As soon as she sat down on the sofa and made to unbuckle her broken shoe, she found Phillipa standing over her with the microphone.
“It looks as if we’ll have to call you unlucky Lisa from now on! First the crash in week one, and then I saw you slip out there. What happened?”
In answer, Lisa held up the shoe she’d just removed, with the heel dangling pathetically from the upper.
“Bad luck,” she agreed with Phillipa, “but these things happen. Let’s just hope troubles don’t come in threes.”
“Indeed,” Phillipa said, and moved on to talk to the other couples.
Lisa barely heard a word they said. She was too busy worrying how an almost brand-new shoe had broken on her. Bad luck? Maybe. But with Tiffany sharing a dressing room, she wouldn’t be surprised if it had had help. From now on, she wasn’t letting her shoes out of her sight once Tiffany was in the building.
• • •
“That was bad luck,” Redmond remarked as they were leaving, heading for Lisa’s flat this time. She was beginning to wonder why they bothered maintaining two separate flats, considering that they were never apart all week, just took turns moving from one to the other.
“Yeah,” Lisa agreed. She wasn’t going to say anything about her suspicions, just to have Redmond tell her off for making unfounded accusations. Close though they were, she knew he wasn’t wholly on her side. And he still kept disappearing during the evenings to make phone calls to America that he wouldn’t explain. Once she’d been so paranoid, she’d even tried to ask Elaine, who’d immediately looked shifty and evasive. But surely Elaine wouldn’t collude in anything that would hurt Lisa, so there couldn’t be any truth to the fantasies in Lisa’s mind of Redmond whispering sweet nothings to an American girl he couldn’t wait to get back home to. She knew she was being paranoid. She knew she should stop or she’d come close to driving him to do the very thing she was afraid of.
All week, though, Lisa couldn’t shake the thought that something odd was going on, and it combined with her fear that the broken heel would have damaged their standing with the judges, to make her jumpy and irritable. Redmond did his best to soothe her, but in the end he took to retreating into the lounge after practices to watch Sky Sports while Lisa surfed the Internet on her laptop in the bedroom and made a vague attempt to job hunt.
All in all, it was a relief when Saturday came around again. This week it was time to rumba, and Lisa found a fabulous off-the-shoulder lilac dress with a diagonal hemmed skirt made from layers of lavender silk. It was perfect. She couldn’t wait to dance in it. But first, they had to sit through Phillipa’s exhaustingly polite babble. She introduced the band. She introduced the judges. And then she said something which made Lisa and all the other dancers sit up and take note.
“Although it turns out,” Phillipa went on, her normally vacuous face becoming serious, “we could have given our judges a holiday for the first part of today’s show, because it’s already been decided who’s going home today.”
The couples looked at each other. This was a change to the rules, and a change they hadn’t been warned about. Fritz frowned, his German precision upset by the disruption to expectations. Harry raised his eyebrows, clearly intrigued, while Tiffany smiled, confident that she was safe from whatever was about to be unleashed.
“Yes, it turns out that one of our couples has flouted the rules to be here, and so they’ll be leaving the show. Regardless of the quality of their dancing, there’s no place for cheats here on Couples. One of our couples is not a couple, and so they’ll be going home.”
Phillipa was clearly stringing out the suspense, and as she spoke, Lisa’s heart thumped so hard she could almost feel it in her throat. Redmond looked unconcerned, and Lisa forced herself to remain calm, at least on the outside. They’d lived as a couple for weeks now, and at least most of the time it felt real. Redmond said they had a future, and she wanted to believe him. It would be too cruelly ironic if they had to leave now, because of a deception which had in any case only lasted for the first week of the competition. And how would anyone have found out?
Of course it wouldn’t surprise Lisa if Tiffany had “accidentally” let Tim know that she thought someone was cheating, but Lisa and Redmond had very little to do with her, and there was nothing she could have known that would jeopardise their position. Was there?
Phillipa was still talking, and she still hadn’t mentioned a name. She explained how disappointed that the producers were to lose some great dancers so early in the series, and Lisa had never hoped more that a compliment wasn’t intended to apply for her. Her fingers had tensed themselves around the folds of her skirt, and she forced them to relax, wishing that Redmond was sitting next to her so that she could twine her fingers into his for comfort. Then, finally, Phillipa said, “Take a look at this,” and cued up the big screen.
The film began with a long shot of the six couples on the floor the first week, which told them nothing. Lisa could feel the tension around her. Was it possible that more than one couple believed they might be excluded?
And then, in the split second that the well-lit dance floor was replaced by a low-lit, packed nightclub dance floor, with strobe lights and dry ice smoke adding to the seedy atmosphere, Lisa realised who’d been rumbled, and her heart ached for Fritz and Kathrin, and for Jerry, who might now get his chance with Fritz, but not in the way he’d hoped.
She cringed inside for Fritz, who was sitting watching impassively as he was confronted by two almost life-size images of him draped against an attractive blond guy, dancing to an unheard beat in a way that was quite unmistakably the prelude to greater intimacy.
