Alors On Danse/Then We Dance

Part 3

The next time it happened was Anne's fault. They were all supposed to practice for a waltz scene at the MET. Sandra was supposed to practice with Anne, but at the last minute she had alerted her via text that she wasn't going to be on set that day. Now Sandra was left without a partner and no idea how to execute the scene they were shooting the next day.

Neither Sarah nor Mindy were in the scene so she couldn't ask them, Helena wasn't in today either, and Nora kept stepping on her toes when she'd tried with her. That left one person...Cate. If she was being honest with herself she didn't know why she hadn't gone to Cate in the first place. She knew for a fact the Australian was a patient teacher, and had been in a few ballroom dancing scenes prior to this.

Sandra set out to find the blonde, meandering around the set until she found Cate lounging on a couch, her phone held above her head. She turned to smile at Sandra as she entered the room, "Hey, where've you been? I haven't seen you all day."

"I've been trying to find someone to help me learn tomorrow's scene."

"You mean the dancing one?"

"Yeah."

"I thought Anne was supposed to help you with that." Cate said, glancing back at her phone briefly before turning it off and setting it aside.

"She's not here today, something about her baby I think."

"Ah, well then I assume you're here for my help?" Cate sat up to face Sandra.

"Yeah...if it's not too much trouble."

"Of course not! I'm not doing anything until four anyway."

Looking at her watch she nodded, "That gives us about an hour."

"Should be plenty of time." She smiled, jumping up from the couch.

"So uh...I should warn you I'm not very good at uh, the whole dancing thing." She admitted sheepishly.

"Oh pish posh, no one is until they have the right teacher."

"Oh? And you're suggesting that will be yourself?"

"Obviously, many consider me to be the master." Cate insisted.

"Uhhuh." Sandra rolled her eyes, "Here, I have the music."

"Better to practice without it first." She said, halting the other woman's actions.

"Oh, alright, um...how should we?"

Cate wasted no time placing one hand on Sandra's shoulder and the other clasping her hand. "Now you put your hand on my shoulder." She said.

Following her instructions, Sandra looked up expectantly.

"There, now it's just the box step." Cate instructed.

"Okay." She nodded, looking down at their feet before taking a dainty step backwards, watching Cate's feet follow. Left, up, right, down, she watched their feet, intent on not stumbling. Left, up, right, down, left, up, right, down, a grin spread across her face, "Hey, this isn't too hard."

"Right? Okay, ready for the next part?"

"Yeah."

"Now all we have to do is move in a circle while doing the box step."

Without ever lifting her eyes from their feet she began to do as Cate said, slowly moving them in a circle around the room. If she weren't so concentrated on her own movement she might've taken time to marvel at how Cate made it look much more graceful, even though they were doing the exact same thing. After they'd made it around the room twice Sandra asked without looking up, "Now what?"

"Now twirl me under your arm."

"Oh, uh okay." She smiled nervously before looking up at Cate, who was watching her, eyes twinkling. That of course, only made Sandra's heart beat faster. Thinking back on their dancing in the street a few weeks prior, she twirled Cate under her arm, their hands coming to rest atop each other afterwards.

"Funny enough, that's exactly where your hand should be." Cate smiled encouragingly, "Now we just do the box step again, before returning the the original position."

"That's it?" Sandra asked.

"Mhmn, pretty simple right?"

"Yeah." She agreed.

"Just keep your eyes up and you're set, wanna go one more time?"

"Sure."

"Want the music this time?"

"Oh yeah!" Sandra nodded, taking out her phone and scrolling down to find the song before hooking it up to the tiny speaker Nora had brought.

They turned back to face one another and began again, much smoother this time. At first, Sandra struggled to keep her eyes off their feet but quickly found herself drowning in foggy blue eyes. Something stirred deep inside her, something she didn't have a name for, something she was unfamiliar with. Not a bad something, no, not bad at all, just maybe a little dangerous. Before she really knew what was happening they had finished dancing, and she was still clinging to Cate. When she realized this she quickly let go of the actress, willing the color in her cheeks to fade, "Thanks." She smiled, trying to collect her thoughts.

Little did they know, when they'd been circling the small room, one of the assistants had popped in to tell them to be on set in half an hour, but upon seeing the scene before her had backed out without a word. Neither of the women had seen her, too submerged in the privacy of the moment.

"You're welcome." Cate flopped back onto the couch, "We still have about twenty minutes until we're on set, wanna watch something?"

"Sure." Sandra smiled, plopping down beside Cate, eliciting a giggle from the younger woman and an even sweeter smile. The brunette had never understood the notion of 'butterflies in your stomach' until this moment. She supposed that when it came to Cate, anything was possible.