Edward was dancing around his living room when the knock came at the front door. He looked down at his watched and chuckled. Always right on time, the stock market could have relied on her skills to keep the international clocks on tick. Olivia walked inside without even saying a word. He didn’t realize she was so concerned about the arrangement.

“Why does it sound like a beach resort in here?” She didn’t waste any time. Maybe he was just a complete god in the bedroom and waiting pissed her off. Likely story. He’d win her over though and show he was good for more than just a quickie.

“I borrowed some music from Alphonzo so we could dance.”  He shimmied his shoulders from side to side.

“That is not part of the arrangement.” Such a harsh tone and face. He’d work on that later.

“Oh come on, lighten up and be spontaneous, Olivia. You can’t tell me you don’t want to move to the beat right now.” He shuffled toward her, swaying his hips like Alphonzo had coached him.

Her arms remained crossed in front of her chest, stiff as, well, him most of the time she chose to wear tight pants like that. “Absolutely not.”

“I’ve been practising, and not to brag or anything, but my dancing has been compared with the likes of Patrick Swayze.” It didn’t matter that he was the one doing the comparing and Alphonzo had responded by laughing until he nearly fell off the couch.

“Who?”

Edward shook his head. “Sometimes, I just want to find that rock you grew up under and smash it.”

“Are or aren’t we engaging in intercourse tonight?”

Way to suck the fun out of the whole night. “I was hoping we could, but if you want to postpone I guess that’s alright.”

“You seem to be more interested in dancing alone in your kitchen so I wasn’t sure.”

Ouch, ice queen strikes again. No matter, he could charm his way through this. “I want to dance with you.” He shuffled his shoulders from side to side with a goofy smile. “Can’t we have a little fun before we get down to business?”

“If you aren’t enjoying the sex-“

“Oh believe me, I am. It’s just so dull living underground some nights; I thought you might want to liven things up a touch. You know, add a bit of seduction to the mix. Doesn’t every woman love to feel sexy?”

Olivia paused for a moment and Edward smiled. He had her. Her actions betrayed the fact she loved every minute of his attention, like a ferocious lion cub. He extended his palm towards her and awaited her hand. She remained still.

“May I have this dance?”

“I don’t know how to dance to this music.” There it was, fear of the unknown. He should have seen it coming.

“Then I’ll show you.” He stood in front of her, gently holding onto her curled fingers. “You step back with this foot,” he said, squeezing her right hand. “Then bring your weight back to this one.” Olivia moved again with clinical rigidness. “And then you bring the other foot forward again.”

They kept practising the basic step until Olivia’s scowl deepened to nearly irreversible levels. Edward knew his laughing wasn’t helping the matter, but he couldn’t help but find this woman’s frustration endearing.

“Is this your retaliation for what happened in the desert? If so, I can assure you, I can dance better than you run.” She stumbled on the steps again, moving forward instead of back and crashing into his chest.

“You do a lot of things better than I run. Stop letting your brain dictate your actions and let your body take over. It’s something you can feel, just a pattern to repeat. You’re just walking forward and back.”

“I don’t understand how I can’t grasp this. Even you can do these steps.”

Edward laughed. “It’s because I can let my guard down and just move to the beat. Can you?”

“It’s a ridiculous tradition to uphold anyway, dancing.” Olivia pulled her hand away, sat down at the table and averted her eyes from Edward who grinned in her direction.

“I thought you might not take to salsa, so I brought a backup plan. He ran over to the music player and switched songs. A man’s voice came over the speakers and Olivia’s ears perked up suddenly as a look of recognition crossed her face.

“This isn’t-“

“A little bump and grind,” Edward sang out with R. Kelly as he beckoned her forward.

She shook her head but her efforts to hide her smile were in vain. Finally, she proved she had at least a bit of adolescence like the rest of them. Otherwise he’d have to suspect she’d grown up in a shack in the woods or something. Edward swept her out of the chair and back out onto his temporary dance floor with little protest.

“We’re going to do this middle school dance style,” he said and placed his hands on her waist. Her hands rested around his neck.

“I haven’t heard this song in years, my brother-“ but her words clipped off and she erased the wistful look on her face. She returned to the neutral state to which Edward was accustomed.

“My older sister used to be obsessed with this song and I always had this corny dream that I would dance to this song with a beautiful woman in my arms. So thank you.”

“Is your sister in the photo in your room?”

Edward raised an eyebrow and looked closely at Olivia. “Are you snooping around my room when I’m not there?”

