Dear Red

Seventy

Sunday afternoon, I drove over to Liquid Bones, Melissa's dance house. We were supposed to kick around ideas for dances such that on Monday, dance practice could begin. She had sworn up and down that she could handle everything with the dance trainers under her employ but the Chairlady insisted that she wanted to reflect St. Xavier from scratch. I parked my car and walked up to the building. Hopefully, Melissa and I would find the common ground we shared in music and dance and let the rest go for the afternoon.

The walls inside were lined with pictures of her and her team performing at all kinds of events over the years. In every picture, she glowed. I studied the pictures for some time.

"I'm out here," she called. I followed the sound of her voice to a large practice room. Mirrors covered two walls that faced each other. A sophisticated music system was set up on one end. A third wall had floor to ceiling windows and beyond them was a balcony where Melissa sat among plush cushions with a glass of wine. I crossed the room and stepped out onto the balcony. It had a wonderful view.

"Hey," I said softly.

"Stay away from my brother," she snapped.

"We're good friends," I said.

"Like you and I were?" she mocked. "I don't want you leaving him high and dry when he starts trusting you again."

"I never meant to hurt you ten years ago," I said.

"Well, you did. I don't want you emotionally manipulating my brother again. He's got a great life right now and all you're going to do is ruin it by stringing him along. You never loved him the way he wanted you to ten years ago and you most certainly don't love him even now. So leave him alone. I'll only tell you once."

"You don't know anything about Lawrence and I. You can't run my life."

"I'm going to ruin it, not run it," she said. "You'd do well to leave this country."

"I'm not going anywhere. Let's do what we have to," I said. She knocked back the rest of the wine and stood.

"I'm in charge. Remember that," she said and slipped past me. With a remote, she started the music. I watched her dance. She had gotten good over the years-better than I remembered. In a few moments, my body began to move unconsciously. I nodded my head to the music and when I got the beat, I let go and poured everything into dancing. I stopped with the music and wiped a sheen of sweat from my forehead. Melissa had been watching me.

"I'm going to run it again and show you what I have so far," she said.

We put in three hours of non-stop dancing and we had a funky routine well underway. As the track wound down, Melissa stopped dancing and walked over to her bottle of water. I danced the final hook. Suddenly, there was a wolf whistle behind me followed by a childish giggle. I spun round and stared. Lawrence stood with a little girl in his arms. She was wearing a pink dress and blinding white shoes. Her curly hair framed a face that was smiling up at him. He had been watching me but I did not know for how long. It had not occurred to me that he could have a family. Soon, I realized I had missed my guess as the girl twisted in his arms and looked at Melissa. Her face lit up even more and she tried to get out of Lawrence's arms.

"Mommy," she said in a soft voice. I was almost paralyzed with shock. Melissa was a mother. Lawrence let the girl down and she run across the room to Melissa with her small fist caught in her mouth. Melissa swung her up and rained kisses all over her face which made the little girl giggle endlessly.

"How's my baby girl?" Melissa asked in an indulgent tone as she settled the girl on her hip.

"Wowence give me icecream," the girl announced and broke into a smile.