Chapter 14

“How did you get into ballet?” Brad asks, leaning forward to show that he sincerely cares and wants to hear her story.

“Well, mine isn’t the typical story of parents who sent their child to ballet school at age three and had her performing for commercials at age five,” replies Jane, preparing him for a story that isn’t one of fairy tales.

“Go ahead. I don’t like typical anyway,” says Brad, reassuring her that he doesn’t need her to be perfect.

“Well, the truth is, I was watching ballet on T.V. when I was seven years old. I was mesmerized by the tutus, the women and the music. I would watch it for hours and hours. I thought the women on the show were stunning and beautiful. They would take me away to a magic world,” Jane says wistfully, like she is back to being a child.

“As beautiful as you are,” Brad says, looking into her eyes sincerely.

“Well, that’s not true now, Brad, though I will accept your flattery,” Jane blushes.

Brad can’t believe she isn’t able to see herself for who she really is. The more he is in her presence and the more he gets to know her, the more beautiful she becomes.

He loves how natural she is, and her quirky side that is trying so hard to fit in and do well, but her personality can’t help but shine through.

Her skin is smooth and tender. She has an adorable, crooked, front tooth that shows her small-town roots where every child doesn’t get braces to fix their teeth. She has three tiny moles on the side of her neck that look like fairies have pranced on her with muddy feet.

“So, do you want to hear the rest?” Jane asks, trying to snap Brad out of his trance, thinking he’s grown bored of hearing her talk.

“Of course! Sorry, I was just getting lost in imagining you as a child. Go ahead.”

“Well, my parents are pretty practical people. My mom was a bookkeeper at the time, and my dad was a line worker at the local factory. They worked hard and cared only about paying the bills and going to church.” Jane explains as if she has told the story many times before.

“Do you still go to church?” Brad asks, hoping she isn’t too moral.

“Only when I go back home and visit my parents. They are more into it than I am, though I do like some of the teachings,” she says earnestly.

Phew. Brad is relieved to know he won’t have the ‘sex after marriage’ barrier to deal with.

“So, dreaming and doing something for the joy of it wasn’t something my family encouraged, if you know what I mean.”

“Oh yes, I can understand that very well.” Brad reminisces on his own difficulties with lost dreams as a child. “My parents were all about business, and I just followed suit, so to speak.”

“Did you ever dream of doing something different?”

Jane is curious, wondering if maybe they could relate on something like this.

“Well actually, I always wanted to be a pilot. We went on trips all the time, and I used to sit in the cockpit and watch all the lights and gadgets. I thought how cool it would be to be in charge of something so big. I could go anywhere in the world that I wanted and get away from it all,” recalls Brad. “But being a pilot was considered a step down in my family, and out of the question.”

Jane suddenly sees Brad in a whole new light. He was a boy who didn’t have the courage to stand up to his parents, and instead, followed their dream of what they wanted him to become. Perhaps he always lived in a world of ‘what ifs’.

“Well, that’s too bad, Brad, but you still could become a pilot, you know. You have the money and the plane,” Jane comments matter-of-factly. “Sorry to be so bold.”

“No, I like it. I could do it now, I suppose. I just don’t have the time. I’m always too wrapped up in business deals and managing a major corporation. It seems like if I so much as sneezed, everything could fall apart.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.”

Jane reflects on how lucky she is that she’s not that important.

“So, back to the story, tell me more,” Brad insists.

“Oh, right. Well, I begged Mom to send me to ballet classes. She would only give me ballet dolls to play with instead. I decorated my room so it looked like a ballerina’s castle—pink and sparkles, plus everything in-between.”

“Including a knight in shining armor?” Brad jokes. “Sorry. Continue.”

“Well, the thought did cross my mind,” Jane winks.

At this point, Jane looks like she is relaxed and at ease. She is using her hands and arms to express herself openly, and she is giggling from her heart. When she leans forward, Brad catches a bit of her cleavage out of the corner of his eye. He wishes he could take his finger and stroke it down into her dress, tracing her nipples while she tells her story of innocence and dreams.

He’d love to make her giggle and tingle until she got goosebumps all over her body. He wants to take a strawberry and put it in her mouth, then bite the other half so he can kiss her deeply on the lips, then give her champagne to sip while he slowly unzips her dress and licks her body from her neck, down her breasts to her belly button, tracing her pubic bone with his lips. He’d pull her body down, gently spread her legs, and lick her gorgeous, sweet, innocent pussy, making it all his to enjoy.

“So, because I couldn’t go to ballet school, I’d practice every day at home while watching television. Finally, a teacher at school took notice of the fact that I had ballet-everything—ballet pencils, ballet binders, ballet erasers, you name it. She took me aside and asked if a ballerina is what I wanted to be when I grew up. I nodded with embarrassment, thinking no one ever had such stupid dreams, but she saw something more in me and called my parents and told them they needed to enroll me in classes. So, when I was 10 years old they did, and it became my whole life.”

“Wow! Now, that’s a girl who really knows how to follow her heart,” he acknowledged, looking at Jane with more admiration.

“Really? You think so? There’s still a part of me that feels a bit foolish.”

“Why is that? You’re living in New York and attending one of the best ballet schools in the United States, and you just danced at the finest hall imaginable,” Brad points out. “You’ve got my attention, that’s for sure,” he added.

“I never looked at it that way,” said Jane. “Quite honestly, I’ve been struggling with the other girls at school. I’m flat broke, and about to be evicted. I don’t know a soul in New York, and now I’m doing crazy things like kissing a stranger in a bar,” she says, referring to Brad.

“Well, did you like it?” he asks and smiles.

She smirks and isn’t sure how to respond. Not knowing if she wants him to really know how she feels at this point.

“Um, yeah, I’d have to say I did.”

She turns her head away, afraid that if she looks him in the eye, they would kiss again.

“Yeah, me too,” he replies assuredly. “Your lips are very soft.”