Love and Beyond Part 3

by Nathan Colston

  “Damn, didn’t take me long to go from wine to beer, did it?” he joked.

  She smiled and kissed him. “You did not go from wine to beer, Bobby.” She kissed him again. She pulled him tight. “I love you.”

  He kissed her cheek. “I love you too, baby.” He started to move and she held him and said, “Let me hold you like this for a while, please.”

  He could feel her body trembling on the inside, her grip on him as tight as she could hold. Something was happening to her. But what? he asked himself over and over. Softly he heard, “Make love to me.” The next morning, Gloria got up and went to the dance hall with Bobby. Ivan and Nicole and Clarence were there. She looked at Clarence. “No need to watch them dance. What you say we go talk.”

  He smiled and said with a cheerful tone, “Love to.”

  Bobby smiled. “Have fun but not too much fun.” He thought, ‘I guess she needs to work something out.’She kissed him. “Never. See you this afternoon.”

  They walked out of the room. They went to a coffee house to have some coffee and talk. Gloria said, “I would like to get to know you a little better. I have a few questions for you if you don’t mind? I want you to think and treat this as if it is an interview. Both sides, if you ask, that is how I will respond to things. Be honest and don’t get no ideas. You ready?”

  Clarence nodded. “Go for it.”

  “You married, any kids?”

  “Divorced, two kids; two girls, one seven, the other nine. Not sure if she is my next ex or not. You got any kids?”

  “Two girls, two boys.”

  “So are you madly in love in love or just married?” Clarence said as he sipped his coffee.

  Gloria smiled at the question. “Madly in love. I take it you are not, being you asked like that?”

  He laughed slightly. “I spend months at a time on an oil rig. Sometimes we get a weekend shore leave when we need to get supplies. My relationship with Samantha is more like an open relationship. We don’t advertise what we do while I am gone. But we do have an understanding. Someone can get a slice of the pie; just don’t take the whole thing.”

  Gloria laughed. “I see. But when you are home, the two of you are devoted to each other.”

  Clarence nodded. “Something like that,” he said with a casual tone.

  Gloria smiled slightly. “You don’t believe most of the stuff you heard, do you?” Gloria said with a serious tone.

  “You mean about the dancer’s curse of love you can never have?”

  Gloria nodded and sipped her coffee. “Yes.”

  Clarence blew out a breath. “It is a bit out there, I will admit.”

  “Clarence, two things dance mates need above everything else. I will tell you why. Respect and trust. Not in that order. We must trust each other to respect the other. Don’t get no ideas, but here is an example. I will explain what happened yesterday and will happen if we continue to dance. Something that you can notice with your own eyes. We met for the first time yesterday. We were introduced, said hello. You came to my office. We talked, I got mad. Not at you, mind you. But at the circumstances of why we were introduced.”

  Clarence laughed slightly. “Mad is an understatement.”

  Gloria gave an amused smile. “Yes, it is. All it took to calm me was just one dance. Before we danced, you were wondering how in the hell did you get into this mess.”

  He nodded. “Keep this up and I am going to ask you for the winning lottery numbers.”

  She smiled shook her head slightly. “Today we are sitting here conversing back and forth. The conversation is informative. But in the back of our minds, we just want to dance. That is why trust and respect is the most important thing. I do not want to have sex with you. But the more we dance, the curse eventually take the desires to dance and change it to that. Making love is the path to the beginning of the completion of the curse.”

  Clarence gave a cautious glance. “Sam mentioned that.”

  “Mentioning is not the same as feeling it, Clarence. Not knowing it flows as if we are in love or falling in love. Knowing like any other relationship we have our strong days and our weak moments. The one thing we do not want to do after the bond is make love. Yesterday when danced, you had to fight off the urge to keep your distance. You wanted to feel me next to you. You even tried to get closer. But that is part of being a dance mate. You can only get close if I allow it. When you move, I feel what you are going to do and I compensate. That is why our movements seem to be precise. While we dance, it is the same for the two of us. I may want to feel you next to me. You will sense that and either allow it or not.

  “I am trusting you not to allow it. You are trusting me to do the same. What you felt yesterday was nothing compared to what is to come. Yesterday, after just one dance, you spent the rest of the day thinking of me. Even wondered why you were thinking of me. You can’t say that you did not. I would call you a liar because I know what the curse does. I did just what I said you did. The difference is I know why.”

  “Thanks for curse lesson 102, same being 101. But you have established that we were not going to dance again. But this conversation is a bit one-sided. You sort of told me what I was thinking and feeling.”

  “Yes, I did, but I wanted to let you know that I am not blind to what is happening. I may not have worded it as you would have. But the meaning is the same; also, if I did change my mind, this is not my first experience with a dance mate. I have lived nearly as long being drawn into the curse as I did under the curse. The only difference is the man. Stanley, I grew up with. This started with us when I was very small. The feeling with him had always been. With you, it is new.

  “I know what expect and how to deal with it. There will come a time when you will want to be with me. It is up to me to say back off. Because I know it is the curse drawing you in. The same for me.

