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“I can’t take your modern class tomorrow.” He was supposed to be helping Travis choreograph a piece for the next season, but Sean was pretty sure he was just a distraction.

“Like hell.” Travis threw him a glare before turning back to what he was writing down. “You’re going to that class.”

“Lupe is taking that class, unless she skips. She only has one more week before you sign off on her evaluation. She’s not going to skip.”

“Yeah? Okay, then. How’s she’s gonna get there?”

“I have to skip your class.”

“So you can do what?” Travis dropped his pen to give Sean his full attention. “Chase his car down the street if he’s here? I’m not letting you do that. I will handcuff you to the barre. He might not even be there, and if he is and he doesn’t want to see you, chasing him down the street isn’t going to help.”

“That idea sounded better in my head.”

“I’m going to handcuff you to Alana when I have to teach the lower levels. We’ll call it a team-building exercise.”

“Why do you have handcuffs?”

Chapter 14

S
EAN
KNEW
he was driving Alana crazy. He’d been distracted in every class and missed so many cues that she’d declared she wasn’t letting him do a single lift with her all day. By the time they were stretching before Travis’s class, he was alternating between watching the door for Lupe and looking out the window. It didn’t face any street Jaime would drive down, but he kept looking anyway.

“Stop. Stretch with me. Even you agree that chasing after his car isn’t a good idea,” Alana whispered.

“I don’t want to see her.” He’d always liked Lupe. She was only a few months younger than Alana, but between Jaime’s habit of calling Lupe and Michael “the kids” and Alana having more street smarts than Travis, he only remembered Alana’s age when Travis mentioned an old TV show and she gave them a blank look. Lupe had always felt like this kid who thought they hung the stars. Now all he could hear was the way she’d said “how he was” was fine if he didn’t ruin Jaime’s life.

“You know Travis. He will be professional and still keep her as far as possible from you the entire class.”

“And forgive me if I freak out and leave,” Sean said.

“Yes, but he’ll still make you make up the entire class later, and he’ll make me make up the class after I go after you, even though he’d want me to go after you. So please don’t do that to me.” Alana rolled her eyes when he jumped for the third time to the studio door opening behind them. “Stop. I’ll just tell you when it’s her so you don’t freak out every time.”

A few minutes later, he could tell by the expression on Alana’s face that it was Lupe who had come through the door.

“Well, that’s weird. Michael’s not with her,” Alana whispered.

Travis called for them to start before he could answer. Lupe must have lingered in the dressing room so she could enter right on time.

They were five minutes into class when Michael came in, and it was as if the entire small company stopped breathing. There were limited excuses for being late or absent from Travis’s classes, and almost all of them involved someone being in the hospital.

“Continue the combination,” Travis said, as if any of them had dared to stop.

Sean couldn’t hear whatever excuse Michael gave, but whatever it was made Travis pause, and Michael joined a line in the back of the class.

Alana must have had a death wish, because she pulled Sean toward Michael when they were waiting for the other half of the class to finish a combination.

“Why were you late?” Alana whispered.

Michael glanced at Travis, who was correcting another dancer’s form.

“Lupe told me what happened. I tried talking to her, and after that mess, I didn’t want to get in a car with her, so I took the train.” Michael glanced back at Travis before he finished talking to the other dancer. “I got confused on the subway. Aleksandra drove her. Jaime’s still worried about her even after everything.”

Travis glared and didn’t give them a chance to talk for the rest of class, but he kept Michael and Lupe after he dismissed the class. Sean wished for a second that Travis would bend his rules and let them leave instead of making up the time Michael missed, just so he could stop pretending Lupe wasn’t keeping an unusual distance. He’d made it past them and all the way to the dressing room before realizing that if Lupe was held late, he’d have time to talk to Aleksandra outside.

Travis was going to kill him if he got sick from slipping on his shoes and running outside in just his dance pants and hoodie, but he’d already used up time, and Travis wouldn’t keep them for more than a few minutes. Aleksandra was sitting in the driver’s seat when he spotted the car, but she opened the door and stepped out when she saw him coming.

“He’s not here. They’re still fighting. She’s not happy with me either, but you know he’d blame himself if she came on her own and something happened to her,” Aleksandra said. “I told him nothing would happen to her, but he’s an overprotective freak who thinks she’s still twelve years old.”

“I know. And I know if I really want to say something, I could text him, but I don’t know if he’d read it, and I’m hoping if it goes through you, maybe he’ll listen.”

“Sean.” Aleksandra sighed, then rolled her eyes when the wind whipped around him and he shivered. “What’s wrong with you? Right now all I’m going to tell him is you’re an idiot who is going to get pneumonia.”

“Can you just tell him—”

Sean paused. He hadn’t actually thought up anything to say. He didn’t know what Jaime would even want him to say. “Can you tell him I’ll do whatever he wants? If he wants to see me, and he doesn’t want to talk about it, I can do that. I can come there, or he can come over. Or he can just text me and tell me anything I can do.”

“I’ll tell him, but you should go.” Aleksandra nodded behind him, and he turned to see Lupe walking toward them. She’d stopped on the sidewalk, but when their eyes met, she started walking again.

He thought for a second that she was going to force him into a confrontation, but Travis turned the corner behind her and his strides were quick enough that he walked past her before she reached them.

“You’re going to freeze to death.” Travis glared at him and pushed his coat in his arms. Sean pulled on his coat, and didn’t resist when Travis took his elbow to pull him past Lupe back toward the studio.

“You’re not wearing a coat either,” Sean said as they stepped back into the heat.

“And whose fault is that? Alana only had time to bring me yours when she realized you ran outside like a lunatic.”

“I had to try.”

