Page 52 of Take the Lead

I t’s not even six o’clock when I jolt awake in a panic about our Argentine tango. I may have managed to put it out of my head yesterday, but there’s no such luxury this morning. This is it – the last hurdle. My adrenaline is already pumping.

I half want to wake Aleksis up so he can take my mind off it again, but I leave him snoozing. At least one of us might as well be properly rested.

When he finally stirs, just after seven, he kisses me good morning.

‘So, the big day, eh? Are you excited?’

‘No,’ I admit.

‘Let’s just enjoy it. I know there’s a lot of pressure, and we really want to win, but I still want it to be a good experience for you. So let’s just have fun and whatever will be will be, okay?’

‘Okay,’ I agree. ‘But I do want to win, though.’

He laughs. ‘Of course you do.’

I’m more nervous than ever by the time we get to Channel 6. I don’t think my heart will stop racing all day. But if Aleksis is having any last-minute nerves he doesn’t show it – as, I suppose, you’d expect from a professional.

We say hi to Elijah, the only other person in the reception room when we arrive. I hope more of the others turn up before Merle and Emilia do. The awkwardness between us will be a lot less obvious with everyone else around to deflect attention from it.

‘I saw the photos from the Eden Shay gig – they look great,’ Elijah says, without a hint of jealousy. ‘I bet Merle will be annoyed though.’

In all the stories that have appeared online this morning, photos of me and Aleksis have been included right at the top with the other big names at the event. Merle and Emilia are much lower down, alongside a handful of former reality stars.

‘I think I’d be pretty unimpressed, too, if I were him,’ I admit. ‘I don’t know how we got to be so prominent. Not that I’m complaining, of course.’

‘Perhaps they missed the news that he’s back in the show,’ Elijah shrugs.

‘I’m sorry you didn’t get to join us,’ Aleksis says. ‘My sister sorted our tickets out. I don’t know how Merle managed to swing his.’

‘Hey, no problem. Tammy might be a bit gutted – but more about missing the gig than the press coverage, if I’ve learned anything about Tammy.’

And he’s absolutely spot on. When she joins us not long afterwards, she couldn’t be happier for us – although she does request that I buy her a ticket for Eden Shay’s tour if I win the ￡25,000 prize tonight. I tell I’d be delighted to.

I’m relieved it hasn’t created any animosity. It would be even harder going into the final if there was that to contend with as well.

When Merle and Emilia eventually walk into the room, it instantly puts me on edge. Luckily, Olivia is not far behind them.

‘Hi everyone,’ she says. ‘This is it then – the grand final! You’ll all have extra time to practise in the main studio today, seeing as you’ve got two dances this week instead of one.

The rest of the contestants will be joining us later this afternoon as they don’t have anything to rehearse.

Merle, Emilia, do you want to head to the studio first as you’ve had the least practice time together this week?

The rest of you, if you can just hang fire for the moment, and we’ll sort out costumes and so on shortly. ’

And that’s the last I see of Merle until two hours before the live show, when I find myself alone in the reception room with him while Emilia is with the costume girls, Elijah and Tammy are rehearsing and Aleksis is in the bathroom.

‘Kate,’ he says, walking over to join me.

‘Merle,’ I reply warily.

‘We might as well keep each other entertained, n’est-ce pas ? While no one else is around.’

‘I guess so.’ Although I’m not at all sure it’s a good idea.

‘There’s something I wanted to show you, anyway.’ He unlocks his phone and hands it to me. ‘Remember this?’

I watch in horror as the video of us dancing the kizomba starts playing, with my blindfolded, naked body pressed up against his fully clothed one.

What once seemed so erotic now just looks tacky and embarrassing – and feels so violating.

My cheeks flush red with humiliation and anger. ‘You promised to delete that, Merle.’

He snatches his phone back off me before it occurs to me to try and delete it myself.

‘I thought it might come in useful. And as it turns out, I was right. I was pretty much guaranteed to win this competition until last week, but now you and Aleksis have got yourselves all over the internet and he’s managed to drag a half decent dance out of you, it’s not so certain.

I need to tip things back in my favour.’

I swallow back a creeping sense of dread.

‘So here’s the deal,’ he continues. ‘If you throw your chances of winning tonight, I won’t upload this video online. And then everything will be back as it should be.’

