lunch.”
“Oh. You’re counting calories, too?”
“I’m counting everything,” I admitted. “It’s just what happens when I go into training mode. I want to be as light as possible, so I’m able to make my turns on time, but I also want to be as strong as possible, too, just in case I need to lift one of the female dancers. I’ve seen the guy who runs our dance company cut people on the spot who looked like they were struggling with any of the moves, including the lifts.”
“Have you ever been cut before?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I’ve been lucky with that, I guess. I couldn’t imagine what it feels like to have your dream crushed right in the middle of an audition.”
“It’s not luck,” Hunter replied. “I mean, it might be a little bit of luck. But I’m guessing it’s a lot of you, too.”
“You don’t know that. You’ve never even seen me really dance.”
“True, but I can tell how dedicated you are to your craft,” Hunter continued. “And that’s really what counts. I think people are a little too quick to blame things on luck when they should be taking a hell of a lot more credit for themselves.”
“And I think people are a little too quick to blame things on talent, when they should be thanking their lucky stars.” I smirked before bringing a forkful of salmon up to my mouth.
“How’d you get into ballet, anyway?” Hunter asked. “Was it something you always wanted to do?”
“I don’t know about always,” I mused. “But my parents signed me up for dance classes when I was four. And by the time I was six, I realized that I was a lot better at ballet than I was at tap or hip-hop, so I asked my mom if I could switch focus.”
“Your dad didn’t care about your dance stuff?”
“My dad didn’t really care about anything that was happening when he was off the clock,” I admitted. “He was fine, though, with me dancing and everything. Although, I don’t know if that was because he was super progressive, or if he was just too busy with work to find the time to be an asshole about that kind of thing.”
“At least he wasn’t an asshole about it?”
“Sure. At least he wasn’t that.” I nodded. “But yeah. Going on from there, there were a bunch of dance camps, a bunch of summer programs I signed up for, too. And one day, when I was in my senior session for dance while I was in high school, a woman came up to me and asked if I wanted to audition for a professional ballet company.”
“And the rest was history?”
“You could say that. Or you could say that the rest was a montage of training and dancing in theaters all over the world as the company’s principal dancer.” I beamed at the memory before I turned the question back around. “How’d you get into football?”
“It was just something I was always good at.” Hunter shrugged. “And when I got older, it turned out that I was a lot better at it than the other kids on my football team. And by the time I got to high school, people just assumed that I wanted to be one of the best players in the country.”
“And you didn’t?”
“Yes and no,” Hunter admitted. “It wasn’t like I wasn’t trying to outdo everybody else out on the field. But really, I just liked having something I was good at. And maybe it could’ve been anything, but football’s what found me first.”
“So, you weren’t a stereotypical jock in high school? You know, living and dying by the football?”
“I’m starting to think you based a lot of your high school experiences on stuff you saw on TV.” Hunter lightly chuckled. “But no. I wasn’t really a stereotypical anything. Although, I can’t promise that I wasn’t just as stupid back then as I am now.”
“You’re not stupid, Hunter.”
“I was stupid enough to forget to remind you about the cameras.” He sighed. “I really am sorry about that, Patrick. But it really did just slip my mind.”
“It’s okay. Besides, the cameras only caught one of us making an ass of themselves.” I shot a playful look over at Hunter.
He broke into another laugh. “Yeah. You’re right. I don’t think that little PR moment really did me any favors.”
“Well, at least you can stop pretending like you’re interested in ballet now,” I suggested. “That’s gotta be a weight off your shoulders.”
“I… still want to