Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 137433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 550(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 550(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Marx, I need to pull myself together. My insecurity is showing. I’m really not great at this, which is crushing, because it was supposed to be my plan B.
Approaching each of the three ladies, I correct their posture, curling their fingers around the ballet barre. We go through all five positions. They’re giggling like schoolgirls, but I’m still tense, stumbling over my words, slipping out of tempo with the music. I handed out leaflets beforehand and advertised it everywhere I could. This was supposed to be my redemption.
I don’t want it to turn into my failure.
They’re having fun. Lighten up.
“Are you okay, little lady?” Mariam inquires.
“Don’t be down about the poor attendance. People our age don’t like trying new things,” Alma adds.
“I don’t! I mean, I’m not!” I chirp. “It’s totally fine. Everything is great.”
“Got a spot for another student?” I hear the figure at the door pushing off the wall and heading toward us.
Only it doesn’t sound like Mom at all.
I raise my head and see…Lev.
Achingly tan and handsome.
Heartbreakingly kind.
Perfectly Lev.
He is still in his uniform of blue dress pants and buttoned-up shirt. His hair is newly buzzed close to the scalp, and my breath hitches at how absolutely delicious he looks.
His eyes glimmer playfully, and my heart liquifies inside my chest as he takes his position by the barre, looking at me seriously despite the hilarity of it all.
“You don’t seem to fit into our age group, young man.” Ruth is fawning over him. Really, though, they’re all staring at him with open, unadulterated adoration.
He glances behind his shoulder to wink at her. “Trust me, if anything, I’ll just slow you down.”
So many questions run inside my head.
What is he doing here? When did he come? Doesn’t he have school?
He can’t just take off in the middle of the year. My mouth falls open, and I’m about to start firing questions at him, but he just whispers, “Dove, we’re waiting.”
Shaking my head to rid myself of the magic dust he sprinkled everywhere when he walked in here, I return to my position in front of them.
Lev, astonishingly, completes the entire class, acting as my moral support. He groans as he slides from fourth position to fifth, raising both his arms in the air, looking ridiculous and adorable as he spins around.
Every now and then, he winks and smiles at me, silently reassuring me that I’m doing a good job, and the ladies don’t only look like they’re having fun—they’re also over the moon every time Lev so much as breathes.
“Girls.” I clap my hands seriously at one point when he lowers himself to a demi plié and his round, muscular ass sticks out. “Your eyes should be on me, not on Mr. Cole.”
“Oh, but you’ll be here next week too. You can’t promise the same about Mr. Cole!” Mariam giggles.
When the hour is over, the three thank us profusely—not just for the class but also for the entertainment.
They trickle out of the room, and it’s just Lev and me standing in front of one another. We’re both panting from the class. His expression melts from humorous to serious all at once.
“Lev, I—” I start, not sure exactly what’s going to leave my mouth but unable to take the silence anymore.
He cuts me off, fishing my letter from his front pocket and unfolding it in front of me.
“Here. I don’t want your apology.” He presses the paper to my chest.
My heart drops. This wasn’t what I was expecting when I saw him here.
“You…you don’t?”
“No.” He shakes his head. “I want your forever.”
It is extremely possible I’m about to have a heart attack. Twelve out of ten chance, actually.
“But you said—”
“We need to talk somewhere else.” He leads me outside by the arm.
I think I left my duffel bag behind and I don’t even care. We walk past the door and toward my car. I guess he Ubered here.
“How did you know I was here?”
“I went to your parents’ house as soon as I received the letter. A letter that—by the way—I’ve been waiting for, for weeks. A sign of life from you. Something to give me an excuse to seek you out again. Your mom said you were here. You’re not mad I showed up instead of her, right?”
I barely manage to shake my head no. When we get to my car, he assumes position in the driver’s seat and starts driving.
It looks like he knows where he’s going. Actually, I know where he’s going too.
The universe quickly restores itself, everything falling into place, erasing the last couple of years we grew apart.
We get to the woods not too long after. He kills the engine and we both hop out, me following his lead.
To our canvas. To our world. To our doves.
It is here, in our little snow globe, that he turns back to look at me with tears in his eyes. We’re both standing in front of one another. As if on cue, Perseus descends the treetop, landing on Lev’s shoulder.