“I think I know what’s happening.” I pant, happy to be holding still after hours and hours of dancing.
“Please elucidate.” He bites out the words.
“I think we might be skipping parts of the book, which means we’re moving forward in time faster than thecharacters. Also, I bet the author didn’t write out every single dance lesson.” I shrug. “It’s like a training montage in a movie, where they take several months’ worth of boxing practice and cut it down into a couple of minutes of clips. Bam, bam, bam, and it’s done. The lead character becomes an expert boxer, and the audience doesn’t have to sit through all the real work it would actually take to get there.”
“So what you’re saying is all of the dance lessons in the book are going to be like this from now on?”
I give a sheepish smile-grimace. “They’re probably going to get worse. It sounds like they’ll start doing harder dances soon. They’ll have to if they want to do theDirty Dancingroutine for the competition.”
He looks horrified. “And we won’t be released until we show an impossible level of expertise?”
“Not impossible,” I say. “Just something that’s going to take more time than the book’s plot will give us.”
“No.” He shakes his head. “You can’t be saying what I think you’re saying.”
“Sorry, but yes. If we want to keep up, we’re going to have to practice dancing here in the real world, too.”
“Fuck.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Skye
As soon as I get a chance, I jump on the Witch Bitch Spicy Book Club chat. I tell them all about how hard it was to complete the in-book dance lesson and finish with:Help! We need real-world dance lessons, and there’s no dance studio in Ferndale Falls.
I say you two need to start Operation Dance, Autumn types,and watch all the best dance movies.
Start withDirty Dancing, Hannah says.
First one on my list, I reply.The author says it was the inspo for the book, and the couple is going to do the movie’s final dance for the competition.
Several of the others chime in with movies to stream, then Kayla types:I have a spare Wii I can loan you and several versions of theJust Dancevideo game. Those are the ones where it scans you to make sure you’re doing the moves correctly.
That would be incredible!I reply, adding several heart emojis.Thanks!
I whip up a quick dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread with Luke’s help, and we carry the food into the sitting room. My heavy stoneware plate feels solid in my hands, and I give Luke what must be the serving platter of the set, its extended width able to hold dragon-sized portions. We haven’t spent any time in here, so I’m struck all over again by how much effort he put into making this room comfortable for me. I sink into the soft cushions of the couch facing the TV, and Luke settles beside me, arranging his wings so he doesn’t sit on them.
“I don’t see why we’re doing this,” he grumps the second I turn on the TV. “It can’t be normal to watch moving pictures while you eat.”
“He’ssowrong,” Princess Buttercup says, leaping onto the arm of the sofa beside me. “We watch TV every night while you eat dinner, and I get snacks. Andwe’reboth amazing.”
I muffle my giggle behind my hand, but Luke catches me at it, demanding, “What did she say?”
“Nothing!” I sing out, unable to fight down my grin.
His eyes narrow. “I wonder if I could devise a translation crystal that would work on cats.”
“Yes!” Princess Buttercup runs across the back of the couch. Resting her paws on the top edge of his wing, she strains forward to strop the side of his head with her cheek. “Everyone would hear how wonderful I am then!”
He turns his head to cock an inquisitive eyebrow at me and gets a headbutt to the cheekbone for his troubles. My catstarts to purr loudly, her little eyes closed to pleased slits of feline contentment. Luke’s face goes soft, his hand lifting to pet her back. His claws dig in a little bit, and the scratch feels so good that Princess Buttercup gives a wiggle of ecstasy and scootches forward to sit on his shoulder, his wing cupping her back to keep her from sliding off.
I pull out my phone and snap a couple of quick pics, unable to resist the cuteness. “Princess Buttercup likes the idea.”
He grunts, but he also keeps petting her and shifts his wing every time she moves to keep her secure, the big softy.
“This is the movie that inspired the dance scenes in the book, so studying the dance they do at the end will help us.” I startDirty Dancingso we can watch while we eat. I get swept up in the story of Baby falling in love with the hot dance instructor and have to constantly remind myself to pay attention to the choreography instead of focusing on the emotions.
When we reach the scene where they practice the overhead lift in the lake, Luke has me stop and rewind so he can watch it a few times. “Why are they doing this in a lake?”
