On Sturdy Legs

Of Rhinestones

Tuesday was the day that most of the dance studio was going away for a competition, which left more rooms than usual open for my dance group to practice and eat our soccer mom snacks. That morning found me in the kitchen stretching with one foot on the counter to stretch the inside of my thigh in the way that it was required to be in order to do the splits. I still couldn't do any of the contortion stuff that at least half of dancing seemed to be, but I suppose that it could have been worse.

"I thought dance was tonight?" Tom asked when he came down in his button down and tie for work.

I already made a pot of coffee and had a cup out of the way of my foot.

Tom poured himself a cup and leaned against the counter to watch me stretch. "How?"

"I'm starting to wonder the same thing," I admitted, took my foot off the counter, and picked up my coffee cup to take a long drink from it. "The studio has a competition today; it will be mostly empty. We're all going in to practice and such." I shrugged and patted the brace on my knee. "With a little more strengthening, I hope I can get this off."

"I could take you to a specialist, if you want," Tom offered; he sounded off hand and I looked over at him to determine why that was. I guessed it in a second.

"If you want to know how my date was, all you have to do is ask," I prompted; apparently I guessed right because Tom broke out in a grin--that kind of fatherly grin that my own dad wore when he was trying to work up the courage to ask me what exactly happened on my dates.

This time, it was very much different than every date I had ever had on the base. I guess Texas boys looking to wear their own dog tags were different than Kansas boys driving BMWs. I already knew fairly well who I wanted.

"It went horribly, in case you didn't already hear that."

I knew Molly spent half the night nervously hovering outside my door because I had not bothered coming out for awhile and was asleep when Izzy finally got home.

"We went bowling then Will and I had a shouting match in the arcade and I stormed out and walked to the dance studio where I met Annie and she gave me a ride home. There will most definitely be no second date."

"I am glad," Tom admitted. He gave me a second as if to see if his opinion on my date would make me mad. "If you happen to want my opinion, I think that Will is not the kind of guy you want to be dating. I think that he has some entitlement issues and thinks himself too important. I just think that those Fisher men are trouble; however, I am not quite sure how to stop you from doing anything." He paused again, "but, James?"

"What about James?" I asked since I was going to make him spell out what he was trying to ask me.

And I wanted to buy myself time. I didn't have to get back to work until Lily and Elle got back from their mom's house on Sunday. I had five days to decide if I was going to quit or not. And justify it to myself.

Tom gave me a deadpanned look; he didn't want to spell out his question either and he wasn't too happy about me making him do that. "You know exactly what I mean," Tom stated and I prompted him further with my own innocent look, "you know! How are things?"

"What kind of things?" I asked. I was going to make him spell it out.

Tom gave his hands a wave of annoyance; he clearly had no idea how to ask what he wanted to know, "put it this way, are you planning on quitting yet?"

"See? That wasn't too hard," I exclaimed and Tom glared at me. "No," I decided even as I said it, "I'm not quitting."

"And you're not going to tell me anything, are you?" Tom guessed. He was getting good at this dad thing, real good.