"This is it, Rico. You've got this." Lacey encouraged her real estate protégé.
"No pressure." He whispered to himself.
Lacey adjusted his tie and took note of his shoes. They weren't the Velcro ones he had worn before, Rico opting for slip-on leather dress shoes.
"Can I ask you something?" Lacey smiled at him and fluffed his hair.
"W-What kind of a question is that? I mean, you ask me a question and the question is if you can ask a question? It's kind of redundant and redundancy—"
"Okay, okay, Rico—" Lacey took a deep breath, Rico copying her and taking one of his own.
"I-I'm sorry, I'm so nervous. Redundancy also makes me nervous."
"Listen, you've been with me on so many showings, you know what you're doing. If Rico can't do it, step aside and let your subconscious take over. Be an actor. Sell this shit." Tough love Lacey thought, that'll do it.
"Right. Okay. I'll do it." Rico nodded.
"Can you tie your own shoes?" Lacey couldn't hold it in anymore.
Rico's eyes widened just a little, he licked his lips nervously.
"I—I can." He said almost too defensively, "I don't think my fine motor skills have anything to do with my ability to sell real estate." He added with fiery scorn.
"That right there, that's the Rico we need right now. Let's do this." Lacey pointed to him.
The pair walked up the steps to the million dollar building, ready to close a deal.
An hour later, Rico finished up on the phone with Whitney confirming the deal had come through from the buyer he had successfully sold the building to.
"How does it feel to have one hundred K heading to your bank account?" Lacey gave Rico a congratulatory slap on the back.
"Y-You mean fifty K."
"No, you did all of the work in there. The commission's yours."
"Why are you helping him?" Rico asked, his eyes not daring to look at her.
"Who?"
"Archie. You know he's retaining me, why would you waste time helping me?"
"Well first of all, you're my friend Rico. Secondly, we're still coworkers as of right now, I see your potential, maybe other people won't. I'm not burning bridges like that. Who knows? We could be working together again some day. I know Whitney will miss your antics."
"Why, is Whitney leaving?" Rico stopped and turned his full focus on Lacey.
"She's going to be my assistant." Lacey thought he knew.
"Does she know that?"
"We talked about it briefly—"
Lacey's mind wandered back to the very short conversation she had with Whitney after viewing Danny's place together. Had she offered her the job? She thought she did. Did she forget to actually ask? Shit. Lacey began to panic.
"Yeah, that's what I thought. I talked to her yesterday and she definitely gave no indication she was heading anywhere."
"Thanks Rico, I've gotta go."
Lacey dashed down the steps and left Rico standing there with his anxiety. Shit shit shit. She had so much going on she was truly off her game.
Lacey: Please tell me you'll follow me when I leave?
Whitney: Is this a job offer? So formal
Lacey: I need you, I'll put together something for you
Whitney: I want $20/hr
Lacey: What if Archie offers the same?
Whitney: Well he does already have the office all set up. Where would I be reporting if I followed you? Danny's man-cave?
Lacey: It's temporary, you could work from home too
Whitney: I'm just giving you a hard time, of course I'll follow you. Archie's a dick
Lacey: Thanks Whit, I'll send you something today
Whitney: 10-4 boss
Danny: Come by the studio today before you get CC?
Lacey: Okay, sure :)
Lacey ran around for the rest of the afternoon, meeting clients and preparing Whitney's formal job offer. Her and Archie went back and forth regarding Whitney. In the end he was satisfied keeping Rico and releasing Whitney, especially since his percentage of Rico's commission had just doubled.
Lacey made it to the theatre about a half hour before Clara was set to be picked up. She checked in and headed over to Danny's typical studio space.
The music inside the space was a fast tempo classical piece. Lacey opened the door quietly and had not been noticed by a very sweaty Danny and Regina who were fully engrossed in the dance they were working on. Why had she assumed Danny would be dancing alone today? Her face fell a little.
The tempo of the music slowed and grew with an almost tangible longing. Their moves changed with it and Danny lifted and wrapped Regina's body around him sensually in timed measure before throwing her away and then pulling her back in. They had amazing chemistry and were so beautiful to watch.
Lacey could see how focused and intimate their connection was, even with both of them a sweaty mess dressed in sloppy shorts and yoga pants. Danny finally connected with Lacey in the mirror as she stood as far into the corner and out of their way as she could. He stopped Regina immediately.
"Why are we stopping?" Regina looked around in confusion.
"Ten." He shouted and walked over to stop the music.
"You can take ten, I still need to work on my solo." Regina marched over to the stereo and began her own music.
Danny grabbed a towel and rubbed himself down as best he could before walking over toward Lacey.
"That was beautiful." Lacey gushed.
