Moments of Julian (6 page)

“
Now, since we have two
more women than men, I will dance the male part and we will rotate
so no one is on their own too long. Now, go ahead and partner up
and we’ll go for five minutes and then rotate.”

I see Julian’s eyes jump to mine, but
I discretely shuffle back toward the back of the classroom at the
same time the nineteen year old girl not so discretely leaps
forward to dance with him. Everyone else partners up and I get the
first dance shift alone.

I’ve averted embarrassment for at
least a few minutes.

I watch everyone else’s feet carefully
for the five minutes since Beth is now dancing the male part.
Slowly my confidence starts to recover. I am not the worst dancer.
All the other women try to rotate the wrong way at least once and
every man except Julian ends up stepping on one of the women’s toes
at least twice.

It’s messy in here. And I feel like I
actually fit in.

If only Julian weren’t
here.

“
Very nice! How about for
this next round, we set it to some music?” Beth says excitedly as
she makes her way to the stereo set in the wall. “Switch
partners!”

When I look away from Beth, already
feeling a panic attack coming on, Julian is standing right in front
of me.

“
I see you took my
criticism to heart,” he says as he takes my right hand and directs
my left to his shoulder.

“
Who said it was an
insult?” I try to banter back, but it isn’t filled with as much
confidence as I’d like.

“
You’re a woman who
doesn’t put up with crap and takes herself very seriously,” he says
and steps forward to start the rotating box step. “You wouldn’t be
here trying to fix a fault someone pointed out if you weren’t
insulted by it.”

“
You consider yourself
very insightful, don’t you?” I say as I step side and
close.

“
On occasion,” he says,
bringing his face closer and talking low. “This feels a little
familiar, doesn’t it?”

“
Um,” I mutter, scrambling
for anything to say.

“
But then, I guess you
were a little more…aggressive that night,” he says with a coy
smile.

“
You’re enjoying this very
much, aren’t you?” I say with a scowl.

“
I am,” he says as we
complete the first rotation and start in to the next. “I think we
were both enjoying the other night too. The one where you were just
using me. Whatever happened to that fantastic dress, by the
way?”

“
It’s with a seamstress,
getting repaired,” I say, gathering my wits and deciding not to be
so affected by this situation. Sometimes all a girl needs is some
willpower to make it so.

“
That’s too bad. I quite
liked the modification we gave it.”

“
Trust me, it was far too
expensive to leave it the way it was,” I say with a condescending
smirk.

“
So you’re rich then?” he
says, with a nod of his head. His eyes shift away from me, thinking
things over. “Then you must be an important employee at
Digit.”

“
They like me
there.”

“
All right, let’s move
onto the next step!” Beth suddenly shouts and with that signature
smirk, Julian steps away.

It’s now that I realize that I never
once tried to rotate the wrong way and never once tripped over my
feet or Julian’s.

The man could lead
apparently.

Over the course of the next hour and a
half, we learn to do a running step and an underarm turn in the
waltz. We practice proper posture and hand positioning. Last we
practiced rise and fall, which is much harder than it seems. I
can’t seem to figure out when I am supposed to step with the ball
of my foot or the heel.

I dance with every guy in the class
and get my toes stepped on no less than seven times.

But I do every step perfectly when
with Julian.

By the end of the two hours, I am as
tired as if I’d done an hour run and a half hour of weights.
Dancing is going to have unexpected workout benefits.

“
You all did really well
your first day,” Beth says, giving an approving smile to the class.
“Next week we’ll start in on the cha-cha introduction and review
the waltz. Please try to practice the steps at home. I have these
ridiculous handouts with feet and arrows that will hopefully help
you remember them. Julian?”

He nods and grabs the stack of papers
she hands over. One by one, he hands them out to each of
us.

“
Thanks for coming and
I’ll see you next Tuesday!”

I try to act all cool and unaffected
as I take my time putting my shoes back on, and gather my things.
I’m prepared to give Julian a little smile and walk right by him
out the door without saying anything.

But when I turn to leave, I find I’m
the last one in the room, except for Beth.

Julian’s already gone.

Jerk.

I pull on my jacket and head for the
door. It’s quite dark outside by this point so I hit the unlock
button on my keys to turn on the headlights.

Just as I get outside the bright beam
of the headlights to get in the driver’s side, I realize Julian is
leaning against the back door.

“
Do you want to go get
some coffee?” he asks.

He’s got his hands stuffed into the
pockets of his jeans and he looks so relaxed and his eyes so
alert.

Julian has been teasing me all evening
and I haven’t been particularly nice back to him. The effect I have
on most men is not the effect I have on him.

“
Yeah,” I respond,
surprising myself.

Julian pushes himself off my car and
grabs the handle of my door. For a second I’m sure he’s going to
ask for the keys and insist on driving, but he simply stands to the
side, holding the door open for me. I give him a wary look before
climbing in and starting the car.

He climbs into the passenger side and
I back out and start toward my usual place on Sixth
Avenue.

“
You have no idea how much
grief I’ve gotten over the fact that I never even got your name
Friday,” I say. “And you still haven’t asked mine.” I look over and
raise an eyebrow at him.

“
I didn’t need to, Sage,”
he smirks.

“
And the fact that you do
already know my name isn’t the least bit creepy,” I say with my
brows furrowed.

“
That night, when we were
in front of the building, your assistant came out, and she used
your name,” he explains calmly.

