Post by britchick on Oct 15, 2007 11:25:49 GMT -5
OK Guys! Be warned this is a very long chapter! It is so long I have had to post it on two threads (part 6.1 and part 6.2) It is long because not only are A&J seeing each other for the first time in years but also because Julainne has to explain the set-up of the 'Dancing With The Stars - Champion of Champions' competition to Apolo and also introduce him to his fellow competitors. I have tried some new things in this chapter so please leave feedback and tell me what you think. So without further ado ... here we go ....
Again, this is dedicated to everyone who has been so welcoming and given me advice on how to improve my writing. A big thank you to you all!
Title - Apolo & Julianne - What Happened Next? Part 6.1
Author - Britchick1980
Rating - PG
Disclaimer - This story is a complete and utter figment of my imagination. I have never met either Apolo Anton Ohno, Julianne Hough or any other celebrity that features and the occurrences in this story have been completely fabricated.
Note - Please note that this is my first attempt at writing fiction so please be kind! Any constructive criticism is most welcome because it is the only way in which I will be able to develop my writing skills. Also, please remember that I am British and therefore there will be some disparity in spelling etc.
What Happened Next? Part 6.1
I saw her well before she saw me. She looked like Aphrodite as she stepped into the arrivals lounge a faint breeze ruffling her long golden hair. My heart ached as I watched her twirl around surveying the crowds as if she was dancing on air. I had to physically stop myself from running up to her and sweeping her up into my arms by clasping tightly onto the back of a chair that was bolted into the ground. My sweet, sweet Julianne!
Common Apolo! You’ve got to get a grip of yourself man! Sure, she is beautiful and incredibly talented but she also left you, and you should never forget that! You have to get the answers you need and not let those eyes of hers distract you from you goal.
Uncurling my fingers from around the back of the chair, I then made my way forwards to the centre of the arrivals lounge where she was sure to see me.
Turning to look again at the entrance I noticed that she had gone. What the hell? I swung around studying the crowds around me looking for her. Where is she? A slight knot formed in my stomach making me weary of the gentle panic that was about to wash over me.
What if she thinks I’m a no-show and has gone off to find me?
The thought made me feel a little sick. Whilst Vancouver was a wonderful place, like any city, if you wandered into the wrong areas you could end up in some serious trouble.
Stop being paranoid Apolo! She’s probably gone to get herself a drink or something. She has been stuck on a plane for the last 3 hours.
I wandered around for a further five minutes of so becoming increasingly dazed and confused by the volume of people around me. Suddenly, as if by magic, the sea of crowds parted and there she stood.
My body’s initial response was to relax because she was safe but its secondary response was fuelled by adrenalin. My heart began to pound so furiously that I could no longer hear the noise created by the masses around me. My mouth became dry and my feet became rooted to the spot. All I could do was stand there and stare at her.
“God she is beautiful” I thought taking in her lightly tanned, silky smooth skin, rosey cheeks and long graceful limbs.
Her first step towards me jolted me from my thoughts and back to reality.
Oh Crap! She is coming this way! Well of course she is coming over here you idiot! You are here to meet her after all.
I moved my gaze to the floor in front of me, shoved my hands in my pockets and bit my lip to help me focus. By the time she reached me I had applied my poker face and was ready for anything she could throw at me or so I thought.
“Hi Apolo”, she greeted me and pulled me into a warm embrace, “How are you?”
“Ready for anything she could throw at you huh Apolo? Evidentially not!” I thought to myself as I relaxed into her arms. I closed my eyes briefly before withdrawing from her touch and re-applying my blank expression.
If at first you don’t succeed Apolo, try try again!
“I’m great Julianne, how was your flight?” I asked with a tight smile on my face.
“It was good thanks, not as eventful as the first one I took to see you” she joked, “the plane stayed on the run-way this time.”
I ran my hand through my hair and contemplated what to say next. “So, are you hungry? Are you ready to eat? I asked
“Am I ever? I didn’t have time to finish my breakfast this morning thanks to Derek and the plane food wasn’t up to much.”
