The Royal Romance - By My Side

It makes sense

He adored that laugh; it was definitely his favourite sound in the whole world. It was the sort of beautiful music he could probably dance to on its own, without the need of any poor quality phone audio, but he'd roll with it.

She took his hand, and they headed out to what he considered a decent enough dancefloor, no chairs or tables, no other people. Ever so carefully, he put one hand on her waist, and raised the hand he was holding, ready to start the dance. Obviously, she was familiar with this; but he sensed a little instability in her. He'd make sure he gave her all the right cues.

As the music picked up, he stepped forward, expecting her to step back, but she'd already stepped forward and one of her delicate little toes just got crunched by one of his size elevens. He looked at her in horror, but she was smiling.

"Whoops, sorry... obviously I wasn't paying attention to video number one.."

"Too busy laughing at Bertrand?"

"Spot on," she said, and she giggled again; he couldn't not laugh with her. Eventually he managed to get the rhythm between them into a consistent pattern ready for the big moves.

"Well, good job this is just the final run through," he said, as the anticipation built in his chest for what was next. "Hope you're ready for this..." He was telling himself really.

He took both of her hands in his and carefully began to spin her around. This was met with more laughter, and he picked up speed and began to relax a little himself. For a formal dance, this was almost as freeing as freestyling.

He looked at her, willing her to look back at him. Eventually she did.

"Now here we go.. last move.."

And he twirled her, then pulled her close, so close she had to be able to feel his heartbeat, and, ohoh, perhaps something else.. so maybe not that close, Maxwell!

She seemed a little wobbly as he held her tightly in his arms. "You okay?" he asked her, concerned.

"Hell yeah," was her response.

He laughed to hide his nerves. "You're all set to dance with Rick now. I've already messed up enough tonight. If I go challenge Madeleine to a dance-off or throw some bruschetta at her or something to get her out of the way, my Bertrand score is still gonna be zero...."

She shook her head, and whispered in his ear, giving him spine tingles. "Maxwell, there's no-one else I'd rather be dancing with right now."

"Aw, yeah, me too. Nothing better than dancing with your best friend."

As he looked at her, he noticed her expression change. She drew back, swallowed, and took a deep breath. "Maxwell.. you're more than a friend to me."

"I'm.. Wait, what?" His stomach flipped. What was she saying?

"Well, it makes sense. Even though you've been so far away, you've always been by my side. You're the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning.. and not just because you're basically my alarm clock. I guess.. I've always had a bit of a crush on you."

His heart was going crazy. "You have?"

"Even that first day we met, you were so sweet and funny, and it was clear how much you cared about Rick. I didn't think much of it at first, but it's been growing ever since, and.. well.. I can't ignore it anymore."

He just stood there, mouth agog, in shock, for a minute. He didn't dare look at her. But he saw her many times in his head as his brain whirred furiously, through things that he should have picked up on, and little clues he'd just not thought anything of at the time..