Seeing that Fritz was handling the situation well, Lisa turned her attention to Kathrin. Would this be a surprise to her?
At the end of the sofa, Kathrin was wide-eyed, her hand to her mouth, in an expression of shocked bewilderment just a little too stereotypical to be convincing. She’d known, then. That made things better, Lisa thought. She wasn’t going to feel betrayed, except by whoever had discovered their secret and let it out.
On the screen was a grainy photograph of two blond men, presumably Fritz and the one from the nightclub, entwined.
“It could be anyone,” Kathrin protested feebly over the throbbing beat of the soundtrack, but Fritz turned to her and said, gently, “It’s me. I’m sorry. I can’t lie anymore.”
Kathrin stared for a moment, then sank her head in her hands, and when she raised it again, it was to stand and say in a slow, surprised way, “We’ll be leaving then.”
And then, as if released from a spell, the dancers were on their feet, crowding around Kathrin. Breaking with tradition, the men came over from their sofa to join the girls in butterfly dresses fluttering around Kathrin as if around a flower.
Lisa hesitated for a moment, then walked the other way. She could talk to Kathrin later, and Fritz had been left standing alone and lost by the other sofa.
She didn’t exactly know what to say, but she knew she needed to be there. Then she wondered if she’d have felt the same if it hadn’t been for the conversation she’d had with Jerry.
Still, for whatever reason, at least she was there smiling nervously at Fritz as he spoke, so softly she could hardly hear him. “I feel bad. For Kathrin. And my family.”
“They don’t know?”
He shook his head and Lisa winced. What a way to find out. But at least he wouldn’t have to lie anymore. It was too late for that. She hoped he’d soon find out that he had at least one sincere admirer. Over Fritz’s shoulder, she could see Jerry fidgeting in the middle of the second row of seats, clearly anxious to get closer to the object of his devotions.
“I’m sure it’ll be OK. I hope it will,” Lisa said.
“Thank you,” Fritz said, and he smiled at her, a weak brave smile which melted her heart and showed her what Jerry found so app
ealing. Then Fritz turned away and walked slowly off the stage, and as she returned to her seat, Lisa could see Jerry muttering and excusing his way out of his seat.
Kathrin too had gone, and Phillipa waited until most of the dancers were back in their seats before resorting to theatrical cliche. “Well, that was a surprise development, but the show must go on, and now it’s time for our remaining three couples to go head to head in the world’s most romantic dance. A rumba.”
The couples took to the floor and took their starting positions. Lisa, leaning away from Redmond yet holding herself in perfect balance with him, was able to look around the floor and see Tiffany, looking like an ice maiden in pale blue with silver frosting, turn her back on Harry and strike a pose of disinterest. Lisa couldn’t remember where she’d seen this routine before, but it was definitely familiar. Any moment now, when the music started, Harry would sidle up to her and turn her towards him, only to be rebuffed. Then the two of them would enter into an intricate sequence of advances and retreats.
At the far end of the floor, Xander and Kasia were crouched low, ready to rise with the music like flowers blooming from the ground. For once, Lisa felt, she and Redmond were being conventional. But hopefully they wouldn’t need gimmicks to make their rumba memorable. The slow, dreamy Latin beat gave time for plenty of expression, and in practice she and Red had been dancing a sizzling rumba. Now she just needed the music to start up before her arm began to ache too much.
Locking eyes with Redmond, she realised he was thinking the same thing. Then the first note came, and even before the beat had come in, Red was leading her into their first slow walks. He promenaded her proudly closer to the centre of the floor, then turned her this way and that, using slow caressing movements that would have seduced her in seconds if that hadn’t already happened.
After the awkwardness of the previous week and her broken shoe, it was a relief to find that everything flowed smoothly for her and Redmond, and as the music came to an end and she relaxed against him, she could feel a smile spreading across her face. She’d been looking forward to the relief of having completed a good dance without any shoe disasters or crashes, but now that it was over, she wished she could start all over again.
• • •
“I was so nervous,” she told Redmond in the car home, almost babbling with relief.
“Why? Your rumba’s amazing. Or were you just worried about your shoes?” Red joked.
“Well, yes, I was a bit worried about my shoes. But I was more worried when they said about having found out that someone was cheating. I thought we were going to get kicked out then.”
“Why? We’re not cheating. Come on, pretending we got together a bit sooner than we did is hardly the same as pretending to be with a woman when you’re gay. Now, that was a surprise.”
Now it was Lisa’s turn to act knowing. “Come on, it can’t have been that much of a surprise. It’s pretty obvious Fritz is that way inclined.” Although she might not have known if Jerry hadn’t pointed it out.
“You never said anything.”
“Well, no. Fritz’s love life is none of my business.”
“But the show is.” Redmond took in a sharp breath, as if something had just occurred to him. “It wasn’t you who told them, was it?”
Lisa was shocked. “Of course not! I didn’t know, only suspected. And if I had known, I wouldn’t have said. We’re hardly in any position to enforce the rules.”
“But nobody knows that,” Red pointed out. Lisa hoped he didn’t mean it. “You’re not very competitive, are you?” he went on.
