Starlet - Book 2 - Mate Games

4. Dance Studio

By Thursday, I need a break. I have the brains take the candle holders, paint, a table, and a chair to the grass behind Collins' shop. I'm going to sit and paint before play practice. There should be 10 each of the candle holders done now.

I sit behind his shop, in the shade. But what I thought was 10 of each is actually more like 50 of each. I'm not sure what happened there. I paint 1 of each before Collin shows up.

"I looked everywhere for you baby."

"Sorry. It was a lot to bring over here."

"Why you painting outside?"

"I didn't want to destroy the building, and it's nice outside. I thought we said 10 each."

"Nadine said to make 100 each. But she meant the holders she wanted. She's making a gift box for her store."

"What is she getting for her shop?"

Collin sits and paints with me.

"She wanted 100 of these roses and 100 of the double roses. She has a rose-scented collection. She's going to pair it with some of Thora's rose candles and make a set for guys to buy their mates. She thinks it'll sell. She wants to try 100 sets. Put 10 in each store, see how well they do or how quickly they sell."

"Did she buy the little rose mold?"

"No. She just wants 100 of them. All painted green with red flowers. They're supposed to go to the servants for painting. Along with the double candle holder. Go do that."

"Of course."

"Make me 25 more of the little roses though. And 3 more of the double roses."

"Of course."

Collin smiles. "Why?"

"I like them too. I can put the double roses in my house after I paint them. And the little table roses, I want to paint in different colors and see what looks good together. I want to see a black rose."

"That would be different."

I pick out 2 of the candle holders that hold 5 candles and paint them black. "These 2 are mine."

"Ok baby."

"Take these 2 to my bedroom when they're dry."

"Of course, ma'am."

"What are you doing?"

"I'm tempted to paint more, but I'm not very good at it. But you also have 100 each. If you have to throw some away, it's not the end of the world. But I don't want to waste them at the same time."

"You can paint all you want, baby. Make all the different colors you want. We have so many here, and they are easy and cheap to make. You're not going to hurt anything."

I grab a few. "Make me a gold color paint please."

"Of course."

"So how come you're not in school? Or did you get out? I don't know what time it is."

"I was at the castle with my dad. Thora is excited about teaching a painting class back here. She told Nadine, and now she wants to as well. We were talking about that."

"HEY."

We turn and look at Dipak.

"TAKE YOUR ASS TO PLAY PRACTICE."

I jump up and run for it. "SORRY."

I get out of play practice and Collin is sitting on the bench. I guess we weren't done talking. He puts his arm around me, and we go to his shop.

"It's going to take a while to sell hundreds of them."

He pulls me against him and gives me a kiss. "It'll be fine. Have you been here since last time we were here together?"

"No. I was just painting in the backyard. I didn't think you'd care." I let my arms rest on his shoulders and give him another kiss.

He snuggles me. "I was wondering why you didn't come in the building? You had so much stuff in the yard."

"It would be like breaking into your store. I don't want to do that."

He kisses my head. "You can always come in here."

"No. I don't want to."

"Why?"

"If something goes wrong or missing, I'll be the first to get blamed. I don't want to do that. I'll stay out unless you're here."

He takes my hands. "I'm not going to blame you for anything. I know you'll never do anything to the store. You are helping me so much. You can be anywhere in here, whenever you want." My eyes fill up with tears and he kisses my hands. "I know you'll only ever help baby."

I step against him and give him the sweetest kiss I can. I feel the bond connect in my chest. It's enough to make it feel like my heart missed a beat.

He pulls me tight against him and kisses me with more passion.

"I wondered where you 2 ran off to. I have an idea." Lindsay is standing with us now. "I forgot what it was, but I did have 1."

"Ok."

"I'll write it down next time."

"That's a good idea." I let go of Collin.

He smiles. "Put Whisp on the access list for all the doors."

"Yes sir."

Lindsay rolls her eyes. "Even your office?"

"Yea that's fine."

"Well, that'll be great until she walks in on you with someone else."

Collin squeezes me against him and shakes his head.

I put an eyebrow up. "Are you alright?"

"All men are the same. I swear Mario is cheating on me. But he keeps saying he's not, and I'm crazy." She shrugs her shoulders. "Now I feel crazy."

"Well, you're not crazy. I'll keep a closer eye on him when you're not around. But I haven't seen him do anything bad."

