“Oh, I’m swooning on the inside,” I replied, laughing at her disappointment. I guessed the guy was quite good-looking, but the tight one-piece really didn’t do it for me.
“You better be.” She glanced at Dominic and gave an appreciative sigh. “Come on, we need to get hoops at the front before they all get taken.”
Jaz hurried across the room to a hoop right in the center of the front row, mere inches from where I imagined Dominic would be demonstrating for the class. I reluctantly took my place at the hoop next to her.
When the class started, I was surprised by how much fun it was. For the first time in a while, I wasn’t thinking too seriously about what I was doing. It also became clear very quickly why the women in the class where fighting tooth and nail for positions in the front row. You got a total eyeful of Dominic hooping in his spandex, but personally, after forty-five minutes, I wanted the sight firmly scrubbed from my mind.
By the time class was over, I was struggling to catch my breath, and my body was covered in sweat.
“That was great, wasn’t it?” Jaz said, puffing too.
“Yeah, it was fun. But…”
“But?”
I glanced around and lowered my voice. “I think Dominic stuffs his pants.”
“Hewhat? Why?”
“To make his, you know,packagelook bigger.”
Jaz gasped. “No way!”
We both glanced over to where a group of women were once again encircling our instructor. Even from here, you could clearly see that Dominic’s sock, or whatever he’d stuffed down there, had come dislodged and was now stationed up near his hip. Jaz turned to look at me in horror but then burst out laughing.
I quickly ushered her from the room before anyone noticed.
“Told you,” I said, when her laughter quietened a little.
“Why were you looking down there?”
“I had no choice! You put me in the front row. He’s been thrusting his hips in our faces for the last hour.”
She collapsed into fits of laughter again.
“It’s not funny,” I protested.
“It definitely is. So, you’ll come next week?” Her voice was hopeful.
“I’m not sure. I think I’ve seen enough of Dominic to last me a while.”
“Understandable,” she agreed. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you updated on the wanderings of his spare pair of socks.”
“Please don’t.”
She started laughing again.
The escape to hoop dance class had been fun, but it was over way too fast, and my mood soured as Jaz drove me home.I’d rather spend another hour with Dominic and his thrusting hips than face my dad again.
I turned to Jaz as she pulled up outside my house. “Do you think I’m crazy playing hockey when it makes my dad so mad? And when I’m clearly not cut out for it?”
Jaz was frowning deeply as she turned to me. “I think you’re the only person who can answer those questions, Kenzie. You love hockey, right?”
“More than anything.”
“Then it sounds like you don’t have a choice. You’ve got to follow your heart.”
“Even if I suck?”
