He expelled his breath harshly. “I don’t like this.”
“Please, Steel. Trust me. I’m fine. I’ll go home this Sunday as planned. So please---just give me this weekend. Don’t worry about me. I’ve never been happier actually.”
“And never been sadder, too, Saffi. That’s what’s worrying me the most.”
Her hand tightened around her phone. “Everything’s going to be as planned. I’m still going to be engaged with Jeremy, Dad’s still going to be elected for his second term as senator, and…everything will be okay. Everyone will be okay.”
“And you?” Steel asked. “Everyone will be okay except you. Is that how it will be?”
“Goodbye, Steel.” She ended the call, dashing her tears off with the back of her hand.
Alan and Donovan were still waiting for her outside the restroom when she came out.
“Are you okay?” Alan asked, concerned. He was already dressed for dance practice, in a sleeveless shirt, sweat pants, and hi-cuts. He was the very definition of swag, and she started to understand why Staffan might have considered the idea she was flirting with Alan. He really was good-looking, and he did not look g*y at all.
She glanced at Alan’s companion. Even Donovan was undeniably cute, dressed in yet another hot-grad-school nerd outfit with his neatly pressed shirt and jeans. Saffi flashed them a smile. “I’m super good. Why shouldn’t I be when I just had the best night of my life?”
They laughed.
“Who knew you’d be so wild,” Alan teased.
She rolled her eyes. “I know. I’m pretty sure everyone from high school would have a hard time understanding any guy – much less someone like Staffan – liking me.”
Donovan would have laughed if not for the real grimace on Saffi’s face. “You’re not kidding?” he gasped. Saffi was exquisitely beautiful, like a fragile doll…that Nickelodeon created instead of Mattel. Pretty…but quirky.
Alan winced. “She’s not kidding, and I’m one of those to blame---”
Saffi waved his words away in exasperation. “Of course you’re not! Peer pressure and bullying were to blame. That’s all.” Deciding that another change of subject was called for, she asked, “Can I join your dance practice today? I mean, just on the sides. I won’t be a bother, I promise.”
Alan choked. “You? Dance?”
“Hey!” She was deeply affronted at the look in Alan’s eyes.
Donovan grinned. “That bad, huh?”
“You have no idea,” Alan said feelingly.
“HEY!”
Alan ignored her. “I slow-danced with her during graduation ball and she stepped on my toe every five seconds.”
“I did not!”
He lifted a brow at her. “Really?”
“It was every seven seconds.”
Alan threw his hands up. “See?”
“I could have improved a lot since then, you know?” At his dubious expression, she insisted, “Really. My dad paid for professional lessons.” Or at least that was how she liked to call her copy of Hip Hop Abs with Shaun T.
Alan’s doubt turned into hesitation. “Really?”
She tried not to grin at how easy she had fooled him. “Really.”
This time, he looked impressed. “Cool.”
When they entered the huge concert hall, where a part of it had been temporarily set aside for dance practice, the first thing Saffi saw was Mitch.
Shit! Saffi made a quick about face. She was so not in the mood to get into another catfight!
Behind her, Alan said happily, “Guess what, guys? H’s here and wants to practice with us!” Alan reached her side and twirled her around to face everyone. Saffi watched Mitch’s eyes widen in recognition.
Mitch was in a rage. Dressed in another all-black ensemble because she knew it made her look sophisticated like a celebrity, she could only curse silently when she saw the same groupie who ruined her night at the concert. How could Staffan Aehrenthal prefer that slut over her? She was a real woman, a decent woman while this---this whore was nothing!
Saffi pretended to twist her ankle. “Oh, wow. I think I just hurt myself.”
Alan and Donovan stared at her blankly.
Mitch said loudly, “If she wants to dance so much then maybe she’ll be game for a dance-off. Winner has dibs on Staffan’s bed tonight.”
She was so not going to stoop to the insane fangirl’s level, Saffi decided, and especially since she knew she had absolutely no chance of winning. Saffi twisted her ankle to another angle. “I’d love to, umm, dance off, but I don’t think it’s going to happen, not with my ankle…”
“Oooh. She’s walking away,” Mitch jeered. “I guess she knows groupies like her are just good for nothing but sex.”
Saffi froze.
She thought about Carmina and her friends and the way they had fun hanging out during the concert, the way those girls had fought for her and even helped her get past the checkpoint of Staffan’s backstage area.
Without thinking, Saffi rotated her ankle clockwise twice, exclaiming with exaggerated shock, “Oh my goodness, I think I’m fine now.”
Alan slowly lifted his hand up…and smacked himself in the forehead. This, he thought, was not going to be good. It had Silly Sapphire written all over, like the countless times Saffi did the craziest things back when they were kids because she was more gullible and innocent than a newborn.
Mitch had started warming up in front of her, cracking her knuckles, stretching her limbs, and twisting her body in no way a vertebrate had a right to.
Pretending she was just as experienced, Saffi did a little stretch, too, standing on her toes only to lose her balance a few seconds after. The other dancers choked back their laughter as she tumbled to the side and hurriedly righted herself.
Saffi lifted her chin. “No matter how good your moves are on the dance floor, they won’t do you any good when you’re in Staffan’s bed. You’ll leave him cold and you’ll---” Saffi tried to come up with a really nasty insult. “---you’ll make his dick hide like a turtle inside a shell because you’re so bad in bed!”
Mitch saw red. “Bitch!” And then she was charging towards Saffi like a bull in Prada.
Saffi shrieked in surprise, but Alan and Donovan managed to hold Mitch back, the other woman’s nails just inches away from clawing her face.
“Let’s just settle this with a dance-off. It’s the civilized thing to do here,” Donovan said hastily. Alan turned to her with wriggling eyebrows and actually winking, as if he wanted to make sure she knew that Donovan was doing her a big favor.