Hours later, the last guests bid their farewells. Sky pulls Aurora into a hug. "Are you sure you don't want any help?"
"You have your first training session at eight tomorrow. So go home," Aurora replies and nods toward the exit.
Sky disappears from the rooftop terrace with her hair fluttering in the breeze, leaving Aurora and I alone. The soft background music, now audible again as the silence settles in, fills me with melancholy. That, and the alcohol. I feel carefree and incredibly happy.
Humming to myself, I start gathering the glasses from the abandoned cocktail tables. "The French Championships, huh?" I still can't believe it. I grin at Aurora as she approaches with an empty tray.
So graceful. So beautiful.
She nods dreamily and places the tray in front of me. "Oh yes, we'll rock it," she says with a radiant smile. I watch her expression, see her determination, her love for dance, and her love for her mother.
But there's something more. Longing dominates her face. Her gaze keeps flickering to my lips, and I feel something inside me about to give in.
For weeks, I've tried to ignore these feelings, but now they surge up so intensely that I feel like losing control.
I should never let this happen, but I feel like I'm floating right now. Far out in the universe, where there's no gravity holding me back.
Accompanied by a soft melody from the radio, I take a step toward her, and at the same time, she does the same. We meet halfway, gazing at each other. She leans up, and I bend down.
Her scent drives me crazy, her proximity making my heart race.
This has to stop.
"If we now..."
"Yes, we should probably..."
I hear her whisper hoarsely.
Oh God, we can't do this.
I need to create distance between us, but the opposite happens. As if in a trance, I bridge the remaining distance between us, and even before our lips touch, I feel a tingling all over my body.
I lack the strength to resist any longer. I've held back for so many weeks, and my yearning has only grown.
Gently, I place my lips on hers.
Our kiss feels like a promise, and that's exactly what it is. I know it. I know that we belong together, and I know that together, we can achieve anything. And at this moment, I don't want to know anything else. I just want to savor this sweetness.
Long after our kiss, I hold her close, swaying her gently. We say nothing, maybe because neither of us knows how to proceed.
Keep things as they were?
I can't do that.
"What do you dream of, Maxime Rousseau?" she suddenly asks into the reverent silence between us. "If there were no limits you couldn't break. Where would you be? What would you do?"
I follow her gaze up to the sky, where the first outlines of the moon are already visible. She has asked me this question before. I didn't want to answer back then to keep us from getting too close. But now, holding her in my arms, there's no reason to hold back anymore. "I grew up in Seine-Saint-Denis."
She squeezes my hand. She knows it's one of the toughest social hotspots in Paris. But what happened in my childhood doesn't define me now. It's all in the past. I don't want to dwell on the fact that my father left my mother when she got pregnant with me. She never talked about it, just like she never spoke of the times we struggled to afford food and housing.
Instead, she warmly smiled at me, focused on the positive things, and just kept going.
Both of us did.
"Dancing got me out of there." I smile nostalgically now. "And I never want to go back. I want my children to have a better life one day."
She nods. "So your children…" she murmurs, with a hint of amusement.