“Yes, I am. I want nothing more than to win … fair and square, not by knocking the competition.”
Red laughed and shook his head, but he didn’t argue. After a moment, he said, “Talking of the competition, it’s getting tougher. I hope you’re still feeling confident.”
Lisa didn’t quite know what to say to that.
“I think we’ve got as good a chance as anyone,” she said eventually.
“Better,” Redmond amended.
“Maybe. I don’t know. Xander and Kasia are good.”
“True. But it’s tango next time. Do you remember Xander at the Nationals before Kasia got pregnant?”
She did. He’d looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger in tails, trying to dominate the dance floor.
“I think he’s improved since then, but you’re right, tango’s not his dance. If Tiffany and Harry stay in, that could be tougher. Tango suits them better.”
“Not really. They’re sharp, I’ll give them that. But too icy. Tango needs fire. She should be a dragon, and she always looks as if she’s swallowed a packet of frozen peas.”
Lisa laughed, as she was no doubt intended to.
All the same, the competition next weekend was going to be tough, and they’d have to focus hard and prepare well over the next six days. And, just to make things more challenging, Tim had just told the three remaining couples that the last round would take place not at the TV studios where they’d got used to filming, but in Blackpool, home of British ballroom dance and the vast, beautiful Tower Ballroom.
• • •
“Blackpool?” Even down the phone, Jerry’s voice was excited. “Fantastic. I’ll be there. Bet you can’t wait!”
“I don’t know. I’m excited. And scared.” Lisa scrunched herself tighter into the corner of Red’s huge sofa. It still felt weird being in his flat without him, but he’d popped out to do some errands and she’d decided to take the opportunity to catch up with Jerry. He’d texted to congratulate her on her engagement, but she still felt guilty that he — and so many other people — had found out from the TV rather than personally. The fact that she hadn’t known in advance herself didn’t seem to excuse her, although it probably should have done.
“It’ll be fine. You two are burning up the floor.”
“I know.” Lisa also knew how dubious her voice sounded. She wasn’t only scared of losing. She was also nervous about the competition coming to an end. As long as she and Red were still dancing, she knew where she was. After that, all the questions that they’d agreed to postpone until after the final show would come rushing in.
“Everything is all right between you, isn’t it?” Jerry asked. His uncanny ability to pick up what was going on in her head no longer surprised her.
“Ye-e-es.” The slowness of Lisa’s answer told its own story, and she knew she’d have to expand, or have the answer dragged out of her. “Except that … I don’t know … it’s hard really to believe in a wedding or a future when all Red ever wants to talk about is tomorrow. It’s like everything after the competition is a big void.”
Jerry laughed. “Don’t worry about it, darling, it’s a guy thing. Plans are for the girls. Redmond’s always been a day-by-day kind of guy. It’ll take him a while to change that. You can’t expect him to go from flying by the seat of his pants one day to living by a ten year plan the next.”
It was more or less what Red had said himself, but it didn’t help as much as both Red and Jerry seemed to think it should.
“It wasn’t me that asked him to change! He was the one who brought up marriage, and marriage is a forever thing. What’s the point in talking about marriage if you can’t think beyond tomorrow?” Lisa thumped the sofa arm in frustration.
“I know,” Jerry soothed her. “But you have to admit, a lot is going to depend on the competition. If you win, you can do pretty much anything.”
“And if we don’t?”
“Worry about it when it happens. But it won’t, because you two are amazing together. Everyone can see it. He’s crazy about you, and you love him, don’t you?”
“Of course I love him.” Lisa wasn’t sure she’d ever said it out loud, but she knew Jerry knew it just the same. “I just don’t know if I can live with him.”
“You’ll learn. Give it time.”
“I guess.” Lisa wasn’t convinced but if she carried on she’d just end up arguing around in circles.
“Seriously. You’ll be great. I can’t wait to dance at your wedding. But first I’ll be watching you two win at Blackpool. And hopefully Fritz will be with me.” Jerry’s voice lingered on Fritz’s name like a caress. Lisa wished, not for the first time, that she could fall in love as deeply and uncomplicatedly as Jerry. Although this time things didn’t seem to be quite so simple.
“How are things with Fritz?” she asked, feeling guilty that it hadn’t crossed her mind earlier. Her world seemed to have narrowed to the competition, and now that Fritz was out of the running, he’d slipped out of her thoughts.
“Good. Turns out his family weren’t totally surprised, and he’s a lot happier now it’s out in the open.”
“And the guy in the nightclub?” Now she knew Fritz was OK, her concern was for Jerry. For once, he seemed serious in his feelings, and she didn’t want him getting his heart broken.
“Just some guy. Fritz didn’t even take his number.”
“So he’s free and single?”
“Not for much longer,” Jerry laughed. “We went out last night, and we’re meeting again tomorrow after practice. Blackpool, here we come!”
“Blackpool.” Lisa raised a hand in an imaginary toast, and knew that Jerry would be doing the same. “Blackpool and the show. One thing’s for sure, it’s certainly changing a few lives already.”
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