Accidentally in Love, page 16
Sara breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God. I was starting to get bored of not being able to go into the living room,” she admitted, perfectly aware of how absurd her phobia was.
Eva laughed at her. “Look, you could have done it yourself, you know! It’s only a spider, Sara.”
“Just a spider… you’re only saying that because you haven’t seen it yet.” Sara escorted her to the door into the living room, where she stopped.
Her sister, however, did not waste any time. She walked into the room and lifted the heavy briefcase, which had proved so providential the other night .
“Poor little spider, what a shame”, said Eva as she scraped up its remains from the floor with a paper napkin she’d pulled from her pocket for the occasion. She walked towards the bathroom with the intention of flushing it down the toilet, but she stopped when she saw Ethan coming out.
“Well good morning ,” she greeted him cheerfully, impressed by how he was dressed today: just a pair of dark grey boxers.
Sara rolled her eyes. “Eva, please, ignore Ethan’s attire. Don’t give him the satisfaction.” Too bad that Eva had never been one for doing what she was told…
“What attire?” she asked cheekily. “Not that he doesn’t look good ‘undressed’ like this!” She hastened to point out, adding ironically, “I’ve always been a big fan of dressing casual.”
“Eva, please! Not you as well…” begged Sara, who was starting to feel like she was outnumbered in her own house.
“Your sister is not a big lover of minimalist clothing, I’m afraid,” said Ethan, looking back and forth between the two sisters.
“Who, Sara ? She’s the biggest prude in the world when it comes to showing some skin,” agreed Eva, without batting an eyelid. “But I’m just the opposite! And I really like what I’m seeing…” she said, looking over his body with meticulous attention .
“Maybe I should leave you alone for a few hours with my sister. I’m sure I’d find you both fully clothed when I got back,” she said, noting that Eva’s directness was starting make even Ethan look uncomfortable. He was much less at ease when it was him who was being examined than he would have liked. Typical Ethan.
“What’s in that tissue of yours?? Spiders?” he asked, eager to change the subject.
Eva looked at him in amazement. “What the hell have you two got against insects?”
Ethan shuddered at the thought. And Sara’s face was certainly no better.
“Okay, okay, I get it. I’m going…” she assured them both. She went into the bathroom and wished the unlucky creature a melancholy farewell. “Are you two happy now?”
“That’s a relief,” Sara admitted, not feeling bad about looking weak for once.
“Are we sure there aren’t any others that are planning on jumping out and surprising us?” asked Ethan, still not feeling completely reassured. “Where there’s one spider there are probably plenty more. Hey, there might even be a whole family somewhere…”
“Yes, I think there’s a very good chance of them wanting to take their revenge,” Sara said sarcastically. “Anyway, if you’re worried, why don’t you pack up your stuff and get out of here once and for all? That way you can take yourself and your exhibitionism back to the magical island of Manhattan…”
“And leave you to fight the spiders on your own?” he answered cheekily. “What kind of gentleman would I be then?”
“Let me just remind you that last night you screamed louder than I did…” she snapped, sick of not being able to get rid of him despite the fact that he didn’t like the neighborhood, the complete ban on alcohol in her house and the possibility of being attacked by arachnids. He was turning out to be a much tougher cookie than she had expected.
“So he’s staying here over the weekend, too?” asked Eva, sounding interested. “Because if he is, he might want to come with us tomorrow morning to the baseball game. By the look of him, he should be pretty good at throwing a ball,” she added, taking advantage of the situation to carefully observe his chest and those beautiful broad shoulders of his.
Sara quickly tried to curb her sister’s enthusiasm. “No, he doesn’t want to come! And anyway, he’s not part of the family!”
“Okay, but seeing as he’s living here with you, there’s no harm in it… I mean, all we ever seem to do is lose anyway. Maybe he could help us out. Like maybe by taking your place, for example,” she suggested, but Sara’s offended face clearly showed her how unappealing the idea was.