Her cheeks didn’t redden as he expected. She kept the same neutral expression. “It’s hard not to notice; you have so few things.”

“I’m just bugging you. Yes, it’s my sister and my nephew. I hope you didn’t think she was my wife or anything.”

“No, and it wouldn’t affect our arrangement if she was.”

“Have you ever been married?”

Olivia’s eyes went wide and she raised an eyebrow. Not quite. He wasn’t satisfied with her answer yet.

“Engaged?”

Her body stiffened and she looked down for a moment, enough for Edward to assess the damage of the question. She composed herself a moment later with a harsh gaze. “Mr. Drest, I believe the terms of our agreement involved minimal questions.”

“You asked the first one.”

Silence hung in the air, betraying her actions. Her hands dropped from his neck and she straightened out her top.

“I’m sorry. I’ll try harder to respect that term. Are we still...” Edward felt a bit strange finishing the question, knowing that he had made her so uncomfortable.

“Of course. If you thought I was such a slave to my emotions you were sadly mistaken.”       

“I admire your consistency. So what are you thinking, bedroom, kitchen, living room?”

“Let’s stick with the bedroom until you master that one.”

Edward laughed. “Alright boss, one level at a time, I suppose?”

“Yes, and let’s hope you don’t run out of lives before were finish. It is multiplayer after all.”

Edward bit his lip and smiled. She really was something, this strange, entrancing woman. Just when he thought he had her figured out, she’d slip up just a touch and he’d see another side. He reached out and caught her, wrapping his arms around her waist. He placed his head on her shoulder and whispered in her ear. “Have I ever told you, you’re amazing?”

Olivia looked away and sneaked out of his grasp without another look back.

Olivia lay in her bed and stared up at the ceiling. Last night confused her more than anything. She had misread Edward initially; he refused to sit still and accept a no strings attached affair. Dancing? She had no idea what he had hoped to achieve by making her engage in such a ritual beyond embarrassing her. He knew better than to do that. The task required effort on his part as well. He had learned and practised beforehand so it couldn’t be written off as an empty gesture.

Had the dancing been for romance? She should have seen it coming even if Edward’s blatant advances made it clear he wanted a physical relationship. Why wasn’t that enough? What made him think he could get both sides when she had made it clear that this was about one thing?

Her clock indicated few minutes remained before the start of the workday. No time to shower. The irritation already pricked at her skin. She pulled the black sheets tight and smoothed out all the wrinkles, tucking in the corners under the mattress. The comforter got the same treatment. Next she buttoned up her light blue shirt in haste and straightened her collar several times in the mirror.

Her wandering mind fixated on that one word with the power to bring everything crashing down. Engaged? She should have known better than to settle into a comfortable conversation even for a minute. How had he turned her own queries on her to expose her own shortcomings? Maybe the man was smarter than she gave him credit for. She’d end it next time, once she found enough leverage to guarantee his silence. The last thing she needed was public knowledge of these events.

She flattened her collar for the sixth time before putting on the rest of her uniform. With only a minute to spare, Olivia made the short walk to the office. Home and work would never divorce in this relationship. On the second floor, they occupied most of the area with offices and apartment. Close to the top but not the first line of defense either, their location was ideal. She punched in the five digit pass code and heard the familiar click.

“Good morning,” Steven Williams called out. His clean cut uniform and shaved head were perpetually tidy, a quality she respected in her co-workers. Olivia nodded in acknowledgement. “Your hair looks nice this morning.”

Olivia looked in the mirror and mouth formed a small O as she realized that in her distracted state she had left her dark hair fall over her shoulders complete with all the tangles Edward had left. She dug in her pockets for an elastic band as she felt Steven’s eyes on her. Each one came up empty and she checked again just to be sure.

“It looks fine, honestly. I didn’t mean to ruin your morning.”

“It’s a habit. It gets unruly so quickly.”

She stilled her hands before she made a spectacle of herself. She would just have to stomach the uneasy feeling of being unkempt until lunchtime. The damage had already been done with Steven’s observation. Not that he should suspect anything.

“You say that like it’s bad thing,” he said and flashed her a charming smile. His intentions had always been straightforward, but Olivia knew better than to mix her personal and professional life.

“You should come look at what’s come up on our rounds today.”

He had the sheet at such an angle on the table that she was nearly leaning over him to read the small print. Moments later, she snatched the sheet up in fears Edward’s musk might still cling on her skin. Chills ran through her spine as she read ‘meeting with director’ on the morning’s agenda. She’d rather being learning the salsa with Edward. Anything but looking that man in the eyes again.

