Page 6 of Sway

“Couple 216!” I hear one of my students yell.

“Go Jared and Vika!”

I look over at my husband, who is grinning ear to ear like a proud stuffed peacock.

“I love you, Lassie,” he mouths to me. I blow him a big kiss. I will give him more later. He deserves it.

Across the floor, Ricardo slaps Salomé across the face, right in front of everybody. She cowers and turns away from the audience. Poor girl. Benny gets rough with me too sometimes, but never in public. I see Genya clench his fist but even he doesn’t have the balls to stop Ricardo. It must kill him to see Ricardo treat Salomé like this. Especially since Genya is such a great guy. I’m sure she regrets leaving him now. Ricardo was Salomé and Genya’s coach back in the day. Mine, too. Jenny, Diana, Nicole, and Eric staged an intervention last year at nationals, when Ricardo punched Salomé after she screwed up her rolls in a disastrous samba. Her nose bled but she kept dancing. He stopped hurting her for a while, but I guess he is back to being a bastard. At least when he beat up his old partner, Emme, they were champions.

“You were delicious,” Jared whispers heavily into my ear. I melt against him and he leads me to the other side of the floor.

“Let’s have a round of applause for the competitors!” the announcer says.

The applause and cheers are deafening. These beautiful people are all here to see me.

Me.

We dance our hearts out for the rest of our routines: samba, rumba, paso doble, and jive. Jared escorts me off the floor and we line up behind the other competitors. Genya and Iza exit first and Ricardo and Salomé follow them. Genya pushes open a door in the back corner of the ballroom and we all make our way into an empty hallway. The minute we get out of the judges’ sights, Genya turns back around and trips Ricardo. I hear a loud thump and see Ricardo lying face down on the multi-colored carpet.

“What the fuck, Genya?” Ricardo grunts.

Genya kicks Ricardo in the ribs. “This is nothing compared to what I will do to you if I ever see you hit her again,” Genya yells at him and then leads Iza to the dressing room. Salomé stands there speechless, grateful tears welling up in her eyes. Damn, I was wrong about Genya not having any balls. Like I said, Salomé’s a fool for leaving him.

Salomé flees the scene of the crime, leaving a splayed Ricardo to pull himself together. Jared and I step over him and head back to the dressing rooms. I nearly give him a kick myself.

An hour later we’re all lined up in the on deck area.

“And the results of the Closed Professional United States Latin Dancesport are as follows: In third place, placing third in cha-cha, second in samba, fourth in rumba, third in paso doble and third in jive: From California, couple 201, Dmitri Pavlov and Izabella Jasinski.”

Genya steps out on the floor and twirls Iza. As expected, I kiss Salomé’s cheek and hug Ricardo. I totally deserve my Emmy.

“And ladies and gentlemen, our runners up. Placing second in cha-cha, third in samba, second in rumba, second in paso doble, and second in jive: From New York, couple 187, Ricardo Mancini and Salomé Sanchez.”

Salomé cringes as Ricardo spins her out on the floor. She avoids all eye contact with him. His face gets red and I swear that vein on his forehead is going to pop.

“And ladies and gentlemen, placing first in all dances, your 2018 Closed Professional United States Latin Champions: From California, couple 216, Jared Brooks and Viktoria Brooks.” I jump up and down and kiss Jared and he squeezes my ass. Spinning four times, I bow and thank the crowd. I kiss all the competitors and take my place for the winner’s photo. The competition organizer hands me a dozen roses and a check for our winnings. It’s just two thousand, not even half of what I make during a week of Dancing under the Stars. I came to this country fifteen years ago, dirt poor and not speaking a word of English, and now I’m a two-time national dance champion. How’s that for living the American dream?