“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Holly Rose Melton.” I chuckled. I knew she was right. I was tough and controlling—not in a bad way though—and yes, I did expect people to do things my way, because that was the right way. However, I would compromise if someone could express valid enough reasons to do so—sometimes.
“Yeah, right! Okay, you need to get out of here; the next guy will be here soon.”
“I’m going,” I told her. “What time do I show up for dress rehearsal?”
“I’ll call you tomorrow with the official time; our female had a little issue at work, and we had to cut her practice short today. I have to nail her down to what time she will be available tomorrow.”
“Alright, well, I won’t make any plans.” I kissed her cheek. “And maybe I’ll use the time to figure out what you are going to do for me since I did you this favor.”
“No.” She laughed. “You said that you were glad you were doing this now. It’s no longer a favor.”
“Oh, no, this is still a favor. Do you know how many dance memes the guys have sent me because of this?”
She started to walk backward. “Yeah, not my problem that you forgot to remove the eye makeup before you went to work.”
“It totally is your problem! You could have reminded me that I had it on.”
She smirked. “And where is the fun in that?”
“Yep, see, I always knew you had an evil streak.” She laughed. “You up for dinner tonight?”
“No, sorry, things are going to be crazy until Friday night. Maybe this weekend, if you don’t have any plans.”
“Yeah, I’m sure I can work something out.”
I waved goodbye to her and then headed out to the street. I paused a few feet from the door and pulled out my cellphone to send a quick message. As I stood there, another man about my age entered the dance academy door. He was about my height, maybe a bit taller and just as trim, but with short dark-brown hair. I did not doubt that he was one of the other contenders.
It was hard to tell what kind of competition he would be to me, since I couldn’t watch him dance, but then again, this wasn’t a dance competition. This was about making a connection with the woman. It was about chemistry, and you either had it, or you didn’t. None of us would know until we were standing in front of her and looking her in the eye.
It would suck if I felt chemistry with her and then learned that she had felt none for me or had felt more with someone else. It wasn’t that I was a sore loser—it was that I didn’t like to lose—ever.
I guess in the game of love, you never knew if you were going to be a winner or not. I shook my head as I meandered down the street; so far in life, I hadn’t been much of a winner when it came to love. What chance did I have here? Probably not much.
I tried to put the thoughts out of my mind, but they kept creeping back in. By the end of the day, I was literally stressing out about it. It was like I had suddenly become obsessed with this and being the man that she would pick. It didn’t make any sense, because there was a fifty-fifty chance that I wouldn’t be interested in her.
That brought me up short as I stood in my kitchen and washed dishes. This whole time I’d been worrying about if she would be interested in me. What if I wasn’t interested in her and she picked me? Would I be willing to try things out? Would they expect me to do that for the show? I had a feeling that they would expect me to at least meet her if I were the one that she had chosen.
But to be chosen for a real date, I’d have to get selected after Friday’s date, and then I’d have to learn a second dance and do it again with her next week.
Would Jake give me the time off? What if he didn’t? Luckily, I didn’t have anywhere that I needed to travel to, but I did have training classes that I was teaching with Alex and Trevor. Maybe Greg would step in for me and cover. I knew Mike was tied up with all this new website stuff and