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He hadn’t finished. “You’re jealous. She’s a way better dancer than you, and she’s completely gorgeous. So yeah, go fuck yourself, Simone. No one else wants to. Be like banging a bag of bones.” A tremor ran through him as he sat back down.
It was Michelle who, somewhat unexpectedly, smoothed things over. She stood behind Simone and put her hands on the offended girl’s shoulders.
“We all need to calm down,” she said. “You’ve been used to doing the odd lesson together. Now you see each other every minute of every day. Obviously there’s going to be personality clashes. Let’s do morning classes, then see if we can’t find some way to relax and let off steam in the afternoon. Oh, and Amalphia? Being single is absolutely the best way for a woman to be in my experience. You’ll be fine.”
The tables emptied. Will remained seated. “Sorry, babe, but I had to say something. She’s such a bitch.”
I nodded, and then fought the urge to cry again as Will and I joined the others in the elevator.
“Is it very wrong that I find Hearst intensely alluring this morning?” asked Justin.
Ruaridh, usually so quiet, said, “I think we all do.”
“Leave him alone,” I threatened, placing my palm protectively over Will’s abdomen.
“Speaking of attraction, Phi,” said Sun with a smile. “If you ever tire of the bastard men, you will let me know, won’t you?”
“What is this?” asked Justin. “Predatory Gay Day? Nobody told me! Zolotov, you’re looking particularly fetching today.”
He was. He always did.
Aleks smiled. “Alas, Justin, my heart is not my own.”
Mine sank. He’d found someone else already? Here? Who? One of the other teachers? Simone? She still looked very annoyed and did not respond to his words. It couldn’t be Michelle again, surely? Whatever, whomever, he’d got over me in one day. ‘One day’ was my current nighttime crying mantra. I loved him, so I should be happy for him. I didn’t want him to be sad. But, one day…
Justin backed out of the elevator, held his hands wide and looked up at the ceiling as if in worship. “It’s going to be a good day,” he said. “I can feel it. About time too. We were due.”
The energy of the weapon-bedecked dungeon did feel more alive and dynamic, and less like the set of a horror film. Aleks tuned into the feeling too. His class was spontaneous and exciting and ended in the most wonderful combination across the room involving a variety of large jumps with our own improvisation at the end. I slid across the floor on my knees and banged into one of the pillars.
Aleks held out his hand to help me up and I hugged him, caught up in the moment, as if in early morning forgetfulness.
“Thank you,” I said to him. “This was such a great class.”
He didn’t hug me back, but stammered, “Oh, yes, thank you.”
The good mood broke. For me, anyway.
Michelle, who’d been watching from the front of the studio, declared that Will and I just got better and better. I didn’t care. I didn’t want her comments about my brain patterns or my personal life.
Then came lunch, and the anticipation of a dreary and sad weekend.
“No, no, no,” said Justin. “And did I say, no? We should do something. Taxi. City. Shopping. Dinner.”
“Clubbing,” said Will with conviction, looking at me. “We could just lose it on the dance floor.”
“Yes,” I replied, drawn to the idea of nihilistic dancing in the dark. There would be no barbed comments from Simone, no unwanted advice from Michelle, and no Aleks to avoid looking at. And we’d be far away from the cold stone walls of the castle.
“I’m afraid you can’t do any of that,” Michelle called over. “It’s stipulated in your contract.”
“We can’t go out?” Justin had gone high-pitched.
“You can, if pre-arranged and organised, and everyone is going. The research requires proper controls to be in place. We can’t have some of you being stimulated in ways that the others are not.”
“But we all do different things here anyway,” I said. “In the evenings, at least.”
“Within certain parameters,” she stated. “God knows what you might get up to if you went to a nightclub. No. You’ll have to find something to do here.”
A dampening mist settled over the table again, not helped by the frosty atmosphere from Simone and Sadie’s end.
