The Unexpected Partner (JULY 2021 MULTI-CHAP UPDATE)

Chapter 10 - Where Did She Go?

(A/N: the continued perspective of Danté)

***

All throughout his staring contest, Danté didn't notice that Xiomara had caught onto his anti-social behaviour and wasn't at all amused by it. As the class started to mill about, some going to the toilets and others to their belongings to drink water and chat with others, the fiery, petite woman stormed over to him, barely containing her annoyance at him. He was trying to relocate the woman who has had him on edge since the class began.

"You promised me Danté!" Xiomara whisper-shouted, "You said you would be more welcoming and show less attitude. What happened to not acting like a little sh-"

"Let me stop you right there. I promised to improve my behaviour. I haven't shouted or cursed at anyone this time have I?" He retorted smartly.

"First of all, don't cut me off! Secondly...yeah, I guess...you did...but Dannnnny-"

"And when will you stop with that ridiculous nickname?"

"Whatever Danny-kins! I think you secretly like it...as you seem to like a certain lady participating in today's class..." Xiomara let the sentence stretch out leadingly, waiting for Danté to expose himself.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Danté replied in disinterest and clearly not paying total attention to their conversation, as his eyes scoured the studio looking for the person he had been fixated on.

"The cutie in the pink hoodie, 11 o'clock." Xiomara's smug reply sharpened Danté's gaze and he zoned in on her. She was talking to her friend, he assumed, a tall darker-skinned girl. The friend appeared to have a teasing smirk on her face as she spoke to her and looked his way. The woman followed her friend's gaze and returned his gaze. There was a sudden influx of intensity in her eyes as she looked at him that had him straightening his posture absentmindedly. He completely ignored a smirking Xiomara next to him as he eyed his chance to finally approach the mysterious temptation that stared at him unabashedly.

Just before he made his move, her face transformed before his eyes and what he initially thought was a chance to approach turned into something else entirely. Her thick eyebrows sunk inwards and a cute frown was painted across her face; she was now openly screwing her face up at him, much like he usually does with people. Her chest rose sharply as she appeared to scoff at him.

He froze. Something started to prickle at his skin. A feeling. An acknowledgement of a challenge. It only made him want her more.

"You think it's her don't you?" came a quiet whisper next to him, "She certainly dances like her..." Xiomara's thoughts nearly didn't reach Danté, as he was again trying to figure out his next moves.

"Yeah...what are the damn odds..." Danté started to recall how unlucky he had been in trying to find the woman.

*

He woke up the day after that event, intent on finding the woman and finishing where they left off. He asked around the others who attended the event to see if she was a mutual friend of someone he knew. He had no luck. Hope came a few weeks later when a class was held in one of the smaller rooms of the same venue and the same man overseeing the guest's belongings greeted him and asked if Xiomara passed over the message that was left to him that night. When he described the person who left him the message, his heart soared and he thanked the man for letting him know, storming off into the class he was late for, as usual, to get the information he craved.

Danté was fuming.

Xiomara didn't seem to know what he was talking about, ignored his pleas to cut the class short so that they could go to her house and find the note and scolded him for his audacity at even suggesting that when he was late for the class too.