Chapter 10

It was her first time inside Josh's bedroom, and she saw he was right: it did look like a dance studio.

With wooden floors, a wall of mirrors and a bar along one side of the room, it reminded her of the dance class she'd attended as a kid.

On the other side of the room sat a bed, a wardrobe, and a computer desk with a chair. The non-mirrored wall was plastered in artwork—most of it probably his own creations. It was good, if not a little dark. One featured a tall black and white clown ripping the head off a girl. Another was a blonde woman being lured by a dark figure.

‘It sort of looks like me,’ Darcy thought, though it could be her narcissism kicking in.

"Take off your socks if you don't want to slip over on the wooden floor," he said. “I just waxed it.”

Darcy did so, though she was worried about the smell of her feet. Wearing sneakers all day didn't exactly leave her feet smelling of roses.

"Sorry if I stink," she said.

She expected him to tell her she didn't, out of politeness if nothing else.

He didn't.

"I'm used to smelly feet," he said. "You should visit the changing room at dance. I don't think they've changed the carpet in twenty-five years."

Without warning he pointed his toes and waved his foot in her face. "Plus I smell too."

His foot did have a slight whiff of sweat, but mostly smelt like treated wood floorboards.

"Stand like this," he said, taking his place at the bar. He pushed his heels together with his toes sticking out in opposite directions.

"Erm," Darcy mumbled, struggling to get her feet to do the same thing. She almost fell. "Ooops."

"It'll feel odd at first, but if you do it every day your body will get used to it," Josh explained.

As he showed her how to do the basic moves: plié, tendu and relevé, all her problems slipped away. Her concentration was so complete, so focused, that nothing else mattered. Not her ex-friends, her absent parents, or her love rivals.

As he moved onto something a little more complicated, he moved behind her and put a hand gently around her waist as she moved. There was nothing sexual about the touch. It was insurrectionary and gentle. But the closeness of him and the feeling of his breath on her shoulder made her knees weak.

"I'll show you some stretches to open your pelvis," he said, removing his hand.

The pair sat opposite each other; legs spread. He could clearly do the splits with ease but didn't show off. He didn’t need to show off. Clearly, he didn’t have the same narcissistic streak that Darcy possessed.

As she copied his pose, moving her feet apart and stretching her inner thighs to the maximum he nodded in approval.

"You're pretty flexible," he said. "That's good, but remember to always point your toes."

Darcy winced as she obeyed, feeling the extra burn in her thigh muscles.

"Good. Now place your hands as far forward as you can and lower your hips to the floor," he said.

As she leaned over, she noticed his eyes flitting to her exposed chest for just a fleeting moment. His eyes then shot to hers, giving her a guilty look as he realised he'd been caught perving.

"It's okay to look," she told him. “It’s my fault for wearing a low cut top.”

"It's not," he told her. "I caught one of the dance teachers staring at Aurora in a gross way and I can't look at him the same. I mean... it's just wrong. There’s nothing sexy about ballet."

'Yes, there freaking is!' Darcy wanted to scream. How come he couldn't see it? Everything about ballet was sexy, especially when he was doing it.

"Aurora?" Darcy asked, fishing for information. She still wanted to know if those two were dating or not.

"Oh." Josh smiled. "She’s my female lead. We've worked together a lot lately."

He looked so happy when he talked about her.

"She must be amazing," Darcy said.

"She's always apologising to me. It's like a disease or something. She always thinks she's not good enough." Josh shook his head. "She's the best dancer by a mile but she can't see it. Always comparing herself to Cally and Tia, but she was picked for a reason."

Josh stopped talking and snickered to himself. "Sorry, you don't know these people so it's probably boring for you—"

"It's really not," Darcy cried. "I don't exactly have any friends of my own at the minute. Well... aside from you."

She stared down, expecting him to chastise her for calling him a friend, but instead he ploughed off into a story.

"So Tia got the lead in the last production and Cally was her understudy, but when they both mysteriously got sick after the weekend Aurora had to step in. She learned all the moves and did them better than either girl within a couple of hours. Since then, the teachers have started giving her bigger roles and the others hate it. I mean, those bitches are seething."

Darcy smiled up at him periodically as he told her more stories while continuing to stretch her arms further forward. After they had finished with the stretching, he asked if she wanted another coffee.

"Please," she said.

This time the kitchen was populated with Dale and his mother. The woman looked up and jumped.

"Oh, I didn't know you were here," she cried. "I just ordered food, but we always order enough to feed the block."

Darcy nodded with a grateful smile and took a seat in the same spot she'd picked earlier, almost feeling almost as if that were now 'her spot.' It wasn’t like she ate a lot anyway.

After Josh passed her a mug of coffee, she absentmindedly completed pieces of the jigsaw as she listened to the family's chatter.

Dale and the mother were exchanging stories about annoying work colleagues. Every so often one of them would lean over and help with the puzzle.

"You're so good at this!" the mother cried.

"Thank you, Mrs Parker," Darcy said.

"Call me Ginny for Christ's sake, child," she cried. "You make me feel like an old lady."

Ginny was strangely young looking for a mother. She barely looked forty.

When the pizza arrived, they all sat around the table, eating while working on the puzzle until there was only a piece or two left.

Ginny picked up a grey piece and held it up like the one ring. "Oh my God, Finally, I can see where the mystery blob piece belongs!"

When the final piece was in place, they all cheered together. Darcy felt like a member of the family as they all whooped and hugged each other as if their team had just won the world cup.

"I can't believe what took us ten months to start took you a half hour to finish," Dale said, smiling at her for the first time.

"What do you do with it now?" she asked, assuming they were going to frame it or something.

"We smash it up and re-box it for next Christmas," Josh told her.

Her face was fixed in a half-smile, half-frown as she watched them smash up the sum of their efforts. Once it was back in the box Ginny placed it on the shelf.

"No point putting it away, it’s only a few weeks until Christmas," she said.

"Do your family do much for Christmas?" Josh asked her, mouth half full of pizza and dripping cheese.

Darcy shook her head. Her mother would invite over a bunch of stuck-up relatives she only saw for one day a year, drink too much wine and take everyone out for a meal at whatever restaurant wasn't fully booked. As far as traditions went, it wasn't exactly stockings around the fire and a roast turkey.

Her sadness must have shown on her face, as Ginny graced her with a pitying smile. "You're always welcome here, lovely. We make too much food every single year."

Her eyes shot to Josh, fearful he would rebut the offer, but he simply smiled.

"I still can’t believe little miss popular is a secret jigsaw puzzle savant," he said, shaking his head.

Darcy laughed. "I'd say don't tell my friends, but they all dumped me."

As Josh laughed his mother and brother joined in and all four of them were laughing hysterically. It wasn't even funny, but none of them could stop laughing.

"Sweetie," Ginny said, wrapping an arm over her shoulder. "Friends will come and go. You have to learn to be your own best friend. Love your own company. That way, you'll never be alone."

As the woman smiled at her, enveloping her with warmth, she finally understood why Josh had the fortitude to stand up to the bullies and carry on doing what he wanted to do. Ginny was amazing.

"Now... more importantly... who is going to help me eat these cinnamon rolls?"

$ Chapter