“What baseball match?” Ethan broke in, in a desperate attempt to calm the waters between them.
“Oh, it’s noth…” said Sara, trying to brush it aside, before she was interrupted by her sister.
“We’ve been having these family baseball matches forever. Our family’s pretty big, and it used to be the ruling dynasty of the Italian restaurant business in the area. So instead of fighting each other, they decided to take the competition to another level and turn it into a sporting event. Smart, huh?” She told him, proudly.
“What are you talking about, Eva?! The D’Amicos haven’t been in the catering business for at least twenty years. They’re in real estate now,” was Sara’s quick retort.
“And who do you think cares about that now? The only thing that matters is winning!” said Eva passionately. “Look at those biceps, Sara. He’ll know how to pitch a ball, won’t he?”
“They’re certainly pretty pumped… He’s probably on steroids or something like that,” Sara said, because in all honesty his biceps were objectively quite remarkable, and it wouldn’t be easy to discourage her sister .
Offended, Ethan jumped up. “Hey, that’s real muscle, you know! I used to be a pitcher in my high school team!”
“Ha! I knew it, he used to play baseball!” exclaimed Eva triumphantly. She’d been waiting for this.
Sara gave her one of her looks. Why couldn’t she keep her mouth shut?
“I’m ready to bet that he hasn’t played for years, if not decades,” she said.
“And I’m ready to bet that even if his last game was in elementary school he’d still be way better than you, even if you do play every month.” Feeling rather pleased with herself, Eva smiled at Ethan. “Don’t worry, she’s a lost cause. Until a few years ago, we were almost tempted to get our Aunt Lydia to play instead of her, and she’s just had her eighty-eighth birthday.”
Ethan burst out laughing at that. “My God, Sara, are you really such a desperate case?”
She folded her arms in annoyance “You should probably know that Aunt Lydia was an athlete in her youth! There weren’t many who could compete with her until the doctor told her to calm down and watch the games instead of actually taking part.”
“Oh, she was an ‘athlete’ was she? Really?” Eva asked with feigned curiosity. “And what sport did this ‘athlete’ do, exactly? ”
“Horse riding,” Sara admitted through gritted teeth.
At this point both Eva and Ethan burst out laughing and Sara, feeling that the only intelligent thing to do at this point was to take refuge in her room, set off in that direction. But Eva stepped in front of her, blocking the doorway.
“Oh no, you’re not going in there! I brought you a present!”
Sara’s sulky face vanished instantly. “You did? What?” she asked, trying not to sound too enthusiastic.
“An early birthday present!” her sister trilled.
“It’s your birthday?” asked Ethan.
“No, absolutely not. Not for three months,” Sara admitted worriedly. It was obvious that something was going on here…
“And in fact my present is not, in fact, just any old kind of gift. For your birthday… you are going to learn how to dance!” Eva said, trying to look as innocent as possible.
All the optimism drained from Sara’s face, to be replaced by a suspicious glare. “Huh?” was all she managed to say.
“I’ve enrolled you on a dance course!” said Eva, clapping her hands. “Don’t you think it’s a fantastic idea? ”
“You enrolled me on a what ? !” asked Sara, raising her voice.
“I think she said a dance course,” repeated Ethan, who obviously found her disappointment immensely entertaining to watch.
“Shut up, you half naked…!” she exclaimed threateningly. She turned to her sister angrily. “Eva, you know I hate dancing!”
“Exactly. I can never convince you to come out to clubs with me at the weekends, and you always give me this excuse that you don’t enjoy it and that it’s not for you because you don’t know how to dance. Well, I wanted to give you something useful.”
“Useful?” Sara growled. “A sweater is useful! A… a hairdryer is useful! Not a dance course…”
“You’ll have fun, you’ll see. The first lesson’s this afternoon at the HC gym. Go try it then decide if you want to carry on with it or not. Please? Pleeeeease?” she implored her sister, gazing at her with Bambi-like eyes. Sara had no choice but to give in.
