“Absolutely.” I clocked Jade’s reaction as I took out my phone, trying to make it as obvious as possible that I was trading contacts with Abby. And when Jade’s expression tightened, watching the interaction intensely, I felt like I could get addicted to it. “I don’t know how to dance, though, just saying.”
Abby laughed. “No problem. I can teach you a thing or two,” she said with a wink.
I’d surprised myself with a lot of things I’d said in my life, but what came out of my mouth next might have taken the cake. “Yeah? Can you show me a couple moves now?”
She blinked twice, taken aback, before she lit up. “I knew I was right to be interested in you,” she said, and my heart pounded. I kept looking out of the corner of my eye at Jade as I offered Abby a hand. And I swear, when Abby took my hand and set her drink down, it looked like Jade forgot who Daniela even was, watching us while gripping her bottle of cider like it would break, and it was the only thing that made me feel right again.
Chapter 18
Jade
Iwas a lost cause. Alyssa made a scene out of dancing with Abby, and I could only assume she knew how I felt and was trying to push me away, because she kept looking at me. First when she was up close to Abby flirting with her, catching me looking at her, and then when she took Abby’s hand to dance, she held eye contact with me as Abby led her to the middle of the floor.
I barely even clocked anything that happened with Cat there, because I was too busy watching the scene unfolding in the middle of the floor. Drew turned up the music, and I guess I should have been grateful—he’d been bitter and moody since Cat came in, but he cheered up at the sight of the two of them dancing, especially when they danced enough that Charlie led Linda to dance too, and then Matt and Skye, and a few other couples, until it was an impromptu dance party. But no matter how many people squeezed in around them, Alyssa kept looking at me, every time Abby shifted in closer to her, or touched her on the arm or the waist, or whispered and laughed something small and flirtatious. Without fail, even searching through the crowd to find me, Alyssa’s bright blue eyes would flick back to me, and I swear there was satisfaction there seeing me staring back at her.
I was so locked in on it, watching the way they moved together—Abby was the experienced dancer showing Alyssa how to do it, and I felt sick with how muchIwanted to be the one showing her how to dance—that I almost didn’t notice when Daniela elbowed me in the side.
“Not going to jump up onto the floor to dance?” she laughed, and I snorted, looking away, somehow managing to break my gaze from Alyssa.
“Not for a million dollars.”
“C’mon, you like dancing.”
“I like dancing in a class. Or a small setting. Not squeezing in with a bunch of half-drunk sweaty bodies.”
Daniela’s eyes gleamed as she was about to say something else I didn’t need to hear, but apparently she wasn’t the only one getting on my case, because Cat tapped me on the arm, sidling in from where she’d been down the bar talking to Kaitlyn. She grinned, sliding into my vision, and she said, “Are you dancing today?”
“Ugh, everyone’s in on it,” I said, setting my cider down so I could sign as I spoke. “No, I’m not dancing.”
Daniela cut in. “I was just telling her to! She’s the best dancer here, right?”
Cat grinned. “Definitely better than me. You can take her up to the floor and dance.”
I scowled at her. “What, deciding that for me?”
She smiled wider at me, and she looked across the floor to where Alyssa was standing dangerously close to Abby, looking into her eyes and nodding while Abby explained something, and Cat looked back at me. “Just for a bit,” she said. “You don’t want Alyssa off without our group, do you?”
Shit, that was such a low blow. And it was one that worked. If she was trying to… show me that she didn’t want me, then I wasn’t going to stand here just sadly being rejected. I sighed,turning to Daniela. “Don’t step on my feet,” I said, offering her my hand. She grinned, putting hers firmly in mine.
“No promises,” she said.
Cat slid up onto a barstool looking satisfied with herself. She was such a dick sometimes. Pity I liked her as much as I did.
I led Daniela to the floor, and people moved aside for us—even aside from the fact that Daniela was usually the tallest person in the room and people automatically made room for her, people knew I took dancing seriously, and eyes were suddenly on me. All the better. For Alyssa to see.
I held Daniela in a tango position, and I waited as the song wrapped up, and even with Daniela looking at me with a big expectant smile, I found my eyes going past her, off to where Alyssa was staring at me like she, Daniela and I were the only three people in the world.
“You remember how to do this?” I said under my breath to Daniela even as I kept holding eye contact with Alyssa, who was—I think, similarly, only half paying attention to where Abby was slowing to a stop next to her.
“Nothing too tricky, okay?”
“Just keep up.” The next song started, and I led Daniela along in a movement, and she fumbled a little, but she caught up before long, clearly working for it but keeping up as I led her through the dance. I felt her eyes on me the whole time, but I could only look past her, off to where Alyssa was looking away from Abby and right back at me the whole time. The four of us circling the floor, twirling, Daniela’s and Abby’s bodies sweeping in between us but only briefly breaking the lock of her blue eyes on mine. A challenge. If Alyssa was telling me she didn’t want me, I’d tell her I could handle it.
The song ended with us all close together in the center—the rest of the floor had cleared, everybody else back at the bar, most of them watching, but all I could notice was the sweet, creamysmell of Alyssa’s perfume as we finished the song next to each other. She flicked her gaze over me, a cautious smile on her lips.
“I didn’t know you could dance like that,” she said.
“You didn’t ask,” I answered breezily. Something flared up in her eyes, and it felt like the moment would catch fire, but Abby broke it by stepping closer to Alyssa. I wanted to slap her hands away. I’d never been this much of a bitch with someone who was perfectly lovely, but in this moment, I hated that woman.