“How is Derek doing?” I enquired as we walked towards the exit. “I caught him briefly on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and he seemed to go down a storm with the judges.”
“He’s doing great” Julianne replied slipping her arm through mine as we hit the sidewalk outside of the airport. The heat from her hand on my arm could be felt clearly through the thin fabric of my shirt and it sent sparks of electricity up my nervous system to my collar bone.
“He is actually working with Bruno Tonioli at the moment in LA” she continued, “They are putting together a dance show that is going to tour the States and then Europe.”
“Cool! He’s a good guy; I hope it works out for him!” I said dazed, still half concentrating on the feel of her hand on my arm.
“So, what is this place like you are taking me too?” she enquired as we approached my rental car. Unlocking the door I opened it for her to step in.
After getting in the drivers side and buckling up I addressed her question. “Erm, it’s a small Italian restaurant, has nice food and is out of the way – so we shouldn’t get bothered by anyone.”
“Sounds good” she smile, “Now put your foot down, I’m starving.”
As I opened the door of the restaurant to let Julianne enter a tantalising smell drifted out from within that made my stomach rumble. It transported me to a different time and place. A little Mediterranean vineyard to be precise where I could sit all day in the sun eating tortellini sprinkled with olive oil and flavoured with sun-dried tomatoes and basil and drinking chilled Pino Grigio all with my beautiful Julianne by my side.
“Apolo, are you coming in?” Julianne interrupted my day-dream, “or have you got a new job as a human doorstop?”
Running my hand over the back of my neck to relieve the tension that had built up, I walked into the restaurant letting the door slam behind me.
As I stood in the reception area of the restaurant waiting for the concierge to show us to our table I glanced around the restaurant taking in the atmosphere and I was stunned by what I saw.
There were fresh flowers – Roses in a whole rainbow of colours, Lilies and bright Germini everywhere. Tea-lights and candles were scattered liberally over the surfaces of the classic Italian furniture and the tables themselves were cloaked in lacy white clothes and adorned with sparkling silver cutlery and candelabras. It was the epitome of elegance and romance – not at all the right venue for a business meeting! The view itself was the piece de la resistance – the restaurant had full ceiling to floor windows overlooking the beautiful Costal Mountain range, each mountain having a pink aurora in the mid-day sunshine. I truly was in awe for a second or two until reality struck.
Oh God! What the hell is she going to think now? Can’t a guy catch a break? I’m gonna kill Shani when I get hold of him! Thanks for the recommendation buddy!
Julianne sighed and picked up a flower from a nearby vase. Smelling its delicate scent she looked at me wistfully “This is a lovely place Apolo, great choice.”
“Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! She is going to get completely the wrong idea from this” I thought following the concierge to our table. I sat down quickly and opened the large menu up at eye-level so that Julianne couldn’t see the deep flush that was spreading across my face.
After giving my face sufficient time to return to its normal colour, I lowered my menu to find the waiter staring at me intently.
“And what can I get for you Sir?” he enquired
After placing Julianne’s and my order with him I settled into my chair and prepared to talk business.
Julianne however, it would seem, had other ideas. “So, how is everything going with the retirement?” she asked.
“Pretty well” was the only response I could offer.
“Your girlfriend must be pretty pleased to have you around more” she continued.
“What girlfriend?” I studied her now intrigued.
“The girl you were at the Teen Choice Awards with last week. Long dark hair, green eyes, cute.”
Was that jealousy I detected? I could swear I heard a hint of jealousy in her voice.
“Oh April, you mean April. No, she’s not my girlfriend; she’s the head of one of the charities I support. I invited her along to raise awareness of the cause. She is a lovely lady though.”
“Ahhh, so not the girlfriend!” Julianne confirmed somewhat embarrassed.
“He he he, your turn to be embarrassed Julianne” I thought wryly
“No! Most definitely not my girlfriend. You know me Julianne, born to be single.” I said as cockily as possible, determined to not let her see my pain.
