Dance with Me [h.s] (Completed)

Chapter 57

I get home from the studio on Wednesday, lugging armfuls of groceries with me. I'm glad to find Carmen, especially when she rushes over to help me unload the bags.

"Hey! How was training?" she asks, putting the almond milk in the fridge.

"It was good," I say, putting stuff away in the cupboards.

"It's not awkward with Harry?"

"It was but today we kind of made a truce. I don't want to screw up my chances just because I'm hung up on what he did."

"Did he talk to you? Explain why he lied about his name and his ex?"

"Yeah," I say, thinking back to what he said today.

"And??"

"It's complicated," I tell her. I've never told her about how close Zayn and I came to winning and how much of a setback it was for me when we lost. I never told her that Harry and Martina were the ones who beat us either. It's too much to comprehend that I would meet him here in New York after all these years.

"You're still protecting him," she says it like a statement and not a question.

"What?"

"You. You're still keeping his secrets. You still care about him," she says it like a light bulb has gone off.

I go back to prepping food for dinner and ignore her statement.

"Oh my god! You love him!" she squeals loudly.

"Carmen!" I scold her for yelling in our apartment, and sure enough, Betty, our elderly neighbor below us, bangs a broom against the ceiling.

"Sorry Betty!" I shout, and then give Carmen a stern look.

"I didn't know you love him. I thought y'all were just fooling around. You're so hyper focused on dance that I never thought you'd make time for anyone else," she says.

"I thought that too, but he just sort of slipped into my life. Like I couldn't say no to him even if I wanted to."

"You did say no to him, remember? You broke up with him."

"Yeah, and I have to see him nearly every day for the next month. Not much of a breakup. It's torture."

I finish cooking and hand her a plate and we move to the table to eat.

"Did you hear Zayn is seeing someone?" I ask her to change the subject.

"Yeah, I didn't know if he was going to tell you. You okay with it?"

"Yeah, more than okay. It's taken the pressure off of us when we're around each other. Feels back to normal."

"You know they both have your best interests in mind, right?"

I look up at her and give her a tight lipped smile.

"Can't you see how much they both care about you?"

"I do, I do," I sigh. "But they've both let me down in the past. I'm the only one that I can trust. I gotta do this for me."

The following morning, I come into training and bring with me three coffees. Two black, for Harry and me, and one with milk and sugar for Zayn.

"What's this for?" Zayn asks, as he takes the coffee.

"A peace offering," I say, as I hand Harry his. "Plus, I have A LOT of ideas for today so you're going to need the caffeine!"

We map out our Paso Doble, using most of the choreography that I made up yesterday. After a short discussion, Harry insists that my idea is great and we should use it. I try to tell him that it's too personal and emotional and he argues that those are the two elements that will set it apart from our competition. I concede and we begin practicing the routine.