"Not everyone is meant to have a happy ending."
Dating is difficult.
Dating with a child? Even more so.
Victoria James was already willing to give up the dating scene at the age of twenty-four until her best friend had persuaded her to try just one...
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Two1/2Years Later
The bustling groups of people file in one by one into the dim auditorium while the classical music of Mozart and Bach softly reverberate through the tall speakers. Parents, grandparents, and other loved ones all find their chosen seats as they begin to look through the pamphlet of the scheduled upcoming performances, excitedly pointing when they see their child's name printed in black ink.
Waving hello to a fellow mom I recognized from Izzy's dance class, I scoot by an elderly couple on the way to sit next to my family and in-laws already in attendance. Taehyung follows right behind me with a bouquet of flowers and a camcorder in hand, ready to film the entire thing so that maybe he could show our grandkids one day in the very distant future. He expressed on the drive here that he truly wished he had video footage of me dancing on the stage from when I was a kid to show our little ballerina but these new family traditions get to start now.
The instructor walks out to the center of the stage, waving and greeting the waiting crowd in an attempt to get everyone to stop talking amongst themselves. After a few moments, the room goes quietly enough for the woman to begin speaking, "Thank you, everyone, for coming to The Little Swans very first performance of the year. The kids are both excited and nervous to be performing in front of you all but I am more than confident that they will do an exceptional job. Parents, grandparents, and loved ones, please give a round of applause to our talented group of ballerinas."
The group strides onto the stage with their arms behind their backs and their pink tutus bouncing with every step. It takes a while for Izzy to show up from behind the curtain but the moment she does, Taehyung and I see her searching the crowd for us. Without hesitation, my adorably excited husband tosses his arm in the air with a big boxy grin, and Izzy waves back to us just as eagerly the moment her eyes spot us.
Just like myself when I was younger, she gets scolded by the instructor for breaking form, and the second the woman looks away, Izzy is sticking her tongue out at her making us chuckle at the action. What can I say? It was almost as if Isabelle was a cloned copy of her mother.
Standing in the fourth position, their right leg in front of their left with each foot pointed in opposite directions and their arms gracefully at their sides, the lights die down even more, leaving the stage to be the only thing illuminated as Taehyung zooms the camcorder out to get a wider view of the entire group.
The classical music of Fur Elise composed by Ludwig van Beethoven fills the speakers as they begin their routine. As if she commanded the stage, Izzy gets lost within the music with fairylike movements even for the young age of five and a half years old.
Our hearts leap out of our chests at the proud sight before us as Izzy stays on rhythm, not forgetting a single step. Even the points of her toes are sharp and her spins are effortless as she dances around the large stage.
