BOND

29.

And I know I'm blessed

Watching you spin in that dress

Makin' my heart beat out my chest

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

It took them a moment to calm down from the vigorous car karaoke they had just had. While Elena unplugged her phone, Joey got over to her side and opened the door for her, helping her down because she couldn't possibly jump in the dress she was wearing.

Climbing up the steps, with her ahead of himself, he couldn't help but marvel at how small and dainty her hand looked wrapped up in his.

"What is this place?" Elena looked at the walls with their faded wallpapers and big empty photo frames.

The house looked ready to collapse and full of life at the same time. From the outside, the building had looked abandoned. But now she could see signs of recent activity. There were no layers of dust or cobwebs that anyone would have thought the place to have.

"You'll find out in about two minutes," Joey replied, unwilling to ruin any bit of it for her.

He led her over to the rickety staircase, making sure that she was on the side of wall if the railings, at any point of time, gave way. Halfway up, they could hear footsteps and whispers of conversations.

Climbing up the last two steps, she gasped at the open space in front of her.

About six couples, other than Joey and her, them being the youngest, were standing facing a friendly looking, chipmunk-faced, robust instructor.

They were in the middle of trying out a new move, so as quietly as possible, Elena reached blindly for Joey, pulled him in close and whispered in a beyond ecstatic voice, "This is a dance class."

He crinkled his nose as her perfume, his new favorite smell, hit him with full force and said beside her ear, "Taylor told me that you used to go to them whenever you could, back in London. So I pulled a few strings, found out about this place and got us a class."

He let her squeeze the hell out of his hand in her happy state, as she looked over with her eyes filled with adoration.

Elena leaned up on her toes, her white sneakers making her significantly shorter than him, and pressed a long kiss to his cheek that had him grinning like a mad man, "Thank you."

He enveloped her hand in his, rubbing small circles on it as she bounced on the balls of her feet, clearly giddy, as they waited for the instructor to address them.

Which she did after making sure that everybody else was doing the bit she had just taught them properly.

"You must be Joey Parker," she smiled at him, shaking his free hand.

"Elena," she left out her last name by force of habit but the older woman's expression made it clear that she knew who she was.

"Fiona," the instructor introduced herself. "My son is a huge fan of yours. He has a big poster of you above his bed."

Elena smiled and expressed her gratitude, her smile widening as Joey's grip on her hand tightened at the prospect of having his girlfriend's poster in the room of a teenage boy.

Fiona motioned behind herself, "We're just about to start a new song, so this won't be very hard for you guys."

Elena gave Joey a wide grin before following Fiona onto the main area, dragging him with her.