Midnight Ballerina

by Cori Williams

  “Yes,” I answered, annoyed by the question because I had already heard it a million times from my mom.

  We caught up with each other and he told me all about the interesting day at his family’s house. Apparently there was a whole lot of tension going out between him and his parents, though he refused to tell me the reason. Normally, he would go over to my family’s house when stuff like that happened so I felt a little bad for not being home.

  “You know, my mom wouldn’t mind seeing you if you stopped by, and I’m sure she’ll have some peanut butter pie still left over. I know that’s your favorite.”

  He snorted. “Yeah, I’m not sure if she’d be too happy with me right now.”

  “What?” I asked, confused by that statement.

  “Nothing,” he said blowing me off and I wasn’t going to let it go but a knock sounded at my door. “Hey, I have to let you go.”

  “All right, talk to you soon then.”

  I grinned when I opened the door and Amelia was standing there with a plate of cookies in her hands. Judging by the worn out look on her usually chipper face, I could tell her day had been a long one.

  “Was it that bad?”

  She pushed the plate of cookies at me, shutting the door behind herself before plopping down onto my couch with a loud sigh. “Worse. Remember how I told you that my parents were in love with Franklin?”

  “Um…yeah.” In love was probably too simple to describe it, more like worshipped the very ground that Franklin walked on, which was a good thing for Amelia. She always sought their approval, but never seemed to get it no matter how hard she tried.

  “Well, my mother took it upon herself to invite him to dinner with us. Ugh.” She slapped a hand over her eyes.

  “What’s wrong with that?” I asked as I peeled the plastic off of the cookies, letting out an embarrassing moan when I took a bite and realized that they were still warm and gooey in the center. I was getting way too turned on by a cookie, but I really didn’t care.

  “Well, I broke up with Franklin yesterday. That’s what’s wrong.”

  “Seriously? And why didn’t you call me?”

  She waved a hand at me and grabbed a cookie off the plate, shoving the whole thing into her mouth before reaching for another. I watched in shock as she shoved another one in seconds later and reached for a third. Amelia barely ever ate junk food. She just liked to bake, she always told me. Me, I didn’t have a problem whatsoever being her taste tester. She must have really had a bad day.

  “I don’t know, It wasn’t that big of a deal,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “I told my mom that I broke up with him and she called him this morning to invite him to dinner with us. Can you believe that?”

  “Well….” It really didn’t surprise me that her mom had done something like that. Actually, it sounded exactly like something she would do. She was very conniving.

  “And then she bragged about him to her friends the whole time we were eating, and he played right along with her. I don’t know, maybe he thought that I would change my mind about the break up if he impressed my parents or something. Then my mom was practically begging him to marry me!”

  “What?” I tried to suppress a laugh but it was impossible and once I started, I couldn’t stop. Eventually, Amelia joined in too, and between the two of us, we finished up the two dozen cookies she’d brought over.

  “I can’t believe your mom. Maybe you just need to cut all contact off with her for a while. She’ll probably miss you and maybe figure out how big of a bitch she is.”

  “Maybe.”

  I finished off my last bit of cookie and headed toward the fridge to grab glasses of milk for both of us. “Those cookies were amazing by the way. What kind were they? Did I taste pumpkin in there?”

  “Yup, they were pumpkin, chocolate chip, oatmeal cookies. I knew you wouldn’t have anything Thanksgiving-y today, so I figured something pumpkin would be good. You know how I get when I’m pissed. I had to go bake those before I came over here to take my frustrations out.”

  “Oh, trust me. I know.” I had only witnessed it once before when Amelia showed up on my doorstep, her arms loaded down with bags from the grocery store. She’d just came from her parents’ house and had brought up the idea of switching to culinary school. That didn’t go so well. So I sat on the couch and watched as she baked up a storm, slamming cabinet doors, whipping open drawers, beating the butter to death and flinging flour all around. Yeah, she definitely got rid of some anger in the kitchen.