‘And how exactly would you propose I do that?’ I snap.

‘However you see fit. Mess up your dance, come clean about your showmance with Aleksis—’

‘It’s not a showmance.’

‘All the more reason to keep this private, then,’ he counters.

I stare at him, my mind racing. Would he really stoop this low just to get a place on next year’s show?

‘You don’t have to agree right away,’ he says, standing up to leave. ‘You’ve still got two hours to think about it. But I know what I’d do if I were in your shoes.’

Then he walks away, leaving me reeling.

I slump back in my chair, chilled to my core.

I’ve worked so hard to get this far in the competition, I don’t want to throw it all away now.

I don’t want to let Aleksis down, either.

But when I think back to the night when the pictures of me and Merle went viral, it makes me shudder.

Could I bear the humiliation of more naked images of me circulating online for all eternity?

Images which my parents, friends, future work colleagues, and one day even my children might see?

And not just photos this time, but a full bloody video.

Panic rising, I dig my phone out of my bag and dial Lucy’s number.

‘Everything okay?’ she asks, instinctively worried. ‘I didn’t expect to hear from you this close to the show.’

‘Something’s happened and I don’t know what to do,’ I admit. Then I take a deep breath and tell her everything – how Merle filmed me without telling me, lied about deleting it, and how he’s now using it to blackmail me.

Her outrage is instant. ‘How dare he? And now he’s trying to intimidate you with it as well? This is not right, Kate. You’ve got to put a stop to it.’

‘But how?’ I wail.

‘Isn’t revenge porn illegal? Tell the producers what’s he’s done. Tell everyone what he’s done. He should be thrown off the show for this. It’s disgusting.’

‘But how can I prove it? He’d probably just say I was making it up to get rid of him.’

‘Then there must be another way.’ She thinks for a moment. ‘What does Aleksis have to say about it? He’s known Merle for long enough – he must have an idea of how to pull him back in line.’

‘I haven’t told him,’ I say, miserably. ‘I don’t want him to know about the video.’

‘He’ll find out anyway if Merle posts it.’

But the thought of telling Aleksis makes me feel nauseous. And what will he be able to do anyway? Merle isn’t going to back down just because Aleksis tells him to.

‘The stupid thing is, there’s every chance I won’t win tonight anyway,’ I sigh. ‘I know I’ve managed to get pretty decent at dancing, but I’ve still got to get through the Argentine tango.’

‘Maybe, but please don’t let it be Merle who decides it for you.

I want to see you give the performance of a lifetime tonight.

And afterwards I want us to celebrate it, win or lose, and for you to be proud of all the amazing things you’ve achieved in the last two months.

And you won’t be able to do that if you just give in to him, will you? ’

She’s right, of course. I’ve come too far to just give up on it all now. So I ring off, having promised I’ll find a way to get it sorted.

I look up to see Aleksis arriving back from the gents, closely followed by Olivia, who tells us we’re up next for rehearsals. As we walk to the studio, I can tell from the way he keeps looking at me that he knows I’m agitated, but I wait till we’re alone before I tell him why.

His expression turns quickly from concern to fury as I relay the details of my exchange with Merle, and before I can stop him he’s striding back towards the door, fists clenched with rage.

‘Wait!’ I call out after him. ‘We need to figure out the best thing to do.’

‘I’ll deal with it,’ he says over his shoulder, and images of him and Merle throwing punches at each other flash through my mind.

‘No, wait,’ I yell again and this time the urgency in my voice stops him in his tracks. He turns back to face me.

‘This is my problem and I need to be the one who makes it go away,’ I say firmly, a surge of determination flooding through me. ‘But thank you.’ I smile, touched by his eagerness to protect me. ‘I’ll be back as soon as I can.’

Then I slide past him and into the corridor, with absolutely no idea what I’m going to do next.

I don’t make it further than the first corner though, because – hang on a minute – isn’t that my dad walking towards me from the opposite end?

‘Dad?’ I ask, completely bewildered. ‘What on earth are you doing here?’

‘Oh!’ He looks startled – and then guilty. ‘It was meant to be a surprise.’

