Well after yesterday, I decided to sleep it off and start a fresh with you. I realised I was being too harsh on you and thought it would be nice to get to know you a little better... you know, break the ice" I shot him a smile and Tom nodded in agreement. This was nice. "Which is why, I thought we could chill out today and just have a bit of fun" I announced as I stood up from the floor and began stretching.

"And what exactly do you have in mind darling?" His eyebrows were knitted together, but all I could seem to focus on was the fact he'd called me 'darling'! It took me a moment to register that Tom was still waiting on my response. When I finally did, I sprang up quickly, and slightly embarrassed too, spluttering out my words like a nervous little girl.

"Well, umm, I well... oh for God's sake! I thought you could teach me some of your dance moves, or we could reenact a scene from a Shakespeare play, whatever it is you like to do. To break the ice when I was younger, I used to draw a moustache on my index finger, walk up to them with the finger under my nose and say "I moustache you a question", oh god I'm waffling now aren't I? Jesus I sound like such a plonker! umm I'll,  I'll shut up now" and with that, my cheeks were bright red and I was completely flustered. What in the name of all things holy was this man doing to me!? We had one little moment yesterday and now I'm turning into a babbling mess!

"You don't sound like a plonker Emma. In fact I thought that was rather adorable" he said shyly. But it wasn't just me who blushed this time, even his cheeks went a bit pink in that moment too. And thank god he called me Emma, because if he'd called me darling again, who knows what I would have done.

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"There live not three good men unhanged in England: and one of them is fat!" Tom called out as he acted out the funniest lines of all the Shakespeare works he could think of. Me on the other hand spent the majority of the time rolling around on the floor laughing at him. But what I didn't realise, was he was about to catch me out.

"Oh gosh! Tom that's hilarious! It reminds me of that scene in the Hollow Crown where Prince Hal and Falstaff are both taking turns in pretending to be Hal's father! That cracked me up too, I-" then I stopped myself. But Tom also fancied interrupting anyway.

"You watched The Hollow Crown?"  shit, caught! Tom cocked his eyebrow and smirked at me, waiting for an explanation from me.

"Let's just start with the truth, so that no one gets a head that's already full of fame" I teased, poking him in the centre of his chest. "I watched it purely because I like Shakespeare, I didn't even realise you were in it until about a year ago, so I did not watch it because you were in it. Like you said yesterday, nobody really knew you until Thor was released, I was one of those people." Tom had now joined me on the floor, sitting cross legged while he listened to my silly excuse. I didn't dare tell him that I had a huge crush on Prince Hal either.

"And what did you think of my character?" He asked slyly. I just shrugged my shoulders and looked at him with a smile.

"You did ok I guess" now I was really teasing him. His mouth dropped open and feigned hurt.

"Just ok?! Oh Miss Emma, you really shouldn't have said that" suddenly he launched himself at me poking me in the sides, making me wriggle beneath him laughing hard. I rolled us over so that I was on top of him, tickling his sides and under his arms. We would both take turns rolling each other over and covering one in tickles and pokes. We were at it for a few more minutes until Tom took control and pushed me onto my back once more, pinning my arms down above my head so I was stuck. Our faces mere inches from one another.

Our eyes met, and Tom glanced down to my lips and back to my eyes again, poking his tongue out slightly to wet his lips. No no no no no! Don't do it Tom! I had to take immediate action. I cleared my throat and looked away from his gaze.

"My friend Jess showed me that clip of you dancing on Chatty Man the other day. Fancy showing me how to do those moves?" Tom suddenly pulled away from me, I hadn't noticed that he'd got even closer than he was, and stood up.

"Umm yeah... I guess I could" he replied quietly, looking down to his feet.

Suddenly things were awkward again. And I was once again flustered.