  “Here.” I pushed a glass of milk into her hands. “Thanks for the cookies. I think that’s like the first thing I’ve eaten all day.”

  “Monroe! I knew I should’ve just come over today. We could’ve had our own little Thanksgiving, but instead I had to deal with my parents and you had to sit here all alone with no food. So depressing.”

  “Oh, whatever, I was fine. How about we watch some sappy romances to cheer you up?”

  “That sounds amazing.”

  We picked out a few movies that I had laying around and curled up on the couch to watch them. Amelia managed to find a few snacks for us in my bare cupboards and a half a bottle of wine to split, too. It was nice to be able to just hang out with her. I was excited about the prospect of being able to do it more often since my new job would have better hours. I tried not to think about working for Miller, but I couldn’t help myself. He seemed to spend a lot of time at his construction company, so I had a feeling that I would be seeing more of him. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that, especially after that mind-blowing kiss last night. He made me so comfortable, but nervous at the same time. Those feelings were starting to drive me a little bonkers.

  I was completely tuned out of the movie when Amelia nudged me with her elbow. I didn’t answer her right away, so she did it again. “Are you going to get that or should we just ignore it so we can continue to watch Channing Tatum’s fine ass in peace?”

  “What?” I realized what she meant when there was a knock on the door, and I jumped off the couch. “I guess I’ll get it since I have no clue who in the hell it could be. Especially today. It could be important.”

  I realized It most definitely was once I swung the door open and found Miller standing there with a bag in his hand. He looked…different. Gone was the sexy businessman I usually saw at the club. He even looked different than the one time I had seen him dressed casually when I was practicing with Vanessa.

  His hair was a little bit of a mess, but a cute one. He had a form-fitting, dark blue sweater on that went into a slight V, giving me just a glimpse of the chest that I had been fantasizing about for a while now. To top it all off, he wore a pair of jeans that hung low on his hips. Not the kind that were so baggy his ass was hanging out, even though I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing that in the least bit. I’m pretty sure my mouth was hanging open for two different reasons—the sight of him and the shock of why in the hell he was standing at my door.

  “Hey.” The corner of his mouth lifted up slightly, that little bit of scruff on his face driving me wild. And then there was that southern drawl.

  With the amused glint in his eyes, I wouldn’t be surprised if he were a mind reader, hearing all of my fan girl thoughts about him. Fan girl thoughts? Jeez, I was like one of those girls in high school that I hated, fawning all over a guy and practically drooling at the sight of him. This was getting ridiculous.

  “Hi.” I stood there staring at him until he finally cleared his throat and held up the bag.

  “Um…can I come in? I brought you some food over.”

  “Really? Why would you do that? Well, not that it’s a bad thing or anything. It’s just that I know you were probably with your family all day and…Oh, I get it. You were worried about me being all alone. Right?” I stepped backward to let him in and he set the bag on my kitchen counter, tucking both hands in his pockets as he shook his head.

  “Can’t I just bring you food for no reason at all?”

  By this
time, Miller had grabbed Amelia’s attention away from Channing Tatum, which was a pretty big accomplishment, and she came to stand next to me, eyeing him carefully with her arms crossed over her chest.

  “That sounds pretty suspicious, actually. You’re either trying to poison her or get in her pants. So, which is it?”

  “Um…neither.” Miller looked slightly uncomfortable and I couldn’t really blame him.

  I let out a small laugh, trying to ease the slight tension. “You’re so funny, Amelia. This is my boss Miller Buchanan. And he knew I wasn’t going anywhere for Thanksgiving, so he’s being nice by bringing me some food, I guess.”

  Amelia’s eyes squinted, darting back and forth between Miller and me, before widening. Her mouth opened but then shut again. She pursed her lips and then pushed them into a wide smile.