‘It’s certainly that,’ I reply, wide-eyed. ‘But seriously – you’re here? Is Mum here, too?’

‘There you are!’ Mum’s voice rings out from behind me. ‘Oh Kate, it’s you. Hello, darling. Sorry, it was meant to be a surprise.’

‘So I keep hearing. Will someone tell me what’s going on?’

‘You’d better let your sister explain,’ she says. ‘Come on, follow me. Come on, Jim.’

‘Dee’s here too?’ I ask as I hurry along behind her, momentarily forgetting my Merle predicament.

She pushes the door to Shane’s office open without knocking and inside are Dee, Pete, Nathan and Daisy. Dee is sitting at the desk doing her make-up while Pete wrestles Daisy into a clean dress and Nathan waits his turn.

‘Auntie Katie!’ Daisy squeals, breaking free and throwing her arms round my legs. ‘We’ve come to watch you do the dancing.’

‘So I see,’ I say, hugging her back. ‘But how?’

My question is aimed at my sister, who shoots me a sheepish grin.

‘Surprise! You’re not supposed to know we’re here until the actual show, but I guess it’s too late for that now.’

‘Explain,’ I demand.

‘Well, when you asked me if I could collect the camera bag, a little idea popped into my head – what if I were to fly it back here in person to ensure it made it safely back to Channel 6? That way there’d be no risk of them not getting it back in one piece.

I ran it by Olivia and she thought it was a great idea – so I asked if she would do me a favour in return and bring the whole lot of us over, so we could support you on tonight’s show. ’

‘And she agreed?’

Her smile gets even bigger. ‘I didn’t think for an instant she’d say yes – it was just a silly suggestion – but the next thing I know she’d discussed it with the producers, got the green light and booked us all on a flight on Friday morning.’

‘So you’ve been here since yesterday?’ I can hardly take it in. Now it makes sense why none of them were answering their phones all morning.

‘Yep, we stayed at Mum and Dad’s last night. Then we snuck in here a couple of hours ago and the plan was to surprise you live on tonight’s show – oops! Now you’ll just have to pretend you’re surprised.’

I don’t think it’ll be too hard to make it look convincing – l’m pretty sure I’ll still be in shock.

‘I don’t know what to say. I mean, this is amazing. I can’t believe you’re all here.’

‘Just tell me I’m a genius,’ she laughs. ‘And come over here and give us all a hug. We’re absolutely bursting with excitement. It was so hard not to tell you.’

After Mum has wrapped her arms round me, followed by Dad, then Dee then Pete, I tell them I’d better get back to rehearsals and that I can’t wait to catch up with them properly later.

I keep my Merle dilemma to myself – I don’t want to drag them into it – but more than ever I don’t want to have to mess up my performance on the show tonight.

Not now my whole family has flown all the way here to watch it.

As I back out of the door to a chorus of ‘good luck’s and ‘love you’s, it strikes me that the only way I can make my problem go away is if I can get hold of Merle’s phone. If he hasn’t got the video, he can’t use it. But it’s not like I can just bowl into his dressing room and he’ll hand it over.

If he isn’t in there, though …

I race towards the costumes room and get there just in time to see Emilia emerging in her latest ensemble – a gold swimming costume with some tassels hanging down to create a very mini miniskirt. She looks amazing. Merle really doesn’t deserve her.

I falter for the briefest moment, my mind flashing back to that day when Ed’s new lover devastated me with the news that my boyfriend was a snake.

I hate the idea of inflicting that kind of pain on anyone else.

But Emilia has a right to know what Merle’s really like. The question is, will she believe me?

She eyes me suspiciously as I take a deep breath and ask for a quick word.

‘I really need your help,’ I tell her.

‘It’s a bit late now,’ she says, presumably thinking I mean with my dancing.

My palms prickle with sweat as I confess the real reason, all the while silently praying I’ve judged this correctly. I’d want to be told if I were her, wouldn’t I? I’d want to know what my partner was capable of.

She looks away and shakes her head when I finish talking. I don’t know what she means by it and I can feel my heart pounding. Is she angry with him? With me? Does she think I’m winding her up? The seconds drag on as I wait for her to respond.

Eventually she turns back to me with a look of resignation in her eyes. My heart jolts when she says, ‘What do you need me to do?’