Feeling that we were falling into the old trap of being too familiar with one and another I decided to press the matter of training.
“So Julianne, tell me, what do you have planned for us over the next 14 weeks” I say in my best authorative tone.
She looked at me, one eyebrow raised slightly silently querying the swift change of subject matter.
“Well, before we get in to our plans for training we should first really discuss the format of the competition since it is going to be slightly different from what we have been used to so far.”
I was about to ask her what she meant by this when suddenly the waiter appeared out of nowhere with our food. Once he had dispensed with his duties I asked Julianne the question as we both tucked into our food.
“Well, as you know, this time around, it is not simply ‘Dancing with the Stars’ we are competing in but ‘Dancing with the Stars – Champion of Champions’.”
I look at her questioningly ...... “and the difference being?”
“The owner of the ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ franchise from which ‘Dancing With The Stars’ was developed has decided to produce one last final competition to find the overall winner ....”
I was still non the wiser and my look made her aware of this.
“We are going to be competing against four of the other ‘Dancing with the Stars’ (US) champions along with 4 champions from the UK show and 2 from the Australian version in a bid to find the overall winner” she proclaimed exuberantly.
“The show is going to be shown, not only in the States, but also in every other country that currently shows ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and whoever comes out on top after the judges and public vote, wins.”
Great! Not only am I about to make a fool of myself in front of the whole of the US but also in front of 20 or so other countries as well apparently. Life doesn’t get any better than this Apolo my boy!
“So let me get this straight. I will be competing against past ‘Dancing with the Stars’ US winners such as Drew Lachey and also against champions from the UK and Australia in order to determine who the best of the best is?” I query.
“That is correct” Julianne says simply.
Oh crap! I had not expected this. I thought it would be US only. I was familiar with the US winners but not those from the UK and Australia. I had a lot to learn. Understanding your opponents and their weakness was fundamental in speed skating and I felt lost without that advantage.
“Tell me what you know about the other competitors Julianne”. It seemed a good enough place to start. Suddenly we seemed to have a lot of work ahead of us. A lot more than I had anticipated when I had signed up for this.
Julianne acknowledged the determination and fire in my eyes with a smile pulled out some notes from her handbag.
"Once we have finished eating I will give you a brief overview of the other competitors , their strengths and weaknesses and then I have some DVD’s of their performances for you to take home and study."
I couldn’t help but smile. She was as organised as ever, clearly had put a lot of thought into this and was determined to win.
My kinda girl!
Once we had finished and our plates had been cleared away, Julianne took a sip of her water and we began.
“First up we have ‘Dancing with the Stars’ season one winner Kelly Monaco. Kelly is 34 years old and is an actress. Her strength is her determination to succeed and her weakness, to a certain extent, is her inability to cope with quick choreography. Her partner will be Alec Mazo again.”
“Ok! Got it!” I said with a raised eyebrow. Wow! She did mean business!
“Next up we have Drew Lachey. Drew was a singer with ‘98 Degrees’ and since leaving them he has created a successful career as an entertainments presenter. Drew won season 2 of the show and his main strength is that he is a perfectionist – he pays attention to the little details. His weakness is that he can, at times, hold himself back emotionally and performance wise when dancing because he is afraid to let himself go entirely and pour all his feelings into the dance.”
Pour all of your feelings into the dance huh! Well I certainly have plenty of those to divulge!
“Drew’s partner will be Cheryl Burke again.”
“So, is Emmitt Smith not taking part then?” I enquired. What with Cheryl being partnered with Drew it seemed unlikely to me that Emmitt would want to dance with someone new. It takes time to build trust and it would be like going back to square one for Emmitt.
“Impatient as ever Ohno!” Julianne said whilst rolling her eyes, “I was just about to get to Emmitt.”
I held up my hands in apology and motioned for her to continue.
“Ok, next up is Emmitt Smith. As you know, Emmitt was a football player for the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals and Emmitt’s main strength is well ...... his strength! He is a very strong guy. His main weakness is that he struggles to let go .... dance with abandonment. He is probably afraid that if he lets go he will make a fool of himself but that is what stands between him being very good and him being superb.”
