Winter Hearts

The Penny Drops for Siana

Siana looked at him blankly.

N felt rather than saw the boys' surprise. N rarely wanted to go out, let alone to the clubs - none of them did.

"You mean, tonight?" she almost squeaked.

"Yes, tonight," he replied. He could see something light up in her eyes as she thought it through, and she smiled at him. He smiled back, almost conspirationally. They were on the same wavelength. In the club, it was all about expression. It was about connection with each other.

N recognised a kindred spirit who loved how dance could bring people - even strangers - together, whether for an instant, or for a night, or for a lifetime.

He knew that she understood that on the dancefloor, for them at least, they could become someone they normally weren't: they could be free, they could flirt and tease, they could cajole and reject... all for the sake of a feeling.

An elation. A connection.

For him, and he suspected for Siana too, that connection was all he needed. The follow-through was too real and messy for him. There was nothing glamorous about real-life relationships. Eventually, relationships lost their lustre as the drudgery of the everyday took over.

On the dance-floor, a look could be loaded, a hand could wander almost too close, or proximity could be intimate, almost unbearably so - but it all stayed on the dance-floor once the music ended.

By the look in Siana's eye, she understood that deeply.

"You know why, don't you?" N asked. Siana sort of nodded through her smile, which she was trying to suppress.

"Why?" Mr Mikhalis asked, perplexed.

"So we can try each other out on the dance floor, so to speak," said N, matter-of-factly. Loudly.

Hongbin coughed into his drink.

N blinked, looking around the table to see if he had had the desired effect. Mikhalis put his fork down with a clang, turning to Siana to say in Greek, "Well, that is exactly what a father wants to hear."

Hongbin leaned over to Mr Mikhalis and said in a placatory tone, "I think he means-"

"I know what he means," Mikhalis said through clenched teeth as he turned to Hongbin with a killer look. Hongbin immediately cast his eyes down and sat back up straight.

Siana giggled at them both. Mikhalis turned his glare on her. She looked up at him with soft smiling eyes.

"Dad, it's just dancing. Performance. Fantasy. Right, N?"

She turned to look at him. N nodded neatly, a paragon of virtue. She nodded also, and turned back to Mikhalis with a tightlipped smile and innocent eyes. Before she could say anything else, N butted in.

"Mr Mikhalis, I can assure you it's worse in the rehearsal room," N said, again trying to be matter of fact.

N noticed Leo reacting in almost the same way as Mr Mikhalis, his eyes almost rolling back in his head as he restrained himself from banging on the table. It was all the confirmation N needed. He knew he just had to get Siana on the dance-floor. And Leo had to be there too.

She was obviously game for it, and while he didn't really frequent clubs, he loved the dance-floor, be it in a nightclub, onstage or in the rehearsal room.

"Worse?"

Mr Mikhalis leaned forward as if very interested in what N had to say. Leo put his elbows on the table and steepled his fingers in front of his face, barely containing his discontent. If looks could kill, he was murdering N several times over.