The Dancer

Unknown to both of them, they both made a vow to themselves not to text each other. Dakota had made that promise to herself as soon as they got into the car for Brian to take her to her hotel. Brian hadn’t fully made up his mind about the whole thing, but he’d thought it as he said goodbye to her. Unfortunately for him, he also knew it was a promise he probably wouldn’t keep.

On her last night in California, Dakota spent a lot of time just driving around, listening to music. It had been an amazing trip away from home and she was dreading heading back to Nevada the next day. Still, knowing she had an early flight, she went back to the hotel and crashed.

Brian had been thinking about her the whole time he was on stage performing. He was surprised no one had noticed how many times he’d actually messed up. After that, every time he thought of texting or calling her, he started drinking. His friends thought it was just being on the road, but it wasn’t.

After two weeks, the band wasn’t so excited about him drinking. It had gotten worse. His will to text her was getting stronger, which made him drink more.

Finally, when they had more than a day off from touring, he made his move.



Dakota had gotten back into her routine of work, barely sleeping, working, and teaching her dance classes. It had been almost two months since the night with Brian and she found herself thinking about him less and less. She’d tried to block it from her memory all together, but every once in a while, images would slip through her defenses and invade her brain. Fortunately for her, with teaching classes and working, she didn’t have much time for thinking.

It was a Tuesday and she had the night off from work, which meant she was just going to teach her older kids after her babies, and then go home. She’d just said goodbye to all of her dancers and was winding down, moving around the room making sure everything was cleaned when she felt a presence behind her.

Her spine stiffened and she threw a “class is over” over her shoulder without looking up. A chuckle followed by the sound of a boot dropping followed.

“Damn,” he said, moving further into the room. “I was hoping for a private class.”

She whirled around to see Brian walking towards her. She smirked. “Too bad I’m not a stripper.”

“No,” he said, closing the space between them and pulling her to him. “You’re so much better.”

He pulled her face to his and she barely had a second to suck in some air before his lips were on hers. Dakota allowed herself to get lost for a few seconds before she pulled away from him.

“What are you doing here?”

“I can’t stop fucking thinking about you,” he murmured against her lips.

She pushed him back and eyed him. “Really, Brian?”

“I can’t…get you out of my fucking mind, Dakota.”

Her heart sped up but her face remained stoic. She was afraid of this. She knew he couldn’t keep it at just one night. This was so bad. She had to end this, now.

“That’s cute,” she replied, turning away.

“You’ve got to be joking,” he said, laughing. “Are you telling me you haven’t thought about me at all?”

She paused and turned to him. “No, not really.”

The lie rolled off of her tongue so easily that she almost believed it. Turning back away from him she started picking up her things.

“That’s a fucking lie,” he said as he stopped her, his body pressed against hers. “There’s so many girls that would kill to be with me.”

There it was. That was the line that made things so much easier for her to tell him no. She quirked an eyebrow at him as she stared him in the eyes, ready to tell him off.

“Then go chase one of them.”

“They’re not the ones I want,” he said as she turned away.

She sighed, her whole body moving with it and she whirled around, prepared to lie to him again.

“I’m not good for you, Brian.”

“Why?” he pushed.

“I don’t want to date you,” she ground out through clenched teeth, enunciating every word.
He blinked for a second and then shook his head. “What?”

“It was one night, Brian. It was a fuck. I don’t even remember most of it. If there was anything you felt out of that, I’m sorry, but I was fucking drunk.”

“I saw you the next day,” he said, closing the space between them. “I saw you stealing glances at me. You can’t tell me you don’t want me.”

“Wanting you and wanting to date you are two different things, Brian. If you saw anything, it was surprise that you would want to take me to the beach. I was still in shock from seeing it. I’m bad for you, Brian. I don’t do relationships.”

“Let me be the judge of that, okay?”

“How?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“One date. All I want is for you to go on an actual date with me and see how that goes, okay? If you have a good time, we’ll take it from there.”

She could see the wheels turning in his head. Brian couldn’t let this go. He felt himself almost needing her to go on a date with him.

“What happens if I have a shitty time?”

He breathed a sigh of relief, knowing she was at least thinking about the idea. “If you have a shitty time then I’ll never bring it up again.”

“Fine. I’m off tomorrow. Aren’t you lucky?”

Brian smiled in triumph.