She paused for a second to take a sip of her water and then resumed her pattern of looking at me and then glancing down at her notes for prompts as she continued.
“As you noted earlier, Emmitt’s former partner Cheryl Burke will be dancing with Drew so the producers in their infinite wisdom have partnered Emmitt with Edyta Sliwinska.”
“Emmitt and Edyta huh? Interesting team! I bet she will put him through his paces” I chuckled.
“OK, on to the last fellow American to compete …. Helio Castroneves. As you may know Helio and I won series five of ‘Dancing with the Stars’, now, since I am dancing with you, Helio has been partnered with Kym Johnson. Helio’s strength is his natural sense of rhythm and enthusiasm, his main weakness is that his enthusiasm sometimes gets out of control and has an impact on his lines making them seem out of control.”
I sat quietly for a second trying to decide whether to ask the question that was on the tip of my tongue and burning my lips. Why do you think they paired us together Julianne? They could just as easily have placed you with Helio and me with Kim … that would have saved on some of the heartache! Knowing the answer I decided against asking. The truth of the matter was that this was the entertainment industry and in this industry stories of sex, love and heartache all sell magazine and boost ratings. They had coupled us together because they knew that was what the general public would want to see, so instead of asking my question I settled for a rather paltry “OK, so that’s the Americans reviewed, bring on the Brits and the Aussies!”
Julianne looked at me with a raised eyebrow. Could she see right through my bravado? Or was she amused at my enthusiasm? Running my hand through my hair in what I hoped was a dismissive action I then motion for her to continue again.
“OK, now onto the Aussies” Julianne said with a smile.
“First up we have a lady called Rebecca Cartwright. Rebecca was an actress on Australian soap “Home & Away” and she won season one of their version of ‘Dancing with the Stars’. She is 26 years old and is married to Australian tennis player Lleyton Hewitt and so now goes by the name of Rebecca Hewitt, or Bec Hewitt for short. Her strength is that she is very flexible and strong, her main weakness is her impatience. She becomes annoyed and frustrated with herself if she doesn’t master something quickly. The DVD I have of Bec is a little grainy so you will have to be patient with it and take what you can from it. Bec’s partner is a great dancer called Michael Miziner. He partnered her to the title and I know him quite well from my time in London.”
“OK, I’ve got it logged” I said as I tapped my temple with my index finger. Cut it out Apolo man! Your bravado is getting tiring … not to mention making you look like a jerk! I picked my glass up and drained its contents whilst mentally kicking myself for being an idiot. “Would you like another drink Julianne?” I asked as I summoned the waiter.
After I had order the drinks and they had been delivered Julianne continued;
“Next up we have another Australian actress Ada Nicodemou. Ada was also in ‘Home & Away’ with Bec Hewitt and she was also in the first Matrix film. She is 32 years old and she won Australia’s third series of ‘Dancing with the Stars’ with her partner Aric Yegudkin. Her strength is her personality. She is a lovely bubbly person and this comes across in all her performances. Her weakness is that she can sometimes be a little stiff when she dances and she thinks far too much rather than just going with the flow.”
OK! Six down, four to go. If this takes much longer then it will be time for dinner!
“OK, onto the UK contestants” Julianne said re-arranging her legs so that she could stretch them.
“First up from the UK we have Jill Halfpenny. Jill was an actress on UK soap ‘Eastenders’ which is shown on BBC America. Jill is 34 years old and she won ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ in its second series with her partner Darren Bennett. Jill is probably the greatest threat to us of all the contestants. She is considered to be the most ‘professional-like’ armature dancer that this type of show has ever seen in any country. She went on to play Roxie Hart in Chicago in the West End. I caught her in that production when I was visiting London last and she really is very good.”
OK, Jill Halfpenny, remember that name Apolo, she seems to be your main competition! I would study the DVD of her extra hard that night.
