Dance with Me [h.s] (Completed)

Chapter 29

Harry's POV

My drive feels especially quiet, even though I never drive to work with anyone. CiCi's positive energy is just so voluminous that it fills spaces, seeps into every square inch. I can practically see a trail of yellow following her everywhere, and each person she visits she leaves a smudge of yellow on them, an imprint of their time together. Their lives suddenly improved for the better just by her proximity. That's one of the reasons why Sunshine is her name, because whatever she touches grows. It amplifies. It expands. It flourishes. She did it to Zayn. She did it to my club. My students. The other dancers.

She's doing it to me.

I've been practically stagnant for five years. Almost purposeful in my non-growth. Mediocre enough to be ignored. To not draw any attention to myself. I was a long forgotten dud of a seed, and then she came into my life and I'm germinating. I've made my way to the surface, a tiny seedling finding the light. How the hell was I supposed to go underground again no now that I knew what it felt like to have her warmth shine on me? I was completely and utterly fucked, and I was doing it with a smile on my face.

I should have ran the other way as soon as I found out who she was. I should have made Liam fire her. But then my stupid curiosity took over. That first night she worked, Liam had told me he had hired a new dancer and I recognized the name right away. I thought it must be a dumb coincidence and not the same person. I went out to see and I could barely believe my eyes that it was her. And then she sassed me. She fucking sassed me. I knew after that that I would never fire her. It's like the universe sent her to me so I could make things right.

I knew I had been punishing myself with my self-enforced exile, but I thought that coaching her might help me move on. To let the past go. I didn't intend on falling for her. I always knew she was a beautiful dancer; the first time I saw her dance I couldn't stop wishing that I had a chance to dance with her. But, fuck, dancing with her made things infinitely worse. I should have been able to guess that. I mean, look at her. A real life goddess.

For me, dancing at a young age had started out fun and then turned into work. A lot of hard work. And teaching dancing now was work. And then CiCi Toscano walks into my life and lets me dance with her and it's fun again. It's joyful and invigorating. It's happy and gratifying. It was lustful and thrilling. She turned sex into foreplay. I would love to spend my life dancing with her, but something told me that I wasn't going to be that lucky. I'm pretty sure I used up all my luck with her when she applied for a job at my club.

I walk down to Liam's office and knock on the open door.

"Hey, you have a minute?" I ask.

"Of course. What's up?"

"I was talking to CiCi. She has a business degree and she was talking about ways to improve the club. To draw in more revenue. We discussed changing College Thursdays to a Latin dancing night. Have tables and performers. A proper stage. We're in the middle of the financial district. You could have businessmen come and bring clients in. Open earlier for them. Maybe switch our days around so it's a Friday end of the week thing."

"That's interesting. I hadn't thought about that."

"She mentioned that we have a college night but no college located close to us. That instead of charging $5 a beer, we could charge a few hundred dollars per bottle."

"That's smart. But there would be overhead costs to convert the club. It would be a big risk," he warns me.

"Yeah, I know. But I think she's right. Could you run the numbers approximately for tables, a new stage, etcetera? Just a ballpark."