“I’ve never met the director since I started here. What is he like?” Steven asked.

There was only one word to describe a man like the director, “terrifying.”

With that, Steven’s morning enthusiasm faded and Olivia knew why. Never had she ever given him any reason to assume that she had fears or concerns of her own until now. This one was rooted deep in a past she wanted desperately to forget.

 The director’s office was not on the second floor, nor was it on any conventional floor the general public could access. It involved a series of tunnels and ladders, requiring a certain degree of physical strength which both officers possessed. A fall along the path meant hitting the rocky bottom without hope of survival. The path climbed higher and higher, only intensifying the danger and physical exertion until the average person would likely give up. The director rarely left his living space, overlooking the entire valley with a section of industrial strength Plexiglas displaying the sole view of the outside world in the whole facility. His course remained a challenge mainly for those who served him.

The sunlight harshly met with Olivia’s eyes and she craved the artificial light. The weather outside was particularly cloudy, but still bright enough to shock those who saw daylight less than one a week. Both officers stumbled into the lobby area. Unlike the halls of the colony, the director had paintings hanging from various walls. Olivia could have sworn there was a Monet hanging on the wall and she wouldn’t have been surprised if it was real. The man had no problem asserting his ruthlessness and power.

“Fendson, Williams, you may sit down.” His voice permeated the air before his body came into view. It had a lethal calmness to it.

Olivia kept her exterior as smooth as his voice. He stepped out from the shadows, a short man with neatly trimmed hair and manicured nails. His presence helped ease her into the granite stool as her legs nearly gave away.

“I have called you up here because the colony has two members that need to be dealt with. The youth of today are hardly what they used to be. Their naivety and selfish actions make my blood boil,” despite the angered nature of his word, his relaxed face and body would never give it away.

He clicked his fingers as two pillars rose up from the floor to become small waist high tables. The top slid off to reveal black screens with the faces of two teenagers. One had long red hair and the other had brown eyes that appeared dark on the screen.

“These two have been stealing from different departments in order to operate this device.”

“A tracker?” Steven asked.

“They will not operate it without this,” the director said and he tossed a small rectangular object toward Steven who caught it without flinching. “I will give you precise instructions on where and how to leave this for the boy to discover.”

“Why would you give them the means to operate it?” Steven asked.

The director smiled and his eyebrows lifted. “Why squander time and manpower exterminating liars when they are prepared to do it themselves? Let them think they have control. Ms. Hughes was never of value to our colony and only a necessary evil. She is proving to be a waste of resources.”

“You brought her on to bargain with her father. He is a valuable resource we cannot afford to lose by attacking his daughter,” Olivia said, finally finding her voice. She didn’t think he would be at this again now that that his outside talent pool had been significantly reduced.

“That is precisely why we need to sever that relationship as effectively and quickly as possible. Relationships are extremely malleable. Fendson, you will keep an eye on the progress through his co-worker, Edward Drest.”

Olivia’s blood froze in her veins and proceeded to move like slush. She forced herself to meet the director’s cold blue eyes, which showed as much compassion as lion attacking its prey. Two visits to Edward’s apartment and this man knew. She swallowed the lump in her throat. She should have known better than to think the director was done with her.

“He is a weak link that will provide valuable insight into our effectiveness in severing the father daughter bond.” His eyes never left Olivia’s as he spoke. Edward wasn’t the weak link; she was and this would be her final warning. Experience had taught Olivia the man’s sadistic techniques. She had no choice but to comply this time.

“My role is just to drop the battery?” Steven said.

“Also to keep an eye on your co-worker and assure that she is successful in her mission.”

“What if the girl doesn’t choose to run?” Olivia asked.

“I already have a plan in motion to provide the proper motivation. It would be wise not to underestimate it. You both may go.”

As they made their way back down the third ladder, Olivia’s feet slipped. Her left hand caught the rail and sent a jerk through her shoulder. She looked up at her four fingers clutching the bar and gently lifted the weight off her pinkie finger. Her other fingers burned with the extra weight. Which would be worse, hitting rock bottom today or once this whole mess was over? She could save herself the trouble with a simple action. Her ring finger threatened to release itself from the bar until Steven’s voice called out from below.

“Are you alright?”

She took a deep breath and placed her right hand on the ladder to pull her feet back on. She certainly wasn’t alright, but it was hard to tell who actually was in times like these.