“OK, are you still awake Apolo?” Julianne chortled “ Now we move on to contestant number eight. Mark Ramprakash. Mark started out as a professional cricketer who played for England but has since moved into sports presenting. He is 40 years old and he won series four of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ with his partner Karen Hardy. His main strength is his rhythm and fluidity and his main weakness is his lack of confidence. He doubts his ability and gets quite embarrassed by everyone’s attention.”
“Why did he do the show?” I enquired. It seemed pretty silly to me to compete in a dance show on TV and be embarrassed by the recognition.
“He wanted to raise the profile of his sport I think” Julianne said flipping over the page in her notebook “cricket is no longer a big sport in the UK and he wanted to help re-instate it back to the big league.”
She clearly wanted to press on and get this review over and done with so I obediently resumed my listening position.
“Next up is Kelly Brook. Kelly is 30 years old and is an actress and model. She is also known for being the girlfriend of Billy Zane of ‘Titanic’ fame. She and her partner Brendan Cole won the fifth series of the show. Her main strength is that she has been dancing in some form or other all her life - she attended the same stage school as I did – Italia Conti in London. Her main weakness is her partner Brendan Cole. Brendan has a reputation as the bad-boy of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. He argues with judges a lot, stomps off set swearing when put in his place, screams at his partners in training and dances with arrogance. A lot of people don’t like him and won’t vote for him and Kelly because of this.
Hmm! Sounds like a lovely guy! I’ll have to watch out for him.
“OK, last but certainly not least we have Colin Jackson, or ‘Action’ Jackson as Len Goodman calls him. Colin is 43 years old and was a world champion 110m hurdler winning gold in both the 1993 and 1999 Athletics World Championships. He still holds many of the records relating to his event and since retiring has forged a career in sports presenting. He has never won a series of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ but has won more Christmas specials than anyone else and therefore has been included in the line-up. His partner will be Erin Boag who is a lovely lady and a beautiful dancer. Do not be fooled by the fact that Colin has not won a series – he is still very good. He lost to a gentleman called Darren Gough who is not the best dancer in the world but the public voted him champion because he is a bit of a joker and people related to that. Had the best dancer won then Colin would have got his glitter-ball. Colin’s strength is his work-ethic and speed and his main weakness is, as with Mark Ramprakash, his lack of confidence.”
I breathed a sigh of relief as Julianne finished this last sentence – the finishing line had been crossed!
Julianne sat back in her seat and closed the notebook in front of her.
“So what do you think?” she says before taking a sip of her drink.
“Um, it’s a lot to take in Julianne” I say thoughtfully “But I think I’ve got the basics down – they are all pretty good so we need to work hard!”
“Bang on the money Ohno!” Julianne laughed.
As I leant forward to take another sip of my water my eyes caught sight of my watch.
d**n! It’s 2.30! I’m gonna be late for my press appointments if I don’t get a move on soon! Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun my boy!
In the panic that ensued I managed to knock my water over, fall off my chair and generally make a right old fool of myself.
Picking myself off the floor, I explained the situation to a laughing Julianne and agreed to drop her off at a little shopping mall in Vancouver for some retail therapy whilst I met the press. I would then pick her up later for dinner so we could discuss the small matter of training which we had yet to address before dropping her off at the airport for her flight home.
As I pulled into the car-park of the Pacific Centre Shopping Mall I could feel Julianne staring at me intently.
Oh Julianne! Please don’t go into this now! Please let’s keep this professional.
I parked the car and then turned to face her. She was still gazing at me softly. Taking a deep breath I decided to take control of the situation.
“OK Julianne, I’ll meet you here at 6.30 sharp OK?” I said as I reached over and opened her door for her. “That should give us plenty of time to eat dinner and be able to get you to the airport for your flight.”
The smile faded slightly as she unbuckled her seat-belt and climbed out of the car – she looked visibly deflated as though she had been gearing herself up for something only to have been robbed of the opportunity. Once out she turned to me and gave me a little wave and appeared to say something before she slammed the door shut.