  “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry if I was being rude. So nice to meet you, Mr. Buchanan.” She stuck her hand out, her southern charm on full blast. I was surprised she hadn’t curtsied yet. “Monroe’s never mentioned how handsome you were.” And there was her mom factor. It’s like she had to do it sometimes just because my own mom was so far away. She needed to embarrass me.

  “She hasn’t, huh?” Miller asked, grinning from ear to ear now. “I’m not sure if I should be offended or glad that she’s kept that a secret.”

  And I’m pretty sure my whole body was a nice shade of red by how these two were smirking at me. Amelia was supposed to be helping me. She was my best friend!

  “Monroe’s always keeping secrets from me.” Amelia pouted out her bottom lip while glaring in my direction. “We’ll need to have a talk about that later, but for now, I’ll let you two have a little alone time.” She winked at Miller and he ran a hand through his hair. I don’t think he was sure really how to take Amelia. I wasn’t either most of the time.

  “Um…are you sure you need to go? Didn’t you want to watch another—”

  “Oh no,” she cut me off, faking a big yawn. “I’m really tired. We can have another movie night some other time. Bye.” She gave a little wiggle of her fingers and was off, just like that.

  “So….” This is why I didn’t want Amelia gone. I felt very awkward having Miller here in my apartment just out of the blue, and I wasn’t sure how to act around him when we weren’t at work, especially considering that kiss.

  “So, sit.” He gestured to one of the bar stools at my kitchen counter and began pulling containers out of the bag that he’d brought along. My mouth watered as he opened each container, revealing a Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and even deviled eggs. I tried not to drool over the spread but I think a little drop might have escaped my mouth.

  “Plates?”

  I pointed to the cupboard next to the sink, and he came back quickly with two plates, and then proceeded to dish out heaping portions onto each before sliding one in front of me.

  We ate in silence, which was good, because I was busy savoring every bite. I would never repeat this to my mom, but this reheated Thanksgiving dinner even topped hers. I was about ready to pick up my plate and lick it clean, but then I peeked sideways to find Miller staring at me, a small smile playing on those lips of his.

  “Thanks for bringing this. I didn’t realize how hungry I was, especially after all of the cookies I ate that Amelia brought over.”

  “Well, I didn’t want you to starve…and I wanted an excuse to see you.”

  “Oh, really?” I cleared my throat, trying to bite back a smile at the fact that he needed to come up with an excuse to see me, but I couldn’t stop it. “Did your mamaw make all of this?” He talked about her often, so I had a feeling that’s who he spent the holiday with.

  “Yup, best cook around for miles. I figured I would share some of the goodness with you.”

  “And the rest of your family was there too?” I wasn’t trying to pry, but I had wondered about his family history a bit.

  “Yeah,” he replied, shifting in his seat. I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, so I was about to change the subject, but he stood up with a sigh and began talking. “My parents aren’t around; my grandparents basically raised me.”

  “Oh.” And that’s all I got in because once he started talking about his family life, he didn’t stop, and I wasn’t interrupting him.

  “My ma got pregnant....Well, let me start over. My ma was always the wild child. Out of all five kids, she was the one always causing trouble, and no matter what my grandparents did, they just couldn’t control her. So, as soon as she turned eighteen she was out of their house. But I think once she realized how much my grandparents supported her, she sort of panicked. So, she got a job making the best and quickest money she knew how. At a strip club.”

  “Wow, so is that the reason—”

  “I’ll get to that part in a little bit.” He tapped me on the nose and he picked up our plates. He set them in the sink, and then reached into the bag and brought out one last container. “My grandparents eventually found out because it was just a couple of towns over. They tried everything they could to get her to come back home, but it was too late. She was already living the life, making more money than she thought possible, and she basically cut off all contact with them. Then, she got involved with Bruce and things went downhill even faster.”

  He spit out the name Bruce with such venom it was evident how much he disliked the man. With his mom, it seemed like there was a little bit of softness to his tone, which surprised me because I didn’t expect this story to end well. I guess almost every guy had a little bit of that mama’s boy trait in them, no matter how bad they had been mistreated.