  “It is constant, and we will need to trust each other to say we need to back off and separate for a while. Can I trust you in a moment of weakness? To go against your desire because you know in my heart something is pulling me close to you? Just because I know what is going to happen. Just because I know what the feelings are like. Doesn’t mean I am not subject to the temptations or that I am above it.”

  She looked away, her voice lowered as if she was ashamed. “It is stronger than me, so don’t think I am above it.”

  Looking back at him, she said, “I am human and have my weaknesses just the same as any woman. I know to cling to my husband, even when I want to hold you. I know to find every reason in the world to love him more and more. You have got to do the same thing. It is going to be hard hearing crazy things about this and I might even say some.

  “You will think ‘but it is not like that for us.’ But the truth is, everything I say concerning the curse applies to us. No exceptions at all in this. I could say my husband is getting too close to Nicole. But he can handle it. I am saying that because I am denying my own feelings for you. That is when I need you the most to say, ‘Then why don’t you stop spending time with me and spend more time with him?’ Even when you are saying, ‘Great, now I can spend more time with you.’

  “If you have any heart for the people you love, then that will frighten you a little. Because I am doing to do my best to say you’re getting to close go see your kids, your woman. Fighting a single battle against this is not going to be pretty. That is why we need to work together.

  “Clarence, this will help your dancing improve. But I do not want a dancing carrier. Right now, you and I could walk away and be friends the rest of our lives. The feeling wouldn’t grow unless we danced. The more we dance, the closer we will get. I have said that.

  “But that is one thing that cannot be said too much. The bonding is many emotions and feelings rushing together to make a sensational feeling that is incredible. All the love you have ever felt becomes one memory. But not just yours but ours. I
t rushes in as one very powerful emotion.”

  He nodded. “You are about to go into the ‘I can’t stress that enough’ speech, ‘nor can it be said too much’ speech.”

  She smiled with a sigh. “My trust starts now for you. Here is the strangest thing. I know there is a desire to dance. That is part of the curse. But what I do not know is why I have the desire to take this further. One dance is hardly enough to make me want to do this.

  “I am happy with what I am doing. I have plans to take the things I am doing much further. I figure if I can trust you, then maybe you can tell me why I want this so bad.”

  Clarence shook his head. “No pressure there.” Gloria smiled as he said, “I don’t have a clue. It is not like I have known for a very long time. But it feels that way. I have listened to everything you said. But Sam has told me a lot about you. My guess is that you have lived most of your life dealing with this. It is easy to say something that obviously you have said many times.

  She nodded slightly. He could tell she was searching for something, hoping he could give her the answers. He sighed. “You are going through withdrawal is about the only word I can think of. You feel that it is a need in your life to have it. The desire is to fulfill a need that you think you need. To complete a life, you can’t have no more. Sam keeps talking about an emptiness in his life.”

  “Maybe you have the same emptiness, and this fills that emptiness. Maybe I should have taken the short version and to say to fill an emptiness and complete a need. That is the only conclusion I can come up with.”

  “Frightening how you could put that to words as if you knew me.”

  Clarence took a drink of his coffee. “You asked the question. If you didn’t want me to answer. Then you shouldn’t have asked it.”

  “Fair enough. Maybe I should consider that before asking any more questions. I am not the only one affected by this. My guess is about ten to twenty more dances, that job will not be important. I am set up so things like that won’t bother me. If you did want to take this further, how would you cope?”

  He gave her a curious look. “I don’t know, I think I should trust your judgment and ask what do you think I should do?”

  Gloria laughed. “Run out screaming and don’t look back.” Gloria’s face turned red as he got up and ran out screaming. He didn’t look back. Everyone looked at him and then back at her. She got up and walked out fast behind him and laid a fifty on the counter at the register. Her face was red. “You know what table we were at; keep the change.” She got outside, and he was standing by the car. She looked at him and shook her head and said as she walked towards the car. “You know that was stupid on your part?”

  Clarence nodded. “You said trust was the most important thing. You said that was best. I trusted you to make me look retarded. What else was there to do? Besides, after yesterday, you looked like you could use a smile. And you are so cute with that shade of red on your face.”

  Gloria’s smile turned to a grin. “I did tell you to do that. You did look retarded. It did make me smile. But why did you stop?”

  “Because I didn’t know my way back to the studio, or hotel, for that matter.”

  She laughed. “Good reason.” She paused and continued. “Let me think a little more. I am going to talk to my husband. If I do this, I am going to start in a way that I know if it goes as far as the completion. The curse will be very weak upon completion. But I want time to think and that is not a commitment to anything.”

  She pulled out her cellphone. “Can I have your number?”

  He gave her his number. She dialed it and his phone rang. “Now that you have my number, call anytime you want. I can always use friends.”

  “Me too, Mrs. Coleman.” He saved her number.

  Chapter 19

  Fighting the bond.

  They went back to the studio. Gloria was in her office. Sam came walking in. Gloria looked away from her computer at him and said, “I don’t want to give an interview at the moment.” She looked away from him, picked up some papers off the desk, and started looking at them.

