hands together, flailed them, and squealed together.
“I don’t want to get too excited though,” he said after we were all squealed out.
“Get excited. You are going to get it. You are going to go in there and tell her you are the one. You are not only a beautiful dancer, but you are a great dancing mind. You deserve this more than anyone I know. It’s your time dammit!” I felt like a coach at the bottom of the 9th, amping up my star player to hit a grand slam.
Jordan’s eyes welled up. We had both sacrificed so much to follow the dream. We had both had so many pride-swallowing moments where it would have been easier to just walk away. I understood what this meant to him.
“Bird, if I get this, you are coming with. You will be in my show. Not because you are my friend, but because you are an immensely gifted dancer. And you know I don’t bullshit.”
Now I was welling up.
We both fanned our eyes, refusing to shed tears quite yet. We would save those for when he was officially asked. When. Not if.
“Now it’s your turn,” he said as the server placed our food on the table.
“I don’t know what to say . . . where to begin.”
“What’s going on with you and Ash? Because if I am remembering correctly, the last time we spoke, you were very adamant that it was nothing, and that he would never want you and what I walked in on yesterday was the opposite of that. By the way, you nearly gave me a heart attack when I walked in on that scene.”
“I’m sure it did.” I sighed. “That’s what your nosey behind gets,” I snickered. I thought for a moment and sighed. “I don’t know. He came over, and . . . well, last week we kissed, and he left abruptly.”
“Hmmmm,” Jordan huffed skeptically. “That’s why you were acting all crotchety.”
I flipped Jordan my namesake.
“And then he showed up yesterday, saying he wanted to see me and that he left because he didn’t think I should get involved with him. I thought he wasn’t interested—“
“Bird. Hellloooo. He’s in love with you.”
“Oh stop,” I said, waving my hands in front of me like I was calling off Jordan. “Too soon.” But my heart sang at those words.
“Are you blind? It’s always the pretty, charming girls who act all dumb when someone is right in their face, worshipping the ground they walk on.”
“Sure, which is why he avoided me at all costs. Makes complete sense.”
“But then he always showed up at your door, didn’t he?”
That shut me up.
“I know this seems obvious, but I have to ask. Did you two?” He made a circle with one hand and poked his index finger of the other into it.
I bit my lips together to keep a huge smile from bursting across my face and nodded.
“You little ho’!” he said. We both laughed. But I watched as his face changed. I knew it would be coming: the lecture.
“Bird, I’m not going to lecture you. You’re not a fool. I know you know what you know. And I know you are making your decisions knowing the risks. But, what’s his deal?”
I sighed. “I don’t know it all yet. But I know he has a good heart, and I know he has an old soul and that there’s pain in there. And I know he risked his life to save mine,” I reminded Jordan. I think sometimes he forgot that.
He nodded. “I just think you deserve the world. And I know I am only a few years older than you and you hate when I get protective, but affection, love, attraction, they build something beautiful. And maybe this is just a thing that will come and go”—those words made my heart ache—“but we don’t live in a movie. What’s he going to do with his life? Does he have plans to get off the street?”
The reality of the situation stung. It wasn’t that I didn’t know it, but I was high on us, and like any idealistic twenty-one year-old, I wanted to believe that our special magic could fix anything.
“He’s a genius. He has so much potential.”
“I know. But genius doesn’t pay the bills and geniuses can be tortured.”
“I’m going to help him find his way,” I said.
“I hope so, Birdie.” Jordan replied.
BIRD
I SHOULD HAVE been tired, what with the early wake up and eight hours on my feet, but my nerves were buzzing