As I drove away I thought about what she had said. I didn’t hear it properly because of the squeaking of the door but I could have sworn it was “Apolo, I’m so sorry!”
Author Note - The story continues in part 6.2 on another thread
Again, this is dedicated to everyone who has been so welcoming and given me advice on how to improve my writing. A big thank you to you all!
Title - Apolo & Julianne - What Happened Next? Part 6.1
Author - Britchick1980
Rating - PG
Disclaimer - This story is a complete and utter figment of my imagination. I have never met either Apolo Anton Ohno, Julianne Hough or any other celebrity that features and the occurrences in this story have been completely fabricated.
Note - Please note that this is my first attempt at writing fiction so please be kind! Any constructive criticism is most welcome because it is the only way in which I will be able to develop my writing skills. Also, please remember that I am British and therefore there will be some disparity in spelling etc.
What Happened Next? Part 6.1
I saw her well before she saw me. She looked like Aphrodite as she stepped into the arrivals lounge a faint breeze ruffling her long golden hair. My heart ached as I watched her twirl around surveying the crowds as if she was dancing on air. I had to physically stop myself from running up to her and sweeping her up into my arms by clasping tightly onto the back of a chair that was bolted into the ground. My sweet, sweet Julianne!
Common Apolo! You’ve got to get a grip of yourself man! Sure, she is beautiful and incredibly talented but she also left you, and you should never forget that! You have to get the answers you need and not let those eyes of hers distract you from you goal.
Uncurling my fingers from around the back of the chair, I then made my way forwards to the centre of the arrivals lounge where she was sure to see me.
Turning to look again at the entrance I noticed that she had gone. What the hell? I swung around studying the crowds around me looking for her. Where is she? A slight knot formed in my stomach making me weary of the gentle panic that was about to wash over me.
What if she thinks I’m a no-show and has gone off to find me?
The thought made me feel a little sick. Whilst Vancouver was a wonderful place, like any city, if you wandered into the wrong areas you could end up in some serious trouble.
Stop being paranoid Apolo! She’s probably gone to get herself a drink or something. She has been stuck on a plane for the last 3 hours.
I wandered around for a further five minutes of so becoming increasingly dazed and confused by the volume of people around me. Suddenly, as if by magic, the sea of crowds parted and there she stood.
My body’s initial response was to relax because she was safe but its secondary response was fuelled by adrenalin. My heart began to pound so furiously that I could no longer hear the noise created by the masses around me. My mouth became dry and my feet became rooted to the spot. All I could do was stand there and stare at her.
“God she is beautiful” I thought taking in her lightly tanned, silky smooth skin, rosey cheeks and long graceful limbs.
Her first step towards me jolted me from my thoughts and back to reality.
Oh Crap! She is coming this way! Well of course she is coming over here you idiot! You are here to meet her after all.
I moved my gaze to the floor in front of me, shoved my hands in my pockets and bit my lip to help me focus. By the time she reached me I had applied my poker face and was ready for anything she could throw at me or so I thought.
“Hi Apolo”, she greeted me and pulled me into a warm embrace, “How are you?”
“Ready for anything she could throw at you huh Apolo? Evidentially not!” I thought to myself as I relaxed into her arms. I closed my eyes briefly before withdrawing from her touch and re-applying my blank expression.
If at first you don’t succeed Apolo, try try again!
“I’m great Julianne, how was your flight?” I asked with a tight smile on my face.
“It was good thanks, not as eventful as the first one I took to see you” she joked, “the plane stayed on the run-way this time.”
I ran my hand through my hair and contemplated what to say next. “So, are you hungry? Are you ready to eat? I asked
“Am I ever? I didn’t have time to finish my breakfast this morning thanks to Derek and the plane food wasn’t up to much.”
“How is Derek doing?” I enquired as we walked towards the exit. “I caught him briefly on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and he seemed to go down a storm with the judges.”
“He’s doing great” Julianne replied slipping her arm through mine as we hit the sidewalk outside of the airport. The heat from her hand on my arm could be felt clearly through the thin fabric of my shirt and it sent sparks of electricity up my nervous system to my collar bone.