Collin nods. "He hasn't said anything about anybody else to me. But I'll ask him tomorrow. We work together."

"Oh you'll lie about it. Like he lied about you and that whore."

"Stop you two. I'll watch him and Collin will let me know if Mario says anything. Try to relax. Where is he now?"

"Working. I stopped in 4 times. There are no girls there."

"I don't think he would cheat on you there. He's working."

"You're always there with Collin."

"I only ever stop in. I don't sit there while he's working. That would be crazy boring for anyone."

"I don't know what to do. How can I be better?"

"You can't get any better. You're the best already. If he doesn't see that, then he can move along. You can find someone who does see your worth. Someone who won't have you standing here feeling like this."

"That's true." She nods. "So, what food are we having for the grand opening? I was thinking there needs to be food."

"Well, there's not too much we could have. This is an art store. Random kid smearing cheese sauce over a 30k painting would piss everyone off."

"Juice getting spilled on the displays. You might not be able to have food."

Collin rubs his eyes. "You two switch topics faster than anyone I've ever met."

Dipak walks in. "I found the property lines. Turns out you own another building too."

"Another building?"

I jump up and down. "I HAVE AN IDEA."

"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE YET. IT'S PROBABLY A SHED."

I stop jumping and give Lindsay a dirty look.

Dipak nods. "Lindsay, your boyfriend is cheating on you with a blonde in the park right now."

She gives me a dirty look.

"WHAT? I ONLY SAID 2 MINUTES AGO I WOULD WATCH HIM."

She storms out.

Dipak shakes out a paper. "Let's go check the other building. See what kind of shape it's in. I had no idea there was a 2nd building with this 1."

"There's like 8 little buildings back there."

I nod fast. "I have to go save a blonde girl's life. I'll be back soon."

"Ok."

"Try not to let her hurt Mario too badly."

"I'm going to let her beat the hell out of him." I run through a door to the theater. It's closer to the park.

I get there about the same time she does. Mario is sitting on the bench with his arm around a girl.

"GET OFF OF HIM." Lindsay grabs the girl by the hair and throws her down the path. "f*****g WHORE." She takes 2 steps towards her and that girl jumps up. She runs like hell.

I get over to them. "What in the world? Who was that?"

"HE'S f*****g CHEATING ON ME. I KNEW IT. YOU ARE AN ASSHOLE AND YOU'RE NOT EVEN WORTH MY TIME." She walks away.

He jumps up. "Baby I'm sorry. I swear we were only sitting here."

I pick up a big stick and hit him across the chest with it. He falls backwards over the bench and tumbles around. "DON'T TALK TO HER. YOU CHEATING ASSHOLE." I raise the stick over my head and beat the hell out of him with it. "YOU f*****g JACKASS." Then I kick him and throw the stick.

"JUST WAIT." He rolls away from me and jumps up. "CALM DOWN."

I punch him right in the nose. Blood comes pouring out. "HOW DARE YOU?" I kick him hard in the knee.

Then a guard picks me up from behind. "That's enough of that."

"What happened?"

"I don't know. Get medical over here. I'm taking her in."

I give Lindsay a dirty look and she loses it. "I'll get Dipak."

I sit in jail for 5 minutes and Dipak walks up to the cell door. "I thought she was going to beat the hell out of him?"

"Turns out, she was going to walk away. But I couldn't let him get away with it that easily."

"And?"

"I may have gone overboard with the stick."

He rubs his eyes and opens the cell door. "Drop the charges against her."

"Yes sir."

Collin is standing outside with Lindsay.

"You knocked him over that bench with the stick. That was the funniest thing I've ever seen. You're so tiny and you straight walloped him. He flew." She laughs so hard she has to stop talking.

Dipak is standing on the side of me with his hands on his knees. He's trying to stop laughing.

Collin puts his arm around me. "Did he touch you?"

"No, he squirmed away and told me to calm down."

Dipak has to go sit on a bench.

Collin pulls me. "I'm going to go check on the pizza place, then we're going back to the shop."

Lindsay nods. "Me and Dipak are going to walk to the park, so I can explain this better. He can have a better visual."

Dipak rubs his eyes and follows her. He's still trying to stop laughing.

Collin tells the other boys they are closing the pizza place, then we go to the art shop's backyard. "I own the big building. The entire yard in the middle and that building on the other end of the yard."

I scratch my head. "So you don't own any of the other... what? 9 businesses? On this block?"

