The Dancer

“Five!...Six!...Five, six, seven, eight!”

Dakota moved in time with the kids, keeping her eyes on the mirrors, making sure that they were all getting the steps down. Every single one of them had their focused-faces on and were nailing the moves. She smiled as they finished up and clapped for all of them.

She’d been working with them for weeks now on a show they were going to do Saturday. She was ultimately screwed because she’d barely slept the night before with Brian, she had to work that night, and then immediately get ready to watch them perform before teaching her other class and going to work, but come Sunday, it was all going to be worth it.

When the practice was over, she said goodbye to the kids as they filed out with their parents and she moved to clean up the studio. Daniel, the only male in her group was sitting on the table with the CD player.

“Hey, kiddo,” she said, sidling up to the table. “What’s going on?”

“Can I stay for a while longer?”

“Mom running late?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Yeah,” he said, but from his tone she could tell he was lying.

“Want a ride?”

“Can we dance a bit more first?” he asked, his green eyes hopeful.

“Absolutely,” she said, smiling. “Actually, I’ve got a new one that I want to run by you. Think you could give me some pointers?”

A sparkle appeared in his eyes and his smile lit up his face as he scooted off of the table. She switched the CD and came to stand beside him in the middle of the floor. She counted off for him and went slow so he could pick up the moves. He had them down in a matter of minutes. Ever since he’d stepped in her door a year before at the age of seven, he’d been astounding her, but now nothing he did was short of amazing.

Within twenty minutes, they were doing the routine together in tandem. Both of them had a smile on their face by the time they finished.

“Alright, kid,” she said, her chest heaving with exhaustion. “Let’s get you home.”

“One more?” Daniel begged. “He wants to see one more.”

Dakota paused, looking back at Daniel. “Who wants to see one more?”

She followed his finger as he pointed to the door. Brian stood there, hands on his hips, sunglasses on his head, and a smirk on his face.

“What are you doing here?”

“Came to see you,” he said simply.

“Can we do one more, Miss Dakota?”

She tore her eyes away from Brian to look down at Daniel. His wide eyes were pleading again and she found she couldn’t say no.

“Why don’t we show him part of the routine for tomorrow?” she asked, ruffling his hair.

“He already saw that one,” Daniel said pouting.

“What?”

“I’ve been here for a while, Dakota.”

She looked back up at Brian. “How long?”

“About an hour,” he replied, smiling.

Her lips formed a thin line, but with Daniel tugging on her shirt, she didn’t really have a choice.

“Alright, kid. What about ‘Jungle Ship’?”

“Yes!” he said, throwing a fist into the air.

She changed CDs and moved back to stand beside Daniel as the music queued up. As soon as it started, they moved in tandem to each other, twisting, turning, moving their hips together.

Once the song was over, Brian clapped as Dakota moved to get her things together. Daniel went over to Brian and introduced himself before she moved to the door and shut the lights off.

“I was gonna see if you wanted to grab dinner,” Brian said. “That’s why I stopped by.”

“I wish I had time,” she said, keeping an eye on Daniel as he ran ahead of them. “I’ve got to run him home and then come back for my next class and then I’ve got to run home and get ready for work.”

“What time does your next class start?”

She checked her phone. “In an hour.”

“How long will it take to take him home?”

“About thirty minutes.”

“Well then, we’ll stop and get something so you can eat here before your class. You’ve got to eat, Dakota.”

“I do eat,” she snapped. “I just don’t have time right now.”

He pulled on her arm as she headed toward her car. “What’s going on? You weren’t like this last night.”

She sighed as she faced him. She realized she was being unreasonable and completely the opposite as what she had been the night before, but the realization of what she’d done this morning finally hit her. She’d taken money from her own savings to cover her ass and make sure she didn’t get caught. She couldn’t continue to do that because if she did, her savings would be depleted soon.

“I just don’t have fucking time,” she said.

“Are you coming, Mr. Brian?”

They bother turned to the voice to see Daniel standing on the doorframe of her car looking at them. Brian looked at Dakota. She sucked in a breath of perturbed air. Closing her eyes, she wasn’t exactly sure why she was fighting it. She wanted to see him, so why try to deny it?

“Come on,” she said, looking at Brian before heading to the car.

Smiling, he followed her and walked to the passenger side of the car. Daniel whooped and climbed into the backseat, fastening his seatbelt.

“So, why did you come to see Miss Dakota?”

“I came to see her,” Brian said as Dakota pulled out of the parking lot onto the main road. “To try and get her to go to dinner with me again.”

“Do you like her?”

“I like her very much,” Brian confirmed.

“Miss Dakota?” Daniel asked.

“Yes, dear?”

“Don’t you like Brian?”

“Brian lives in California, dear,” she said, but it sounded more like it was directed to herself.
“Is that true?” Daniel asked.

“Yes it is, but what she’s not telling you is that I’d come to Nevada all the time to see her,” Brian said, his eyes on Dakota’s profile.

They didn’t say anything more for the next few minutes, until Dakota pulled up to Daniel’s house.

“Need a ride tomorrow, kid?” she said, saying goodbye.

“Maybe,” he said, frowning as he looked back at his house.

“You’ve got my number, right?”

“Yup,” he said, nodding.

“Call me if you need me, okay?”

“You got it,” he said and bumped his fist against hers before running off to his house.

Dakota shifted back in her car and turned to Brian. “I hope you don’t think—”

Her sentence was silenced as Brian’s lips found hers. Her car door still open, he pulled her in closer to him, so she was almost across the center console into his lap.

When he pulled away, he smiled at her. “I missed you.”