“He is actually working with Bruno Tonioli at the moment in LA” she continued, “They are putting together a dance show that is going to tour the States and then Europe.”
“Cool! He’s a good guy; I hope it works out for him!” I said dazed, still half concentrating on the feel of her hand on my arm.
“So, what is this place like you are taking me too?” she enquired as we approached my rental car. Unlocking the door I opened it for her to step in.
After getting in the drivers side and buckling up I addressed her question. “Erm, it’s a small Italian restaurant, has nice food and is out of the way – so we shouldn’t get bothered by anyone.”
“Sounds good” she smile, “Now put your foot down, I’m starving.”
As I opened the door of the restaurant to let Julianne enter a tantalising smell drifted out from within that made my stomach rumble. It transported me to a different time and place. A little Mediterranean vineyard to be precise where I could sit all day in the sun eating tortellini sprinkled with olive oil and flavoured with sun-dried tomatoes and basil and drinking chilled Pino Grigio all with my beautiful Julianne by my side.
“Apolo, are you coming in?” Julianne interrupted my day-dream, “or have you got a new job as a human doorstop?”
Running my hand over the back of my neck to relieve the tension that had built up, I walked into the restaurant letting the door slam behind me.
As I stood in the reception area of the restaurant waiting for the concierge to show us to our table I glanced around the restaurant taking in the atmosphere and I was stunned by what I saw.
There were fresh flowers – Roses in a whole rainbow of colours, Lilies and bright Germini everywhere. Tea-lights and candles were scattered liberally over the surfaces of the classic Italian furniture and the tables themselves were cloaked in lacy white clothes and adorned with sparkling silver cutlery and candelabras. It was the epitome of elegance and romance – not at all the right venue for a business meeting! The view itself was the piece de la resistance – the restaurant had full ceiling to floor windows overlooking the beautiful Costal Mountain range, each mountain having a pink aurora in the mid-day sunshine. I truly was in awe for a second or two until reality struck.
Oh God! What the hell is she going to think now? Can’t a guy catch a break? I’m gonna kill Shani when I get hold of him! Thanks for the recommendation buddy!
Julianne sighed and picked up a flower from a nearby vase. Smelling its delicate scent she looked at me wistfully “This is a lovely place Apolo, great choice.”
“Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! She is going to get completely the wrong idea from this” I thought following the concierge to our table. I sat down quickly and opened the large menu up at eye-level so that Julianne couldn’t see the deep flush that was spreading across my face.
After giving my face sufficient time to return to its normal colour, I lowered my menu to find the waiter staring at me intently.
“And what can I get for you Sir?” he enquired
After placing Julianne’s and my order with him I settled into my chair and prepared to talk business.
Julianne however, it would seem, had other ideas. “So, how is everything going with the retirement?” she asked.
“Pretty well” was the only response I could offer.
“Your girlfriend must be pretty pleased to have you around more” she continued.
“What girlfriend?” I studied her now intrigued.
“The girl you were at the Teen Choice Awards with last week. Long dark hair, green eyes, cute.”
Was that jealousy I detected? I could swear I heard a hint of jealousy in her voice.
“Oh April, you mean April. No, she’s not my girlfriend; she’s the head of one of the charities I support. I invited her along to raise awareness of the cause. She is a lovely lady though.”
“Ahhh, so not the girlfriend!” Julianne confirmed somewhat embarrassed.
“He he he, your turn to be embarrassed Julianne” I thought wryly
“No! Most definitely not my girlfriend. You know me Julianne, born to be single.” I said as cockily as possible, determined to not let her see my pain.
Feeling that we were falling into the old trap of being too familiar with one and another I decided to press the matter of training.
“So Julianne, tell me, what do you have planned for us over the next 14 weeks” I say in my best authorative tone.
She looked at me, one eyebrow raised slightly silently querying the swift change of subject matter.
“Well, before we get in to our plans for training we should first really discuss the format of the competition since it is going to be slightly different from what we have been used to so far.”
