The Gold in the Dark

Chapter Eighteen

Tia walked into partnering class the next day with her shoulders squared and neck tall. Even if her head was aching from sleepiness and she was sore from a night on Wynna and Alindy's floor, at least she could project some confidence.

I was wondering if you would show me your favorite spots around Haplyr?

Such a simple question, but she couldn't help repeating it over and over in her head like a mantra. Would she come across as desperate? Timid? Clinging?

In any case, she had to ask him in partnering class. The teachers were squeezing Queen's Fair dance rehearsals into every spare moment of the dancers' schedules, so that even at lunch she still only had a few free minutes to eat. Even given the excitement of a budding romance, she still had to give preference to food. It wouldn't do to pass out in rehearsals from starvation.

It also wouldn't do to pass out right now from nerves, she reminded herself, and forced herself to cross the studio floor.

The room was a completely transformed space from the night before. Sunlight beamed through the windows overhead, and the students chattered merrily as they trickled into the studio and started stretching. Roge was already waiting in their usual corner; his eyes had found her right when she entered the room. Her eyes fluttered downward for a moment before she wrenched herself back into a semblance of confidence. Nonetheless, she could feel the heat rising in her cheeks.

Here went nothing.

"Hello," they said in unison. They bumbled through a few awkward pleasantries before Mistress Oerfall's call to get started cut the conversation short.

The class was heavenly torture. With every beat he was there to spin her, lift her, catch her. She relished every touch, while in the same breath wanting to shy away from him. It had been easy to kiss Roge in the dark, but looking into his eyes and feeling his hands on her body in the daylight was ten times more real.

Mistress Oerfall paused the class after the second exercise to give a longer correction to Simas and Selitta, and Tia gathered her courage. Now was her chance.

I was wondering if you would show me your favorite spots around Haplyr?

How hard could it be?

"Last night you were saying you'd lived in Haplyr all your life," she started. Roge nodded and came a step closer. There were amber flecks in his gray eyes, she noticed, distracted for a moment. Why did he have to be so gods-damned handsome? "Do you think...? I mean, only if you really wanted to..." She was already groaning inside her head as the question careened into unknown territory. The sentence! The sentence! "Would you ever want to show me about Haplyr, to your favorite spots? I've never really had a proper tour of the city." The words came out in a big, mashed-up blurt, her tongue leaden in her mouth.

His enigmatic expression broke into a smile. "Of course. Galleries, cafes, museums... there's much the city has to offer. I'd be happy to show you around."

"Thank you," was all she had time to say before Mistress Oerfall started calling out the next exercise. As they got back to work, it wasn't simply the dance mistress's elaborate routines keeping a healthy glow on Tia's cheeks.

Wynna and Alindy swarmed her after class. "Did you ask him?" Alindy asked, just as Wynna asked if class had been good or awkward.

She didn't know who to answer first. "Yes! I mean no, it wasn't that awkward. And yes, I did ask him. And he said he'd be happy to show me the city."

"When—?"

"What else? What else?" Alindy clamored, putting a finger on Wynna's lips to hush her.