  Sam sat down across from her in a seat. “We need to talk.” His tone was serious. She looked at him; his look matched his voice.

  “About?” she asked as she set the papers down.

  “I am going to throw caution to the wind and shoot straight.”

  Gloria shifted in her seat as Sam leaned back in his. “Glow, this is uncharted territory for me. If I didn’t think you needed it so badly, I would tell you in a heartbeat, walk. I know you are in love with your husband. You have a nice thing going on here. You…”

  Gloria nodded. “You don’t know if I will bond fast or not.”

  Sam shifted uneasily in his chair. This concerned Gloria. Sam normally wasn’t this guarded when it came to speaking his mind to dancers. He let out a heavy, exasperated breath and said, “Gloria, you need to go old school with this. From the start.” Gloria leaned back in her seat and was about to say something when Sam stood. She looked up at him as he leaned over her desk. “Goddammit, woman, keep your mouth shut and listen.”

  The look of concern on his face and the misty eyes said he was frightened. She nodded. Sam looked away. “You are a beautiful woman, and you have a wild side that is two miles long five miles wide.” Looking back at her, he said, “You know as well as I do, things can happen. This I know for a fact: you are holding on. I do not know what will happen when the bond is fully broken. You could start the curse immediately or it could work like you have never completed the curse, I just don’t know. I brought this guy in, I did a full background check on him. I mean an extensive background check.”

  Gloria nodded. “Sam, I know you wouldn’t just bring a stranger in without doing all you could.” She reached forward and touched his hand. “Be the Sam I know.” She paused and prepared herself. “Be the Sam I know, love, and trust.”

  He sighed, pulled out a cellphone, and dialed a number. “Austin Fulton’s law office.” Gloria’s eyes shifted to the side and down. Sam said, “Gloria Parker Coleman to speak with Austin, please.”

  “He is in a meeting. Can I take a message?”

  “Yeah, tell him to pick up the damn phone.”

  “Hold, please.”

  A few moments later, a man’s voice answered. “Gloria, this better be important.”

  “Sam Bluefield, for Mrs. Coleman.”

  “That explains the rudeness. My most favorite asshole. Gloria?”

  Her voice was soft. “Here, Austin.”

  “Recording conversation. How can I help you, Mrs. Coleman?”

  “In the event Sam Bluefield should call, all legal and worldly possessions are to be immediately transferred into the name of William Chandler. He is to have power of attorney over all matters concerning Gloria Parker Thomas. If this should happen, Gloria will not be of sound mind and everything she says should be treated as such until the time she and William sit face to face with you in your office.”

  “Sam, you know damn well I cannot arrange that by you telling me to.”

  “He is reading what I wrote down for him to say. I have a lot of stress on me at the moment, Austin, should I have William contact you,” Gloria lied.

  A moment of silence. “No, Mrs. Coleman. You will have the documents emailed to you this afternoon. Sign and notarize them and mail them to my office. Anything else?”

  “No, Austin, thank you.” The call ended. Sam picked the phone up. He didn’t need to say what was on his mind; she knew it by the look in his eyes. Without saying another word, Sam walked out of the room. Gloria picked her papers up and couldn’t focus. ‘Sam is really concerned about something. So am I, but he knows more than me. Do I really want to do this? Will my marriage survive this? Will I survive it? They think I am stronger than I am. What would they say if I told them I didn’t know who I was anymore? Clarence seems to be a nice guy. Did th
e curse influence me to think of what he said? Could he be right that I need this? Was the reason Sam coming into the office be that he knows I am weaker than I am? So many choices, I feel like a kid inside that wants to ask what I should do but question every option.”

  That night on the way home, Gloria said, “Bobby I am thinking about doing this. Taking a new dance mate. If I do, I want to do it the old way. Things may get hard for you to see. But I want you beside me all the way. It will give me strength knowing you are there.”

  “You are sure you want to do this?” Bobby said with a confused voice.

  ‘I am sorry I can’t tell you the truth this time.’ “I don’t know why I feel like I have got to do this, but yes.”

  “Okay, baby, you aren’t going to sleep with him, are you?” Concern edged in his voice.

  There was a pause for a moment. “I been thinking about that part. Wondering if I should say something or not. Bobby,” Gloria hesitated as she continued to speak, “I wish you would have sent me a video when the two of you first started dancing together. Things would have been so much easier for the two of you. That was the only thing that me and Stanley never did when we were training. That was because of our age. But because of our age, we didn’t have the temptations in that way until after we bonded. As close as we were, Sabrina was frightened if we did, then we would bond and start the completion at the same time. Concerning Clarence, I don’t know if I should or not. One thing is for certain, when it comes to that, I won’t go behind your back. I know better than to spend a lot of time alone with him.”

  Bobby looked away and said angrily, “If that was important, then why did you get so upset when you caught us?”

  “Bobby, it is not what you did; it was how you did it. The two of you were…”

  Bobby looked at her and abruptly said, “In a committed relationship. I told you that you should have sent us a video. If you would have, then we would have noticed, and you would have done things a lot different. Same song and dance, Gloria. Now you are the one that needs to be reminded we are in a committed relationship.”