Finally Soulmates

Part 15

Tara refused the option of ice skating and then turned to walk away with James. They walked towards the open pavilion that was playing music and people were dancing. It was a new experience for Tara, she avoided dancing her whole life. James turned to her with a funny smile.

"May I have this dance?" He bowed mockingly towards her with all fun intended.

"I don't dance." She answered.

"Why?" He stood upright and had a confused expression on his face.

"It's just never occurred to me as fun or interesting." Tara answered once more.

"So you can't dance?" James asked.

"That's part of it, yeah," Tara shrugged and nodded.

"But look! Lindsey and Kelson are dancing, Scott and Tasha have to dance for their wedding." James protested.

"But that has nothing to do with me." Tara responded.

"Tara, I've been trying to please you and not rush you into anything, but just do this one thing for me." James requested.

"Is that how you feel?" Tara asked, her eyes wide with horror.

"I have a habit of trying to make everyone happy and right now, you're my main priority. You came back and you were unhappy towards everyone so I've been trying to make you feel better." James started.

"That's not what I asked." Tara whispered, looking down at her shoes.

"Yeah, that's how I feel, that's how I feel about everyone." He answered directly. He stepped closer to her and placed his hand under her chin, lifting up her face, "But I enjoy it, you're not easy to break, but you're delicate and I want to care for you. I like to think of you as a rose. You're beautiful and nice, and smell good," he chuckled, "you have to have special care different from the rest of the garden, however you have great defense, when somebody does something wrong they get poked by your thorns. So far, everyone has been getting poked by thorns but you've managed to open up to me more than anyone else."

"You are a charmer, mister," Tara smiled sadly.

"It was a good analogy." James shrugged a little self consciously.

"But if you please people, what happens when you can't?" Tara asked.

"That's where I become the flawed person I hate. I hate myself if I can't make others happy because I don't see the worth in failing, then I try harder or give up." James said.

"That really sucks for you." Tara responded.

"Yeah," James started, "so don't take anything the wrong way, I want you to stay as who you are and the way you are is what makes me feel special, because you've opened up to me, the first person, in my deductions, in a really long time."

"It's true, ever since my dad died, I've kept to myself." Tara answered, "and yes."

"Yes what?" James was entirely confused.

"Yes, I'll dance with you, as long as you can teach me." Tara answered.

"I'm a horrible teacher but I can try." James shrugged. He offered his elbow and as she took it, he escorted her to the dance floor. He guided where her hands should go and then taught her the steps of a Box Step. He smiled as he watched her attempt dancing for the first time, she stepped on his feet a few times and then watched her feet the entire first two dances. The second dance soon ended and James had only wanted one dance, not that he didn't appreciate the second, it was more for Tara. "Are you ready to get off the floor yet?"

"One more dance." Tara asked, "I think I've got this."

"Alrighty then," James answered with absolutely no protest. The next song he couldn't help but notice was a song written by his band, Finally Soulmates. He sang along with his recorded voice.

"I can't help but notice that we're finally soulmates, I can't help but point it out, what we thought was the unexpected has finally happened."

"You know this song." Tara looked up, having finally mastered the steps.

"I wrote it, and sang it, this is my song that our band did." James nodded.

"But don't you have an agent in town?" Tara asked.

"Yeah, I'm not extremely fond of her." James confirmed, "Which is what makes this so confusing. I never allowed her to do anything and haven't talked to her in quite a while, Scott and Benny have been but I told them to not allow her to have access to our music, I'm not trusting her."

"Why don't we go back and ask Benny?" Tara suggested.

"After this dance?" James begged quietly. Tara laughed quietly.

"After one more." Tara whispered back. He nodded with a smile and slowly and gently pulled her closer.

"I love you, you know that, right?" James mentioned. Tara paused for a minute, then continued again. James noticed this. "What is it?"

"The last person who said that was my dad, his last words." Tara said, but she was smiling, "He would love you like a son. He would say something along the lines of 'James, my boy, I'm happy to know that you love my daughter, but promise one thing: love her like she's the most important thing to you.' Not that I'm a thing, but he'd be happy that someone else loves me."

"You say that as though only your dad loved you, what about your mom and sister?" James asked. The smile diminished only a little bit and James began to apologise.

"Don't apologise, I love them, I do, and they love me, but it seems like the only way to express that is by doing whatever they want. 'Go fall in love or get out of my house' or 'buy me that dress' or junk like that. It's like they don't love me for me." Tara explained.

"It sounds like it's horrible. You should probably talk to them about it." James suggested.

"I don't know," Tara frowned.

"Well, let's not focus on that right now, let's focus on right now." James suggested.

"I-I don't know how, I've been focusing on the past too long, everything I did was because of the past." Tara answered.

"We'll take it slowly, look me in the eye." He whispered, slowly he leaned in and kissed her. It was fast, too fast for Tara to realise what was going on as it had happened.

"Y-you kissed me." Tara stated with astonishment.

"I'm sorry." James blushed.

"N-no, it's fine, I-I never expected anything like that from you until something like a proposal. You've been approaching me carefully." Tara blushed too.

"I-I-" he was interrupted by a light kiss.

"Just shut up and enjoy the moment." She smiled and continued dancing.