"You're getting the sneak peek at our holiday program. No leaks now." Danny smiled, "Hey I'll be right back, okay? Bathroom."
Lacey nodded and watched Danny leave her alone with Regina in what now felt like a very small space. She watched Regina move and glide around with power and grace, she was mesmerizing.
"What do you think?" Regina asked, chest heaving as she bent her feet back and forth, stretching her pointe shoes out methodically and with an OCD flair.
"It was lovely, truly." Lacey admitted honestly.
"I meant about Danny." She smiled warmly, "He seems like he's really into you, talks about you all the time."
Lacey hadn't had any experience with exes before. Sure Archie had them, but they had all be pre-college so she had never run into any of them. Lacey could almost see Archie's point about not wanting to see or hear anything involved with a new person in her life. It wasn't comfortable.
The bottom line was that Regina was important to Danny and at the end of the day, it wasn't like they were competing. It was a reasonable thought process, but watching the two of them dance together, it took Lacey a lot to convince herself that Danny and Regina were really over.
"That's between Danny and I." Lacey still felt like she had to protect them, safeguard them somehow.
"You're a realtor, right? I think that's what he said—"
"That's right."
"What's that like?"
"Busy."
"I can't imagine Danny and I doing anything else but ballet." Regina looked in the mirror as she worked through some moves, "Especially not with a kid. Clara's your sister, right? But you take care of her—"
"I'm not in the best headspace to talk about this." Lacey shrugged and sunk further into the corner.
Regina gave her a nod before continuing on with her dance. Lacey couldn't imagine it either. Maybe this thing with Danny was too far of a reach.
"Hey, sorry about that." Danny returned quickly and pulled Lacey in for a hug, she didn't hug back.
"I need to go pick up Clara."
"Okay, is everything okay?" Danny asked quietly.
"Fine, yes. I've gotta go."
Lacey slid back out of the studio, too early to pick up Clara, so she exited the theatre and took a seat on the steps out front. She needed to breathe.
"Lacey, hey." Danny had followed her and took a seat beside her.
"It's freezing, you shouldn't be out here in shorts."
"What happened? Did Regina say something?"
"No, she didn't say anything."
"What's bothering you?" Danny rubbed her back gently and Lacey's heart clenched in her chest.
"I'm messing things up with work, I'm not focused like I should be." Lacey said regretfully.
"What things?"
"It's not your burden, Danny. I just need to get back on track, I have to."
"I understand, but what about you?" Danny asked her honestly, worried she was about to bail on them.
"What about me?"
"You agreed with me the other night that it's important for Clara to see you happy. You should get a babysitter and show her that sometimes it's okay to go out on a date, a real date."
"Danny—"
"She has had to go through a lot of changes, but so have you. Who's taking care of you?" Danny asked sweetly, wanting desperately to be the person to fill that job.
"Have you been talking to Regina about me?"
Danny didn't expect that. He squinted at her, trying to understand where her mind was.
"Um, generally yes, your name has come up. We talk about a lot of things—"
Lacey nodded, "If you're interested in me, Danny, our shit stays private."
Danny sat up straighter, more guarded, "I didn't—I mean, she knows I like you, everyone does—"
"And that I'm a realtor, I take care of my sister—" Lacey ticked off her fingers.
"I didn't realize all of that was a secret. I can't tell her anything about you?" Danny didn't think that was reasonable.
"I said what I said."
Danny wasn't sure what to do with that. Lacey stood and walked back inside, clearly frustrated.
Danny remained seated and rather stunned on the front steps. Is this how disagreements would go between them? He didn't want to leave it like this.
A few minutes later Lacey reappeared with Clara by her side.
"Dannyyyy!" Clara sang and gave him a big hug.
"Claraaaa!" Danny copied her and gave her their usual double high five.
Danny watched Lacey's stress and anxiety bubble just under her skin, she was exhausted.
"Now that I know, I won't say anything else. I'm sorry." Danny pleaded with his eyes, "I'm sorry."
Clara dropped her back pack and it went rolling down the steps, the zipper not fully closed and random stuff spilling out.
"Damn it!" Lacey snipped and Clara took off after it.
"You need a break." Danny insisted.
Lacey heard him and she knew he was right. She watched as Clara successfully wrangled her bag and it's contents before climbing back up the stairs.
"Call me later?" Lacey said with a fair amount of reluctance, "It's all I have to offer right now."
"Definitely. Good night, CC."
"'Night, Danny!"
"It's our third phone date." Danny pointed out.
"So?"
"So FaceTime me?"
"I'm not sure we're ready for such a big step." Lacey quipped.
Danny hit the FaceTime icon and Lacey accepted, her hair up, glasses on.