  “Bruce basically became her pimp, getting her involved with customers and adding drugs into the mix, which only led to problems. Eventually, she ended up pregnant with me and told Bruce. He was convinced he wasn’t the father, but she was certain. She always told me how careful she’d been when she was with customers, like that made what she had done so much better or something.” He shook his head and opened up the last container, able to distract me from his story when I realized that it was dessert. Even after eating all of those cookies, the slice of pie and cheesecake looked too good to pass up.

  “So, my ma went running home to my grandparents when she realized that she was pregnant and Bruce wanted nothing to do with her. Of course, they were disappointed, but they welcomed her back with open arms. But the reunion didn’t last long. As soon as I was born, she left with me in the middle of the night and went straight to Bruce, who I guess took her back. She didn’t bother telling my grandparents that she was leaving or where we were going. She got back into stripping and all of her old ways, and I had to put up with living with her and Bruce.” The pained expression on his face told me all too well what he had to put up with and my heart hurt for the little boy that had to suffer that kind of life.

  “You don’t have to explain that part. I’m sure you don’t really want to talk about that.” I told him quietly and he let out a deep breath, nodding his head.

  “Yeah, I don’t want to get into that too much, but I guess I can say I do owe him a thanks for one of his wonderful traits that I inherited. His temper. I’ve always had a problem keeping it in check.”

  I took a bite of the cheesecake and tilted my head sideways. “I think you do a pretty good job. After I told you about Randy, you didn’t run out of there and beat his ass for being an idiot, so that’s a good thing.”

  “Right,” he answered quickly, and I figured he was keeping something from me. He didn’t give me time to ask, so I sat back and listened to the story, trying a bite of the pumpkin pie as he continued. “I don’t remember half of the shit that happened since I was so young, but I do remember when I finally made it back to my grandparents’ house. It was probably the best day of my life. My ma decided she couldn’t handle a kid anymore, so she dropped me off there. She came back every once in a while, making promises about how she was trying to make a better life for us
and that she would come back to get me, but she never did. I think the last time I saw her was just after I turned eighteen when I graduated from high school. I was embarrassed to have her there, and it made me feel like an asshole but it was the truth. I knew everyone whispered behind my back, talking about my whore of a mother showing up. But I guess over time, I’ve dealt with it. I’ve forgiven her and let go of all of the anger. And that’s why I opened Pure. I wanted a club that was respectful, well as respectful as a strip club could be. No drugs, no prostitution.” He picked up a fork and took a bite out of my pumpkin pie. “So, that’s my story about my parents. I know you were wondering. Everyone does, but I usually don’t tell it because it’s none of their damn business.”

  “I wasn’t trying to be nosey.”

  “I know you weren’t. You’re different from everyone else. That’s why I told you.”

  “Oh.” And my heart did a backflip in my chest. Twice.

  Miller resumed his spot next to me once again, but this time he turned his seat toward mine, spinning me so I was facing him and we were just inches apart. His brown eyes sparkled as he looked at me and then lifted his finger to gently brush across my lips before sticking that finger into his own mouth and pulling it out slowly. “Monroe and pumpkin pie might be the best damn thing I’ve ever tasted.”

  I was completely frozen. Going from the messed up subject of his upbringing to sampling pumpkin pie off of my lips completely threw me for a whirlwind. And then his head started dipping forward and he murmured something about there being a little bit more that he needed to take care of, and the tenseness of the conversation we’d just completed flew straight out the window.

  His tongue swiped once against my lips, before he gently pried them open—wait, back up a step, there was no prying necessary. I was more than willing for this kiss to happen.

  His hands slipped down to my hips, our mouths never breaking the connection, and I felt myself being lifted up. My legs automatically wrapped tightly around his waist as I went along for the ride, and I kept them there when he dropped our bodies onto the couch.