He peered through the small window watching the dark-haired woman dance to an imaginary beat in her head. He was hypnotised as she twisted, turned, twirled and moved her arms in a world of her own.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d been there, at an estimate he’d say 10 minutes. 10 minutes of watching her move across the floor without a care in the world.
He examined her physique, as he stood unnoticed. She was tall, slender and graceful yet executing each step with precision. As her body turned towards him he backed away so as not to be caught spying.
“Hey Justin, are you coming or what?”
“Huh?” he replied distractedly. He glanced over at Joey, who was striding towards him, before once again returning his gaze to the dancer.
“We’re going to get something to eat, you coming?” he asked the younger man.
Justin shook his head slightly. “Nah I’ll pass.”
“What are you looking at?” Joey asked, moving to stand next to him.
Justin remained silent as he watched her freeze in position, almost statuesque, before shaking her limbs loose and rolling her head from side to side.
“Hmm pretty cute,” Joey observed. “Who is she?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
He continued to watch as she adjusted her ponytail before beginning a series of stretches.
“Guys we’re leaving,” JC shouted from down the hall.
Joey nodded in recognition before turning back to Justin. “You sure you don’t wanna come?” he questioned him.
Justin waved him off. “No you go ahead, I’ll pick something up on the way home.”
“If you’re sure. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Joe come on,” JC hollered impatiently.
“I’m coming,” he called back.
He motioned towards the group at the end of the hall. “You better get out of here.”
Joey patted his back in a brotherly fashion before turning. “See ya later Justin.”
Justin watched as Joey jogged down the hall to catch up with the rest of the group. He told himself he didn’t want to take the risk of being swarmed by fans, something that was more likely to happen when with the others. To a degree that was true, he liked keeping a quiet life during their down time…well as much as Justin Timberlake could. The real reason he wasn’t going though…well he wanted to spend a few more moments watching the dark-haired beauty on the other side of the door.
Remembering the reason he was standing in the empty hallway he turned back to look through the window and nearly jumped out of his skin along with the person on the other side of the door as they both looked up and locked eyes through the glass. Shocked at being caught out he looked into her dark eyes for a second longer until she pulled the door that separated them open.
He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry…um I was just…”
“Don’t worry about it. If you could excuse me…” She stood in front of him, waiting patiently.
Justin just looked back at her. “Oh…oh I’m sorry. My name’s Justin,” he informed her as he stepped back out of her way.
“Nice to meet you Justin.” She then stepped past him and without so much as a backwards glance she followed the same path Joey had previously taken towards the exit of the dance studios.
He stood in shock for a moment before shaking his head and pulling himself together. What had just happened? He wasn’t sure.
With the mystery lady now out of sight he walked back to the dance studio they had occupied that day. He picked up his bag, slinging it over his shoulder, before following her lead.
He had been heading towards the drinks’ machine, at the end of the hall, after rehearsals when he had caught a glimpse of her. At first it had been the natural instinct to know what was going on that had drawn him over to the door to look through window and see what was going on. The fact that she was alone and dancing without music had intrigued him.
He had watched closely as the solitary figure formed patterns across the wooden floor as she moved. He could tell she pushed herself to the limit, her concentration focused on one thing only – perfecting the moves.
When Joey had approached he’d broken him out of the trance like state he had found himself in. He hadn’t been able to move his eyes from her body as he tried to guess what she would do next.
Watching a female work through a routine was a hell of a lot different to watching himself and four grown men sweat and grunt their way through the same routine over and over again in the reflection of a huge mirror. It had been a fascinating change.
He now drove in the dark of the night back to his house. Rehearsals were over for the day, only to once again resume first thing the next morning. The rumbling of his stomach interrupted the welcome silence in the car. Justin groaned when he realised he hadn’t eaten anything since lunch when he’d managed to grab a mere half a sandwich. That was nearly 6 hours ago now.
He pulled up at a diner, the nearest place he could grab a bite to eat. Looking around he noticed there weren’t many cars outside but none the less he pulled on his cap to cover the curls the best he could. It was a precautionary measure. With the hair covered he drew less attention to himself. It wouldn’t fool someone who knew who he was but usually it would buy him time until they saw his face and tried to decide if it was really him or not.
He managed to give his order without any problems and he relaxed a little, taking a seat at the counter while he waited for his food. Glancing around he realised nobody was paying any attention to him, everyone either hungrily consuming their food or talking with others. Continuing his inspection of the room he looked down the length of the counter at the other customers. He smirked when he saw who was on his right, 3 seats along. “We meet again.”
She glanced up from the newspaper she had been reading and looked around her. She realised that, as she had suspected, he was indeed talking to her. “Excuse me?” she enquired after giving him the once-over.
Justin just grinned. “You forgot about me already?” He put a hand to his chest, feigning hurt. “We met not 15 minutes ago,” he informed her.
He could see the confusion written across her face for a moment longer, trying to process who he was, before it finally registered in her mind. “Oh…yeah.” She hesitated for a second. “ Justin right?”
He grinned brighter. “So you do remember me. I, on the other hand, do not know who you are.”
She shrugged slightly. “I didn’t expect you would, you have no reason to know my name and I didn’t tell you before.”
Shaking his head Justin chuckled. “That was meant to be a hint…you know… to tell me your name.”
“Oh…right, sorry. Guess I’m just not with it today.”
