Shall We Dance?

Chapter 5 - Partners

MADISON

"He better not come by the house. If he dares to put a hand on you again, I swear I will make him eat one of your pointe shoes."

I gag at Maurice's words. I wouldn't like to have a ballet shoe shoved in my mouth by anyone.

Cadence was too quiet for my taste in the last days. She barely went out of the house and would jump when her phone rang. Until one night when she broke down and told me about her latest visit to Furia.

It worried me to learn that he hurt her arm trying to get her to stay, and that it wasn't the first time he was rough with her. I know the feeling too well. Right when she was telling me about that, Maurice came in and heard it all. Since then, he has been ranting and voicing threats. If Ethan knows what's good for him, he better not cross my brother's path. Maurice isn't a tall guy, but all the pizza rolling has made him muscular and I truly believe him capable of shoving a ballet shoe in Ethan's mouth.

"I'm grateful that you want to protect me Maurice, but it's not necessary anymore. I broke up with him. He's never been a saint, but that night was the last drop for me. I saw it clearly when he grabbed the waitress ass and how she smiled at him. Probably it wasn't the first time he did it and I'm sure they did a whole lot more before by her reaction. Then the asshole denied it!" Cadence's cheeks flush.

"You are quiet, Madison," Maurice says.

"I can't say I'm unhappy about this," I shrug.

"You two need to promise me something," Maurice says. "Make sure the next time you get in a relationship the dude is not a douche. I will do my best not to introduce you to possible ones," he looks at me.

I chuckle, but it hurts to be reminded of the past.

"Are we at the right place? That building is huge!" He stops the car at the gate of CTO Network and a security guy approaches us. "Good morning, we are from Allegro Studio coming to see Liz Monk."

The man controls his list, writes the car's license plate and lets us in. We find a spot to park after searching for a while, then start the walk towards the massive light gray-colored building topped with an antenna tower.

"I'm shaking. You two look too chill. Tell me you are at least a bit nervous," Cadence holds my arm as we walk.

"More than anything I'm curious. From the brief I understood that this is a different proposal than any other dance show I've seen on TV. I believe anyone can dance, but if we get hopeless cases... I'm not sure if it will be good marketing then for the studio," I laugh nervously.

After announcing ourselves at the reception, a production assistant who introduces herself as Bailey, escorts us. She talks non-stop on her phone while pointing at places and nearly crashes into a man carrying a bin of cables. The man curses loud enough for us to hear but the assistant doesn't seem bothered by it.

The girl opens a door and motions for us to go inside a large meeting room. Other people arrived before us, and I recognize some of them as we studied at the same academy or have auditioned for the same projects. One by one I greet the dancers I know and introduce myself to the ones I don't. Including us, twelve professional dance instructors fill the room. The atmosphere is charged with energy, curiosity and eagerness. I'm liking this already. A chubby woman enters the room holding a stack of papers and smiles as she looks around.

"Hi everyone! I'm Liz Monk and I'm the producer for Shall We Dance among other shows. You were already briefed, but I will go quickly through the idea again to give you a chance to ask any questions you have. So, after a few years of having contestants paired with choreographers, this year we changed the show formula and searched for ballroom dance instructors. We chose the celebrities in our network who at a certain moment said they can't dance. They have two weeks to learn how to dance a particular style."