“
You don’t know that she’s
my assistant.” I’m being nasty, even though I have no reason to be.
For some reason I seem to just like to be around Julian.

“
The girl was obviously
afraid of you,” Julian says. “And I already know you’re someone
important at your company. It stands to reason that you’d have an
assistant and she seems a likely candidate.”

I turn and look at him for a moment.
“Her name is Gretchen and she’s fantastic ninety-eight percent of
the time.”

“
And the other
two?”

“
She’s pointing out my
flaws,” I say as I turn the corner onto Sixth. “She’s the one who
told me about the class.”

“
Hmm,” Julian says as he
looks out the window. “I’ll have to send her a thank you
card.”

“
And why’s that?” I ask as
I turn into the parking lot and shift into park.

“
Because I’ve been
regretting not getting your number ever since you drove off at one
in the morning.”

My eyes dart to meet his glittering
green ones in the dark. I bite my lower lip to try and hold in the
smile that is attempting to curl on my lips. Julian smiles
too.

“
Shall we grab some
coffee?” he asks.

“
Actually, I have to get
up early for work tomorrow,” I say, trying to calm my blood down.
“If I drink coffee now I’ll be awake until two in the
morning.”

Julian nods and glances toward the
coffee shop before looking back toward the street. “Well, how about
something else then? You know where Chism Beach Park
is?”

I nod, but I’m not about to tell him
that I live only two hundred yards from it. “Yeah.”

“
Let’s head
there.”

The last of the evening light has
faded and man’s own tiny suns glitter all around us. Glaring
business signs, streetlights, headlights, windows. The evening
feels glittery and bright. Even the sky is clear and the stars are
shining as we head west and start dropping down toward the
water.

There is a sign at the entrance to the
park that says it’s open from dawn till dusk, but I feel reckless
tonight. I ignore the sign, pull into a spot, and shift into
park.

“
Come on,” Julian
says.

We climb out of the car and Julian
sets off across the grass at a slow pace. I watch him as I trail
slightly behind. He walks calm and confident. His body is relaxed,
his hands in his pockets. He isn’t the biggest man but he’s lean
and I’d wager if he needed to, he could handle himself.

“
Where are we going?” I
ask. I keep my voice quiet, I’m not sure why, but there is an air
of sneakiness about us. Maybe it’s the fact that I do know we
aren’t supposed to be here at this hour.

“
This way,” Julian says.
He glances over his shoulder at me and that smile is ever present
on his face.

The dew is already collecting on the
grass and it isn’t long before my flats are soaked through. For
once, I am glad though that I am not wearing heels. I don’t walk
through grass often and if I were to be wearing heels, I’d be
giving the park a free aeration.

After a few more minutes, I realize
where we are going.

A small dock extends out over the
waters of Lake Washington. Julian doesn’t hesitate as he walks out
onto it and I follow him.

The glittering lights are magnified
double as they reflect off the water. The evening has grown darker
as the hour grows later and even though I see this same exact sight
every night, somehow I notice it more now, actually being on the
water. I can’t take it for granted so much when I am down this
close.

Julian reaches the end of the dock and
stops, his hands still stuffed into his pockets. He looks out over
the water and takes in a deep breath.

I wish I could snap a picture of this
moment. It is so simple and quiet and easy. I know it isn’t going
to last because the second I open my mouth I will probably ruin it,
so for just a second, I want to enjoy it.

“
You just going to lurk
back there in the shadows, or are you going to come up here and
join me?”

Heat rushes to my face and I slowly
cross the dock and stand beside him.

“
I love this view,” Julian
says, still looking out over the water.

It is beautiful. To the north there is
the 520 floating bridge. The traffic isn’t heavy this time of
night, but it remains steady as people head for Seattle. The same
is exact for the I-90 bridge just to the south. And straight ahead
is the Seattle skyline, Space Needle and everything.

This feels an awful lot like a
romantic date. The intimate, glittery setting feels perfect to open
up and share all my secrets. But that isn’t me. Besides, I just
barely learned Julian’s name, and still don’t even know his
last.

True, I know what his lips taste like,
and know exactly how the inside of his palm feels against my lower
back, but that doesn’t count for much of anything.

“
This might be a little
too intense right now, isn’t it?” Julian’s voice makes me jump when
it cuts through the crystal silence.

I chuckle and shake my head. “Not only
is he observant, he’s also a mind-reader.”

“
Yeah, I’m kind of
regretting this,” he says with a smile. “I mean, I didn’t intend
for this to be so…”

“
Intimate
feeling?”

“
Like I’m supposed to be
dropping to one knee and declaring my undying love or something.”
Now he laughs.

“
Wow,” I say. “That
escalated quickly.”

“
I’m sorry,” Julian says,
pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes and rubbing them.
“Things have just been a little hectic lately, some peace and quiet
sounded awfully nice.”

“
Hectic,” I say. When
Julian sits on the dock, leaning back onto his arms, I mimic him.
“Does this mean you have a job outside of dance class?”

He chuckles and shakes his head.
“You’re a pretty harsh judge of character, you know
that?”

“
I am an expert in my
judging,” I say, knowing I sound like a witch, but also being
honest.

“
I set my own schedule,
you could say,” he responds, his eyes once again turned to the
lake. “Normally things are quiet, I’ll go months, sometimes years
without working a day. But then there are times like this that they
get crazy.”

“
How old are you?” I ask.
I wasn’t meaning to get personal here, but the question needed to
satisfy my sudden curiosity.