Justin sat patiently waiting for her to continue but she didn’t appear to have anything else to say and had gone back to scanning the headlines and stirring her coffee aimlessly. “So…,” he prompted.
When she realised she was being spoken to again she returned her gaze to him. Her brow knitted with confusion. “So…what?”
He laughed lightly. “Damn, they are usually screaming their names at me,” he muttered to himself.
“Huh?” she asked scrunching her nose up at the crazy person in front of her.
Justin looked at her, eyes wide. He hadn’t realised he’d said that aloud. He took in her baffled expression before moving past the seats between them to sit next to her. “I was just asking what your name was. We keep bumping into each other, it would be nice to put a name to a face.”
She looked at him through narrowed eyes, observing him sceptically before finally answering. “Natalia.”
He grinned and shifted in his seat. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Nice to meet you Natalia.”
She nodded. “Yeah you too…Justin. But I already told you that earlier.”
“Well you can never compliment someone too often,” he joked.
She smiled awkwardly before turning and lowering her gaze to her newspaper once again.
Justin noted her nervousness before he finally became aware of what was happening here. She really didn’t know who he was. He scolded himself for being so stupid when he realised what she must have thought of him. She probably thought he had followed her there. Who knew what else she thought of him but self-assured freak and crazy-psycho-stalker were probably somewhere near the top of the list.
He began tapping his fingers rhythmically, silently urging his food to hurry up and arrive so he could escape before making an even bigger fool of himself.
He caught her movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned and noticed disapproval written across her face. She glanced down to his hand before meeting his eyes. “Oh…sorry.” Sliding his hands off the counter-top he brought them down and clasped them in his lap before unconsciously bouncing his feet on the footrest of the stool.
“Listen Justin do you want something?” she asked folding her newspaper up and turning her full attention to him.
Looking at her in shock he pointed at himself. “Me? No I’m just waiting on my food then I’ll be out of your way.”
She nodded doubtfully before resting her elbow on the counter and lowering her head onto her hand, not taking her eyes off him.
He bit his lip nervously under her gaze. Her dark eyes looking at him questionably. “So…er you dance huh?” he asked trying to break the nervous tension that had all of a sudden filled the air.
Her eyes seemed to stare back at him accusingly for a moment before returning to normal. “Sometimes.”
“Are you a professional?”
She sent him a challenging look before replying casually. “Professional what? Athlete…business woman…hooker?”
He almost choked. “Dancer…professional dancer?” he replied as quickly as he could.
She shook her head. “Nope.”
He sat in silence under the woman’s unnerving stare.
“Are you?” she finally asked.
“A dancer?”
“No… a hooker?”
Passers by would have thought Justin’s eyes were in danger of popping out of his head. He fumbled for a response but nothing came other than a lot of stuttering and spluttering. She had well and truly shocked him, rendering him speechless.
She placed her hand on top of his. “Oh I see what you’re trying to say. Are men called hookers?” She twisted her face trying to give a thoughtful air to her appearance. “Maybe I should’ve said male prostitute or something.” She looked him in the eye again. “So are you a male prostitute Justin?”
His jaw was lax. He couldn’t believe it. She was the most forthright woman he had ever met.
All of a sudden she burst out laughing. “Damn Justin I was kidding. No need to get so worked up…that is unless you have something to hide of course,” she grinned evilly.
Justin was in total shock. The woman had gone from basically ignoring him, to joking with him in ways probably only the other guys would dare to these days. Certainly not someone he had only known for 30 minutes. One thing he did know though, the sound of her laugh was music to his ears at that moment in time even if his ridicule had been the reason for it.
He smirked back at her playfully. “Oh so you think you’re funny do you?”
“All I know is I got you there and I got you good. You should have seen your face!”
He shook his head, unable to keep the grin from forming on his face. He was enjoying the playful banter between them.
“So Miss Natalia, do you come with a last name?”
“Doesn’t everybody?” she shrugged.
“So are you going to tell me?” he urged.
“Are you asking?”
Justin rolled his eyes. “You never get an easy answer with you do you?”
She shrugged. “You ask a straight question, you may get a straight answer.”
Crossing his arms he looked squarely at her. “Okay let’s try this again. Natalia,” he began slowly, “will you tell me your last name?”
She seemed to deliberate the question for a moment, doodling on the newspaper in front of her with a chewed up biro that had been lying on the counter. She downed the rest of her coffee before setting the mug aside. She turned back to him with a smile before finally answering him. “Nope.”
“Nope?” he repeated.
She clapped playfully. “You got it…nope.”
Justin, so used to getting his own way in life these days, looked at her open mouthed. “Nope…but…but…why not?” he finally whined.
She laughed at him before sliding the newspaper over in front of him and standing from the stool. “You have too much information already.”
Justin watched as she turned her back to him and walked towards the door, her hair which had been taken down from it’s ponytail flying in a cloak behind her. “But…”
“Bye Justin,” she called over her shoulder.
He watched as she pushed the door open and left the diner, disappearing into the night. Turning back slowly he was met with the face of a large middle-aged man standing waiting with a brown paper bag. “Women huh?” was all he said as he placed the bag in front of Justin.
Justin nodded before handing over the money, muttering for him to keep the change. As he picked up the bag containing his food he glanced down at the newspaper she had been reading. He smiled at what was scrawled across the top – “Thomas”. Chuckling to himself he left the diner, heading back to his car. Destination – home.
Chapter 2
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