Chapter 29: Dance Away the Pain
As the days marched towards Thanksgiving, every single one of them started to blend together. Time felt like one big, long road going nowhere and I was a lonesome driver heading down the winding pavement. I'd been isolating myself as much as possible lately and found it a rather easy thing to do now that I'd cut things off with Peter.
After my kiss with Jordan, I couldn't pretend with Peter anymore. It wasn't right to do that to him or Jordan or even myself.
Mel was right. You can't force a spark with two wet matches, and that's what Peter and I were when it all boiled down.
I broke up with Peter the night I got home from wedding dress shopping with Mel, and since then, I'd done nothing but work, dance, and try to smile through it all. That's how I began today, too. Smiling, faking it, and doing so quite successfully. Until a call from Gabe turned my heart inside out.
Right before I pulled the front door open on to the bar, I answered my vibrating phone with an almost genuine smile.
"To what do I owe this early morning honor?"
"Hey, babe," came Gabe's voice, low and gentle. "Where are you?"
Confused, my reach for the front doors of the bar fell limp.
"I'm about to go into work, why?"
"Oh, nevermind then. Just... call me afterwards, okay?"
His tone, his hesitance, his oddly timed call all concocted a lethal dose of anxiety to shoot through my body.
"What? Is something wrong?"
A lengthy beat stretched out between us.
"I don't want to lie to you, but I also don't want to tell you right before you go into work."
"Well, you kind of don't have a choice now considering that you've already built it up."
A loud exhale came through Gabe's end of the call, the sound moving my heartbeat faster and harder.
"Just... don't go on any social media today, okay?"
His cryptic answer only twisted the knife of worry in deeper.
"Why?"
"Just don't, okay?" Gabe pressed. "Promise?"
"No, I don't promise, so either tell me now or the second we hang up, I'll go check Facebook."
My threat fresh in the air, I listened to the silence coming from the other end of the phone with anxious breaths pulling in and out of my lungs.
"Please?"
Begging, threatening, and demanding were not in my normal vocab. Gabe knew this. He knew me. He should know that if I'm using uncharacteristic language that I'm already dangling off the edge of my sanity and that he should act fast to keep me from slipping.
"Okay, but before I tell you, know that I love you, I'm here for you, and literally everyone here is shocked that it happened."
"What happened?"
Gabe stalled for a few moments before ruefully admitting,
"Daniel's engaged."
In that split second, my world rocked. Each of my fingers that had been holding on so tightly to that proverbial edge of sanity lost their grip one by one. The foundation of the cliff itself crumbled beneath my flimsy hold, and I went spiraling down, down, down in a mess of dirt and silent screams.
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Tempting /A Jordan Knight fanfic ✔️
Fanfiction(Completed) All my life, I had worked tirelessly to achieve perfection. Perfection was in my blood, and so was the art of dance. All that hard work had earned me my dream job as a professional dancer at the ripe age of twenty-four, the perfect boyf...