“Sooner or later the day will come when I’ll finally manage to say ‘no’ to you,” she muttered furiously.
Eva gave her a smug smile.
“And why do you give in to her and not to me?” Ethan wanted to know.
Sara shrugged. “Because she obviously knows how to get to me. She never challenges me out in the open – she’s much more subtle than that, the little snake.”
Eva laughed. “And I’ve also had twenty years of experience. You can’t expect to get as good as me at pressing her buttons in a couple of days! Sara is a tough cookie.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” he said. “That I’ve noticed…”
“Anyway, now that I’ve completed my task of removing the dead body, I think I’ll be on my way.”
“Oh sure, of course – a favour and a kick up the ass are more than enough for one day…” said Sara, still digesting the idea of the dance lessons.
She was hopeless at dancing and she suspected that four lessons wouldn’t be able to change that. Just thinking about it made her break out in a cold sweat.
“Remember, the HC gym at four!” Eva reminded her. All Sara could do was to emit a low moan. “Ethan, you make sure she gets there. And we’ll expect to see you at the game tomorrow morning too!”
“That’s impossible, Ethan will almost certainly be sleeping after a big Saturday night,” Sara said, “there’s no way he’ll be up in time.” She was sure he would go out tonight and stay out late drinking with his cronies until the early hours of the morning and so, with a bit of luck, he would be nice and quiet until the early afternoon on Sunday .
But Eva was an eternal optimist. “Hey, who knows,” she concluded, not at all resigned to Sara’s gloomy prediction. Then she walked out of the door.
*
“Okay, I’m going! Bye and have good evening!” Sara cried. “And hey, if by any chance you decide to go back to stay in Manhattan forever, just text me, ok?” she said, trying once again to free herself from him. More out of habit than to really annoy him, if she had to be honest with herself, but she tried not to think about that too much.
Ethan made his appearance on the scene wearing his usual pair of black jeans and a grey t-shirt. Sara imagined it was his personal way of changing his look. “Wow, try not to go too crazy with the colors there…” she added sardonically as she stared at the muscular shoulders which were visible under the tight t-shirt. On that point at least, she had to agree with Eva. “Anyway, I’m going to my dance class. Have fun tonight. And try not to blow all of your credit right away, if you can manage it. It’s getting to be a bit tedious hearing you moan, now that you actually live in my damn house. Ah yeah, one more thing. Remember to get yourself sobered up before you come back here. A deal is a deal… ”
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, giving her a dubious look.
“To the dumb dance course my sister signed me up for?” she reminded him.
“And you’re going to wear jeans to go dancing in?” he asked, raising an incredulous eyebrow. “And those sneakers?”
“Well, shouldn’t I?” she retorted defensively.
Ethan shook his head firmly. “A skirt! Don’t you have a single skirt in your closet?”
“I’m not a big fan of skirts…”
“But the night you dumped your drink on me you were wearing a pretty short dress,” he recalled.
Sara froze, shocked that he’d managed to recall such a detail. He seemed very surprised at the idea too. Almost shaken.
“Yeah, okay, but there’s no way I’m going to put something like that on for a dance course I don’t even want to go on.”
She liked dancing about as much as Ethan liked non-alcoholic cocktails.
“And you need a bit of a heel for this type of thing…” he continued, uninterested in her objections.
“Why?” she asked with the utmost diffidence.
“Because it’s feminine?”
“I’m not feminine.”
“No, you’re not,” he admitted with a slight smile .
Sara pulled herself up to her full height. Okay, she’d said it first, but couldn’t he have pretended not to agree with her?
