My gaze travels to the young blonde girl who only reaches his elbow. I recognize her from her video. Sam helps her with removing an oversized camo coat. Celine is still inher school uniform of a white blouse, red tie, and navy-blue skirt. Long socks and Mary Janes complete the ensemble. She is staring at her hands, which are resting in front of her, but has somehow still managed to maintain a dancer’s posture. Her limbs are long and willow-like.
I plaster a smile onto my face. “Hi, you two. I’ve been waiting for you.” I mouth to him,Play along.
Sam sniffs the air. “Mmm, your signature pancakes. I’d forgotten how delicious those are.” He gently elbows Celine. “What do you say?”
“Thank you for inviting us over, Minerva.”
“You talked my ear off the entire cab ride over and now, you’ve gone shy?” He shakes his head. “She asked about a million and one questions about you.” His own ears begin to turn red. “A lot of the answers I knew, but there were also a lot I didn’t know the answer to.”
“Like what?” I joke, trying to lighten the mood.
“Apparently, I should know your favorite color.”
“That’s an easy one, ballet pink.”
Sam cocks his head to the side. “Ballet pink? What shade of pink is that?”
“The color of ballet shoes.”
“That doesn’t help me.”
We both watch Celine for a second. She’s lifted her chin an inch and is studying me from underneath her eyelashes.
“Hmm, maybe you need a visual.” I walk over to my dance bag and feel around for a pair of pointe shoes. I haven’t been able to get to class for the past two weeks. I’ll need to try and do two to make up for it once all the craziness of getting Clarissa’s dress ready is behind me. “See, this is ballet pink.”
“Oh, thepointedshoes.”
“No Sam, those arepointeshoes. Notpointedshoes.” Celine huffs and her hands go to her hips.
“Oh. I’ll try and remember that.”
“No, you won’t. You never do.” She looks at me. “He remembers the names of Sarah’s gymnastics moves like an upstart on the asymmetric bars, or Yurchenko on vault, but he can’t recall any ballet vocabulary.”
Sam rubs the back of his neck. “I should make a better effort.”
“Maybe coming to ballet class with me would help.” I wink. “Or we could even do a home class.” I gesture to one of my more recent purchases tucked away against the living room wall. I bet his legs are highly developed from riding and working around horses all day.
“Are those the brand-new Leeds of London pointe shoes?” Celine glances longingly at my shoes. “I’ve read all about them, but I haven’t seen them in person.”
“They are. I just got fitted in them.”
“What do you think about them? Are they as weird as people say they are with the interchangeable shank?”
I’m impressed—Celine knows her shoes. Ninety-nine percent of pointe shoes have a stiff cardboard backing that supports the back of the foot. Leeds of London shoes break with tradition. The company recently started offering pointe shoes with flexible plastic shanks that you can change within shoes.
I wish something like that had been around when I was younger. Back then, I needed shoes that had different levels of hardness for class, rehearsals, and performances. When you have to pay about a hundred and twenty Canadian dollars for each pair, it gets expensive quickly. Shoes like these would’ve meant being able to use a single pair for everything.
“I’m still adjusting to them, but so far, so good.” I glance at her feet. “What size, width, and model do you wear for your current shoes?”
“Four, double X, and Bloch Aspirations. I have big feet.”
“That’s my size.” I grin. “Maybe tomorrow you can play around in them. If you like them, you can keep them.”
Her eyes widen. “Really?”
“Really.” I nod. Sam’s watching our exchange with interest. His eyes are soft. This is the most relaxed I’ve seen him. “Let’s move into the kitchen and get some pancakes into you.”
“Min, you didn’t have to go to so much trouble for us.” Sam scratches his head. “How many toppings did you put out?”