"You wear glasses?" Danny smiled at Lacey all cozy in her bed.
"If you're about to judge me and my glasses right now you'll never kiss these lips again." Lacey joked.
"I fucking love those glasses." Danny responded immediately.
Lacey giggled at that.
"Speaking of those lips, am I still on the list of people you want kissing them?"
"I know we didn't talk about privacy before today, I'm sorry I kind of blew up earlier."
"Is that a yes?"
"If you really meant it when you said you'd keep your mouth shut about me, then yes, you're the only one on the list."
"I meant it. Damn, Lacey, I want to know everything there is to know about you." Danny shook his head and looked her face all over.
"Well that's blunt isn't it? This isn't turning into phone sex." Lacey asserted before it could even begin.
"Hey now, I wasn't going there—"
"Alright, alright."
"Lacey that kiss? It's all I think about. All day, every day. Don't you think about it too?" Lacey didn't respond, "You and I both know that is not true."
"It was a nice kiss." Lacey stayed guarded about her true feelings for now.
"I'm bad at this part, I've only been with one person so I really have no game." Danny laughed at himself.
"Your game is just fine." Lacey wanted him too, "I won't do anything when Clara's in the house, special phone calls included." Lacey said, complete with air quotes.
"How did you and Archie make it through all these years?"
"Well, it was easy when we were on campus. After my mother died and my father left, Archie and I used the office."
"Seriously?"
"It's the only place we had during the only time we were Clara-free. I'm nothing if not resourceful." Lacey smiled, "Poor Whitney."
Danny laughed, "I wouldn't dream of doing that in the studio."
"No?"
"No way, there's cameras everywhere."
"We kissed in there—"
"It's fine, it was part of our dance." Danny winked, "Did you tell Clara about moving in yet?"
"No." Lacey looked off to the side, her mind obviously drifting again.
"You're having second thoughts?"
"I like you, Danny, so much. It's just so fast—"
"I'm sorry if I pressured you. I'm in a position to help, so I'm trying to help. If it's not right, it's not right."
"Are you having second thoughts?" Lacey wondered.
"No."
"Your place has been the best option so far. It'll definitely be a short term stay. I don't want to be living with someone, not when there are feelings."
"Why not?"
"I want to take my time, do things right. Living together after knowing them for a week is a recipe for failure. Moving in together should be a huge measured step. Blending lives, it's a big deal. Archie and I had been together for years and we've never officially lived together."
Danny looked at her quizzically, "I thought you have been living together, isn't that why you're moving out?"
"He owns a duplex apartment building. Clara and I stay on one side and he's on the other."
"Wow, I didn't realize. Listen, I never want to do another thing to piss you off like I did today, okay? I need to fully understand your boundaries so I know exactly how far you expect things to go—"
"Easy: don't talk about me or us to other people and I won't be sleeping in your bed after we move in, not once."
"Never?"
"Not while Clara and I are living there, no. Never."
"Okay, maybe not overnight, but what about being a visitor?"
"In your bed while Clara and I are living there? Nope."
"Lacey—"
"You asked what the boundaries were—"
"Do I have a chance here at all?" Danny was so lost, "I mean, are you saying we'll never sleep together or just never—sleep together?" Even the question to clarify wasn't clear.
"We're going to be roommates."
"Is that all you want?"
"I want a lot of things, but I'm going one step at a time and doing my best. I'm telling you that while Clara and I are living there, we're roommates."
"Okay and so when she goes to have a sleep over at her friend's house?" Danny asked hopefully.
Lacey tilted her head to the opposite side and just stared back at him. His face slid into a more neutral state, she wasn't kidding around.
"Got it. I should probably go and start getting ready for bed."
"Are you having second thoughts now that it's all laid out?" Lacey wondered.
"No." Danny didn't hesitate.
"Honestly Danny, we really are very different people."
"We're going backward." Danny sighed heavily.
"Excuse me?"
"We don't have a lot of time for each other, we already established that."
"Well even Regina pointed it out." Lacey shrugged.
"I knew she must have said something—"
"She's not wrong."
"So you're just going to let my ex dictate your personal life? I sure as hell am not thinking twice about what bullshit Archie had to say about me or us—"
"You really want to try this?"
"It's you. You need to decide if you really want to try this. I'm here, I'm asking—I've been asking."
Lacey licked her lips, her mind traveling again and preventing her from being here in the moment with him.
"Can we sit on the same couch together or—" Danny tried to lighten the mood.
It worked, Lacey grinned, "I want to try."
"Okay then, now that that is settled—again—Can I take you on a date, a secret date? You, me, shrouded in sexy secret darkness." Danny flashed his brilliant smile.
"Fine. But only if I get you for five more minutes tonight." Lacey smiled back.