“I know, but I’m not letting you get on a train so you can bang down his door, so you might as well get your stuff to go home. Alana went with Michael so he doesn’t end up in Harlem instead of Grand Central.”

“Are you going to put that he was late on his evaluation?” Sean was almost sure he knew the answer.

“He gets one pass for telling Lupe off.”

I
T
WAS
seven thirty when Sean’s phone buzzed. He jumped for it, and Travis didn’t bother to comment from where he was making a stir-fry in the kitchen. Alana had taken pity on him and was only texting them on Travis’s phone, so it was worth jumping for.

It was Jaime.

I’m sorry I didn’t text earlier. I just don’t really want to talk about it. Can I come over anyway?

Sean didn’t hesitate to text back,
Of course. Whatever you want.

Ok. I’ll come over. Is everyone there?

“Jaime wants to come over,” Sean said before texting back. “Can you kind of hide in your room?”

“Yeah. Just don’t try to cook for him to make him feel better. I’ll leave you some food or something.”

No. Alana is at her actual home. Travis said he’d give us space.

Jaime didn’t answer for a few minutes.

Thanks. I’m getting on the train.

The time crawled after Travis showered and disappeared into his room. Sean texted Alana for a distraction and that helped a little, even if she told him he was an idiot and that changing out of sweatpants when he wasn’t leaving the apartment was stupid.

Alana was trying to distract him with tales of the three different guys her sister was dating when there was a soft knock on the door. He tossed his phone aside. She’d understand if he didn’t answer her anymore.

When Sean opened the door, Jaime was studying the floor, and his hands were hidden in the pockets of his leather jacket. He looked up at Sean through his eyelashes like he thought Sean was going to be mad at him for not calling, instead of just being worried about him. If he had been mad, it would have vanished with the way Jaime’s eyes darted away again as he shifted on his feet.

“Hey, come in.” Sean took his wrist to tug him inside, and reached behind him to push the door closed. He let his hand skim up the smooth leather jacket to curl around the back of Jaime’s neck. When he pulled the taller man to him, Jaime came easily, wrapping his arms around Sean’s waist as Sean held him.

“I’m sorry. I should have texted or called,” Jaime said, his lips brushing over Sean’s neck with each word.

“I’m not mad. Really worried. Not mad.”

Jaime shook his head without actually moving away.

“Is this what it feels like when your parents say they aren’t mad, just really disappointed? Because my mom is always just fine being mad, so I’ve never gotten the concept, but this feels like the same idea.”

Sean couldn’t help letting out a short laugh of relief. If Jaime could joke even a little, he probably wasn’t going to break up with Sean because Lupe wanted him to.

“Maybe. My parents are champions at that one.
Travis
is a champion at that one already. I fear for his future children. But that’s not really what I was going for.” Sean tried to pull away to get a better look at his face, but when Jaime resisted, he gave up. “Are you hungry? There’s food.”

“I ate.” Jaime sighed against him. “Sorry. It’s probably weird that I just want to stand here.”

“No. It’s fine.” Sean let his hand stroke over Jaime’s back. “We might want to move to the bed at some point, though. Standing might get difficult if we do this for hours.”

Jaime nodded into his neck, but he didn’t pull away, so Sean held him tighter and pressed a kiss to the side of his head where he could reach. After a few minutes, Jaime took a deep breath and pulled away.

“Bed?” Sean asked.

“Yeah,” Jaime agreed, walking around him toward the bedroom.

He didn’t bother to turn on the light, so Sean didn’t either. He just watched in the sliver of light from the street that peeked through his curtains as Jaime slipped his jeans off and left them in a pile on the floor before pulling back the covers and climbing into Sean’s bed. Sean followed suit and slipped in next to him, but Jaime didn’t move toward him immediately like he’d expected. Instead he lay on his side facing Sean.

“I don’t even know what’s going on,” Jaime whispered after a few seconds of silence. “She said she wouldn’t tell anyone, but I think she just meant she wouldn’t tell anyone yet.”

“You don’t think it’ll be okay?”

“I know it won’t be,” Jaime said. Sean was still trying to think up the perfect response when Jaime spoke again. “I asked once. When I was seventeen. Lupe was in a production, and the director was gay. Her mom almost made her pull out, but Lupe argued that she had to learn to be around people she didn’t agree with. I didn’t think Lupe really meant anything by it. She just wanted to dance. But after my mom met her director at the show, she said it was a shame that he’d hurt his mother like that. So I asked. Sort of. I asked if she’d disown my brother if he was gay and she said, ‘Of course.’ She didn’t even have to think about it.”

There wasn’t a thing Sean could say to that. If comforting words existed that would help, he had no idea what they were, so he gave up and just moved closer to Jaime instead. He took Jaime’s hand, and Jaime let himself be pulled so his head was pillowed on Sean’s chest.

“How do you make me talk about shit I don’t want to talk about?” Jaime mumbled into his chest.

“I don’t know. I kind of thought I was going to have to force myself not to ask questions while you didn’t say anything.” Sean squeezed the arm he had around Jaime’s shoulders. “Maybe you did want to talk about it?”

“No. I don’t,” Jaime said, “but maybe I wanted you to know.”

W
HEN
T
RAVIS
yelled through the door eight thirty, Sean opened his eyes to find Jaime still waking up in front of him.

“Why is he waking you up so early?” Jaime asked. “It’s early, right?”

“Company classes start at ten. I haven’t convinced Steph or Travis that’s too early. They claim they need the afternoons to teach the lower-level classes that kids pay to take after school. I tried to offer Steph money to move them later a long time ago, and Travis called me a spoiled rich brat.” When Jaime gave him a strange look, Sean shrugged. “That was a week after we met. We weren’t friends yet.”