"I know it's weird. I got 1 whole side. The yard. Then that little building all the way down there."

"What is it?"

"It's empty right now. But I got the keys to it. Let's go see if you have any ideas."

"I have ideas."

He chuckles and leads me to it.

I smile. "Collin, it's a ballet studio."

"What?"

"It's an old 1. But..." I run over and grab a bar by the wall. I point my toe and go into a penche. Then I snap back out of it. "Don't do that without stretching first."

"You alright?"

"Yes. Just pulled."

"So it's a ballet studio?"

"Well, it's a dance studio. The barre is definitely ballet though. You could get any number of dance instructors in here and offer classes. The floor is good. Everything is decent."

"What kind of dance?"

I give an example of each as I say it. "Acrobatic, ballet, ballroom, anything formal, belly dancing, burlesque," I give him a little kiss. "Line, Oh the island dance, where they tell stories and have instruments going at the same time, tap, swing, Latin dances, ceremonial dances. There's so many."

"I need a better example of burlesque."

I giggle. "Not in this dirty studio, you don't."

He wraps his arms around me. "I've never been so motivated to clean something in my life."

I lay my head on his chest.

"You could teach dance, you know?"

"Nobody would want to learn from a kid. They wouldn't take me seriously."

"I think they would. You're an amazing dancer."

We walk up to the front and tour.

"COLLIN. YOU IN HERE?" His dad yells from somewhere.

"Ugh." He kisses my head. "I swear."

"He wants to help too. I would take all the help you can get, sir. This place is disgusting."

He laughs. "YEA. WE'RE UP AT THE FRONT DAD."

"What is this place?"

"IT'S A DANCE STUDIO." Lindsay yells from the back.

We walk back, and she's jumping up and down. Then she grabs the barre and does the same thing I did. "Don't do that without stretching."

Dipak and Marcus look around. "I guess we did figure out what it was. So what are you going to do with it?"

"I want to hire dance instructors to come in and teach. The building is good. Might as well use it for dance while it's still good. I can advertise the classes at the art shop. If that doesn't work, I could do different types of art classes. I was thinking about doing them in the yard, it was nice painting out there today. But if it's raining we could always move them in here."

"That's a good idea."

Paul nods. "Using it as a dance studio would prevent a costly renovation to it right now too."

Lindsay yells, "I'M TEACHING BELLY DANCING."

"I'm teaching burlesque."

She laughs. "Nobody is going to let you teach that."

"Yea they will." I put my hands on my hips and give Collin a dirty look. He spins me around so I face Marcus. Lindsay loses it.

Marcus shakes his head. "You're a teenager. And you had better not learned to dance like that. You can't teach something you don't know."

"I DO KNOW."

"YOU'RE A TEENAGER."

"IT'S NOT THAT BAD."

"WOMAN. YES IT IS."

"NO IT'S NOT."

"YES IT IS."

Paul puts his hands up. "Let's take a breath. Lindsay, you are not helping." She's lying on the floor laughing.

"All it is, is sexy positioning and moves. Paired with teasing about taking clothes off."

"They do take their clothes off."

"Not all the clothes. It's not about getting naked. It's about teasing."

Lindsay runs over. "We would only teach it to adult females. No men in the building."

"Now you're in?" I give her a dirty look.

"I didn't think you had any chance to talk him into it."

"Adult females who are mated."

Lindsay nods. "Any woman who is willing to learn to dance like that for her mate is a good mate. I guarantee the spots will fill up. Everyone wants to make their mate happy."

"You would need guarded."

I roll my eyes. "Guarded from mated old women?"

Dipak and Paul crack up laughing. "Well, if you're going to say that to them, then yes."

Dipak rubs his eyes. "They would launch you over the bench."

Lindsay looks around. "The best part of that whole argument was when you looked at Collin, and he spun you around to face Marcus."

I give Collin a dirty look.

"I'm sorry. But I have no say. You can teach whatever dance you want. I won't get in your way, you are the best dancer I've ever seen. But the castle would have to agree to let you teach it. It's up to them. Not me."

I shrug my shoulders. "I could do like 1 or 2, 2 hour classes a month?"

"We can discuss that later. And he would have to make a schedule. It'll be a whole thing. It's not something I'm going to agree to right here. And speaking of here, let's get out. The servants are on their way to clean, and it's time to go home. Everyone needs sleep."