“But you can always become feminine…” he added, as if he could read her mind. Sara didn’t move, just stood there looking him in the face. There was no point trying to deny it, she was beaten, and not just because of what he had said – to be honest, that was the least of the reasons – but because she had got to a point in her life where she was sick and tired that no one found her sexy. If she now wasted time getting changed, she ran a good chance of arriving late for the lesson and being refused admittance by the teacher. Though now she thought about it, that was a rather tempting idea…
“Okay, you’ve convinced me. I’ll change,” she said quickly. She went into her bedroom, closed the door and started hunting through her closet for something she could wear for a dance lesson that would live up to the exacting standards of Ethan. Apparently he was an expert on more than just beer.
She decided on a rather wide, black, knee length skirt and black shoes with a low heel. She didn’t want to go over the top.
“See? Now I’m perfect. See you later…” She tried to push past him.
But Ethan put his foot in the doorway preventing her from closing the door. “Wait… ”
Sara let out a long sigh. What the hell did he want now ?
“I fancy a bit of fresh air – I’ll walk you to your class,” he told her as if though it were perfectly normal.
Sara stared at him. “You? I thought you were the man who never walked anywhere? That man who has his driver pick him up to take him half a block?”
“I was a lot of things before you were appointed as my guardian.”
Sara looked doubtful, but his poker face revealed nothing and there were plenty of ways she could interpret his words. And Ethan clearly had no intention of telling her which the correct one was.
“Ok, whatever. Walk, if you really want to. But if you get lost on your way back, that’s your problem!” she warned him and opened the front door.
He followed her out. “Darling, that’s always been my problem. It’s the story of my life…”
*
The gym wasn’t far away, but they still took a quarter of an hour to reach Sixteenth on the corner of Fifty Second in the heart of Brooklyn. The room was set in what must formerly have been a gigantic warehouse, recently undergone renovation work – very superficial renovation work, to judge by the state of the façade. Sara stopped and looked at it, trying to decide if the abandoned factory effect had been created on purpose or whether they’d just decided to leave it pretty much as it was. She hoped that the inside would be a bit less unappealing.
“OK. Bye, then,” she said, trying to get rid of Ethan quickly. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem in any rush to go away.
“Hold on there,” he said laughing. “I want to see a few minutes of your lesson. I mean, since I’ve walked several miles to get here…”
“Ah yes, ‘miles’… I’d forgotten that you have your own very personal definition of what ‘miles’ are…” she said scathingly. “So what’s the deal, do you just want to have a laugh at me behind my back?”
Ethan couldn’t lie to her – his eyes gave her the answer before the words came out. “Why not? Come on, wouldn’t you do the same thing in my place?”
She sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, I suppose I would…” she admitted, in spite of herself. To be honest, she would probably have filmed him, but it was probably wise to refrain from suggesting anything like that.
“Come on,” he said, pushing her inside, “be brave.”
Just as she had hoped, the group had already started the lesson, and everyone turned to look at them as they entered. What’s that thing they say? Try not to stand out…
“Um, hey everyone!” she greeted them all.
“Are you Sara, Eva’s sister?” the instructor asked as she walked over to them.
“Yep, that’s me,” she said nervously.
The woman laughed. “Great! Eva warned me that you would probably be late, but it doesn’t matter. I’m Rita.”
Oh, very smooth Eva, thanks for telling everyone I’m a chronic latecomer, she thought. Sara kept quiet, preferring not to add anything else that would make her situation worse.
“Welcome to the group. Today we’re going to learn how to dance the bachata ,” the teacher explained.
Behind her Ethan tried to suppress a giggle. Tried, but didn’t quite manage. And to be honest, if the roles had been reversed, Sara would have laughed too. In fact, she would have booked a ticket for a place on the front row and she would have enjoyed the show.
“We’ve already begun to explain the basic steps, but let’s go over them again, so that way you can both learn them too.”
“Can both…?” Sara asked, sounding worried. Ethan had stopped laughing too .
“Yes, aren’t you here together?” Rita asked dubiously, looking first at Sara and then at Ethan.
“Noooo, he’s only staying for a couple of minutes! He has to leave, he’s got lots to do!” Sara exclaimed, tensing up at just the thought of it.
