Chapter 3
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Ally�s POV �So� what should we do now?� My partner asked me. I paused for a second and considered how to answer that particular question while alone in a hotel room with the man I�d loved for years. �Mind out of the gutter Ally!� I admonished myself. The situation was more complicated than it seemed, and the truth (that�d I�d love to stay exactly where I was � safe and warm in Nick�s embrace, though with a few less clothes) probably wasn�t the best idea. After all, the man in question had no idea I was madly in love with him, our coach would flip-out, our working relationship could well be ruined, and a split second proposition like the one I was considering would probably give him a heart attack, effectively ending any hope I had of a happily ever after. It was better to take things slow. �I am kind of hungry,� I admitted finally. �And not just for food,� the apparently gutter-bound voice in my head added. �Okay,� Dominic replied, glancing down at a pamphlet detailing the hotels attributes, �there are two restaurants on the grounds. There�s a�� �Stop!� I cut him off, my impatience surfacing. My partner may have been a planner, but I�d always been more of a go-with-the-flow kind of girl. We balanced each other out perfectly. A match made in heaven. I sighed, lost in my happy romantic daydreams. Such sap. I wouldn�t put up with it in a movie, so why was I spouting it all of a sudden? A quick glance at the man sitting across from me with a slightly bemused expression on his face, still waiting for me to say something, explained it. He was perfect. I finally re-found my train of thought. �Whichever one�s closer Nicky-boy� �That would be the seafood.� He answered quickly. Five minutes later, I had slipped out of my travel clothes and into a black skirt and a rather daringly cut, burgundy coloured top that I hoped would draw a certain man�s eyes. Even if the outfit did not provoke the desired reaction, I could always flash a little cleavage, accuse Nick of staring, and storm off. Ah, such fun! We walked out of the building and into a scent laden evening. The pathway was bordered by dozens of bright, exotic flowers and palm fronds created a canopy above. The setting sun cast a golden glow over everything and painted the ocean the most astonishing shades of pink, red, blue, and yellow. I sighed; all this icky love stuff was having a most devastating effect on my usually plain vocabulary. Much more of this, and I�d find myself writing poetry and drawing heart and flowers on my notebooks like some love struck teenager. The open-air restaurant was situated on a slight slope overlooking the beach. The surf crashing against the sand provided relaxing background music. The tables were almost empty. There was a single other family seated around a table on the far corner of the terrace. I found myself watching them, two parents, clearly in love, and boy of about ten teasing his little sister. In this setting it wasn�t hard to imagine a scene like that in my own future. The waiter brought us menus and a damp cloth for our hands. I noticed that Dominic was being very quiet, even for him� I opened my menu and heard him do the same. It took me several minutes to choose a meal. Many of the items were things I�d never heard of and couldn�t possibly pronounce. I decided to pick something safe for tonight. I could always experiment later in the week. I glanced up from my perusal of the menu to find Nick staring at me, or more accurately, staring down my shirt. I grinned. Perhaps Mr. Riefen wasn�t as immune to my flirting as he liked to pretend. At that moment, Nick looked up, and meeting my eyes, realized he�d been caught. Nick�s POV Uh oh. Not good. Allison opened her mouth as if to start scolding me. Trust me, my partner can lose her temper in a truly spectacular fashion. She has this uncanny ability to turn words into actual weapons and then flings them at whichever foolish person dared to offend her. Hell hath no fury like Allison Monroe. My petty existence was saved by the timely return of our waiter. I ordered the shrimp linguini and Ally, having made what must have been a decision of earth shattering importance (nothing else could have taken that long) had settled for a club sandwich, which was creatively named the Mayan Club. I ordered a bottle of wine, and quickly poured some for Ally, my logic being that even my partner (a talented multi-tasker) couldn�t drink her wine and yell at me at the same time. When she finally finished her first glass, she appeared to have forgotten all about my earlier indiscretion and was chatting animatedly about ideas for next year�s free dance. �And I was thinking that we could have leather costumes and I�d get to wear pants and�� Perhaps I had tuned back into the conversation at the wrong moment. The mental image of my partner in leather pants was enough to get my blood rushing- and to an area rather south of my face. Ally�s POV I fought to keep the triumphant smirk off my face. Dominic�s expression which I oh-so-casually mentioned the leather pants was too funny. I had never seriously considered skating to Michael Jackson, but maybe the idea had merit. It would be awfully amusing to see Nick squirming all season� I decided to ease off on Nick while we ate. Manipulating him was always delightfully entertaining, but I didn�t want to drive him too far� or spoil his dinner. If my plans for our week in paradise went as intended, he would need his strength. I changed the subject to a more neutral topic � work - and we went from there. We discussed everything from training hours (waaayyy to long), to the best junior dancers (those Americans, Abbott and Beligio), to which world champions were most undeserving of their title (*coughs*) and who should have been crowned in their place (us, us, us!!!). Just the sort of things that regular couples talk about over dinner in Mexico. The food, when it arrived, was wonderful. My sandwich was toasted to a perfect golden brown and served with fries and a green salad. I took one look at the fries and thought of that steady 114 pounds I�m supposed to maintain. I sighed, snagged one, and passed the rest of the plate to Dominic. He barely noticed my generosity; he was so enjoying his shrimp. I began to regret not having gotten seafood. I mean, the sandwich was great, but I could have gotten exactly the same thing (save the name) at home. I craved seafood. Dominic glanced up briefly from his linguini and took in my puppy-dog expression. He exhaled noisily and scooped up another forkful. So mean. But then I realized that the shrimp laden fork was being extended across the table. My mouth fell open automatically and my partner slid the food in. I couldn�t take my eyes off him. He was so sweet! How many other guys would do that! �Close your mouth Ally.� Oops� Got an ickle bit distracted there. I closed my lips around the mouthful and allowed Nick to take his fork back. I chewed slowly, savouring the delicate flavour. It was good! Really, really, really good! Best linguini ever! Dominic sighed again, and passed the plate over, snagging the remaining half of my sandwich. We finished dinner in silence as I was very involved in eating my shrimp. What an excellent choice they had been. Ally�s POV We returned to our hotel room from the restaurant tired but happy. At least, I was happy. I�d had the most incredible supper� I stood by the door to my bedroom and glanced back at Nick sprawled on the couch, �G�night,� I murmured. �Goodnight Allison. Sweet dreams.� I looked up sharply at that, feeling my face go red. The innocent expression on his face seemed to indicate that he didn�t mean anything by the comment. Unable to think of a reply, and with my mind still trying to determine whether there were extra connotations to that phrase, I smiled and quickly and made my escape.