The club was more packed than Dakota had ever remembered it being. Bodies were pressed against each other and she knew it was one-in-one-out at the door. She frowned from her position above the crowd. There were way too many people in the building. She blinked and dabbed at her forehead, conscious of not wiping the paint there off.

Gemma was pissed off at her because she was late. She’d been late to her practice with the older kids because of Brian. She’d been late to get home because of Brian. She smiled at the memory, however. She’d thoroughly enjoyed spending time with him, listening to him praise her dancing. He’d watched her during her entire practice, making her slightly nervous.

However, she got a break from him as she came to work. Unfortunately, she didn’t get a break from anything else. Gemma was pushing a new guy on her and Doug was harsh because she was five minutes late. Of course, she’d been outside finishing her cigarette, but he didn’t care.

“So much for a good night,” she muttered to herself as she whirled around.

Seeing Tallie standing at the edge of the platform, she moved backwards while Tallie moved forwards. She took a minute to adjust the black and red bands encasing her legs before trotting down the stairs behind Gemma.

“There,” Gemma said, next to her ear as they pressed through the crowd. “With the tattoos on his arms.”

Dakota’s eyes scanned the crowd, looking for the guy Gemma had pointed out until suddenly her heart stopped. Brian was standing there, talking to someone. No, Dakota thought, anyone but him.

“White shirt, khaki pants,” she heard in her ear.

She breathed a sigh of relief, seeing Brian’s black shirt and black pants. Her eyes moved past him to see the guy with bulging muscles, a chin-strap beard, and spiked hair. He was almost beside Brian and if she moved to him, Brian would see. She was completely torn. She couldn’t let Brian see her; it would eat her alive. Not to mention, she knew he’d cause a scene.

Fortunately for her, Brian chose that time to realize that his drink was empty and moved to the bar to get a refill, which left her ample opportunity to move to the guy Gemma had pointed out.

When her thirty minutes was up, she winked at him with a promise to see him later, and she made her way back to the bar to grab a drink.

“Red and black look killer on you.”

She didn’t have to turn around to know who was talking to her. She accepted her drink from Aubrey and took a sip as she felt him beside her.

“I thought you were leaving,” she said, smiling.

“Not until tomorrow. I just wanted to see you one last time.”

“You’ll have to wait until later,” she winked and was gone.

He watched her go, weaving through the people. She stopped to say hello to some guy and he instantly became jealous. She didn’t stay long and his eyes followed her up to the platform that she overtook.

Dakota was consciously aware of Brian for the rest of the night. She’d had to avoid him at all costs in order to talk to Luke, her target. Brian was starting to become a huge distraction and she was getting frustrated. She wished something would happen so she wouldn’t have to do the whole ordeal with Luke.

She brushed her hand across the edge of her top where the piece of napkin sat with Luke’s room number. He’d already headed out, meaning she didn’t have to worry about running into Brian with him, but she still had to see Brian before she left. She knew he was waiting to see her.

Jogging down the steps, she moved to the bar and started to clean up. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Gemma at the V.I.P. cleaning.

“He’s cute,” Aubrey said, coming to stand beside her.

Dakota’s eyes lifted, not her head, to look at Brian as he headed towards the bar. Her eyes went back to the second level where Gemma was still working, not even looking down at her sister.
Brian leaned over the bar as Aubrey handed Dakota a glass to dry.

“I couldn’t take my eyes off of you tonight.”

Setting the glass down, Dakota blushed, and took another glass from Aubrey.

“Look, Dakota, I really think we should talk about—”

Dakota saw Gemma heading down the stairs and she immediately stopped drying the glasses. Setting her rag down, she walked around the bar and pulled Brian’s arm. She headed to the back of the club, navigated through the doors and pulled him outside.

“Brian, there’s something I need to tell you. This is going to sound stupid and childish or whatever, but it’s the truth. I can’t date. I’m not allowed to date at all. That’s why I’ve been so reserved with you. Don’t get me wrong, I like you, but…if we’re going to continue to do this, you’ve got to calm down.”

Brian rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet contemplating what she had just said. A second later he pulled out his pack of cigarettes and lit one. He offered her one and she shook her head.

“Menthol all the way,” she said, explaining.

“Here’s the thing, Dakota,” he said, taking a drag. “I like you. You said you like me, too. Why should we fuck with that? I tried to stay away from you and I found myself back in Vegas anyway. I’m tired of fighting what we have between us. Why can’t we just…not tell your family?”

“It would be difficult,” Dakota said, chewing on the acrylic nail accentuating her hand. “My sister is already suspecting and I’ve had to give my mom –”

Brian watched Dakota’s eyes get wide as she stopped talking. “What? Give your mom what, Dakota?”

She looked at him for a second before sighing. “Lies. I’ve had to give my mom a lot of lies. Gem I can just kind of brush off, but I can’t brush off my mom.”

“You’re over eighteen, Dakota, you stopped having to answer to her a long time ago.”

“It’s…difficult,” she said only.

“Then let’s make it undifficult.”

“That’s not even a word, Brian,” Dakota said, rolling her eyes and smiling.

“You know what I meant. Listen, how about I let you get back to cleaning up. I’m on the eighth floor, room 820 if you want to come up. Don’t feel pressured, but I’d like to see you.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” she said, smiling.

He leaned in, placed a chase kiss to the side of her mouth and walked away, flicking his cigarette far from his body. Dakota watched him leave until he was completely out of sight. She took one last drag of her cigarette and was about to throw it down when the door burst open.

“Where the fuck have you been?”

She looked up to see Gemma framed in the light of the doorway.

“Just smoking,” she said, holding up her cigarette.

“Well, come on. We’ve got shit to do.”