I was about to ask her what she meant by this when suddenly the waiter appeared out of nowhere with our food. Once he had dispensed with his duties I asked Julianne the question as we both tucked into our food.
“Well, as you know, this time around, it is not simply ‘Dancing with the Stars’ we are competing in but ‘Dancing with the Stars – Champion of Champions’.”
I look at her questioningly ...... “and the difference being?”
“The owner of the ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ franchise from which ‘Dancing With The Stars’ was developed has decided to produce one last final competition to find the overall winner ....”
I was still non the wiser and my look made her aware of this.
“We are going to be competing against four of the other ‘Dancing with the Stars’ (US) champions along with 4 champions from the UK show and 2 from the Australian version in a bid to find the overall winner” she proclaimed exuberantly.
“The show is going to be shown, not only in the States, but also in every other country that currently shows ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and whoever comes out on top after the judges and public vote, wins.”
Great! Not only am I about to make a fool of myself in front of the whole of the US but also in front of 20 or so other countries as well apparently. Life doesn’t get any better than this Apolo my boy!
“So let me get this straight. I will be competing against past ‘Dancing with the Stars’ US winners such as Drew Lachey and also against champions from the UK and Australia in order to determine who the best of the best is?” I query.
“That is correct” Julianne says simply.
Oh crap! I had not expected this. I thought it would be US only. I was familiar with the US winners but not those from the UK and Australia. I had a lot to learn. Understanding your opponents and their weakness was fundamental in speed skating and I felt lost without that advantage.
“Tell me what you know about the other competitors Julianne”. It seemed a good enough place to start. Suddenly we seemed to have a lot of work ahead of us. A lot more than I had anticipated when I had signed up for this.
Julianne acknowledged the determination and fire in my eyes with a smile pulled out some notes from her handbag.
"Once we have finished eating I will give you a brief overview of the other competitors , their strengths and weaknesses and then I have some DVD’s of their performances for you to take home and study."
I couldn’t help but smile. She was as organised as ever, clearly had put a lot of thought into this and was determined to win.
My kinda girl!
Once we had finished and our plates had been cleared away, Julianne took a sip of her water and we began.
“First up we have ‘Dancing with the Stars’ season one winner Kelly Monaco. Kelly is 34 years old and is an actress. Her strength is her determination to succeed and her weakness, to a certain extent, is her inability to cope with quick choreography. Her partner will be Alec Mazo again.”
“Ok! Got it!” I said with a raised eyebrow. Wow! She did mean business!
“Next up we have Drew Lachey. Drew was a singer with ‘98 Degrees’ and since leaving them he has created a successful career as an entertainments presenter. Drew won season 2 of the show and his main strength is that he is a perfectionist – he pays attention to the little details. His weakness is that he can, at times, hold himself back emotionally and performance wise when dancing because he is afraid to let himself go entirely and pour all his feelings into the dance.”
Pour all of your feelings into the dance huh! Well I certainly have plenty of those to divulge!
“Drew’s partner will be Cheryl Burke again.”
“So, is Emmitt Smith not taking part then?” I enquired. What with Cheryl being partnered with Drew it seemed unlikely to me that Emmitt would want to dance with someone new. It takes time to build trust and it would be like going back to square one for Emmitt.
“Impatient as ever Ohno!” Julianne said whilst rolling her eyes, “I was just about to get to Emmitt.”
I held up my hands in apology and motioned for her to continue.
“Ok, next up is Emmitt Smith. As you know, Emmitt was a football player for the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals and Emmitt’s main strength is well ...... his strength! He is a very strong guy. His main weakness is that he struggles to let go .... dance with abandonment. He is probably afraid that if he lets go he will make a fool of himself but that is what stands between him being very good and him being superb.”
She paused for a second to take a sip of her water and then resumed her pattern of looking at me and then glancing down at her notes for prompts as she continued.
“As you noted earlier, Emmitt’s former partner Cheryl Burke will be dancing with Drew so the producers in their infinite wisdom have partnered Emmitt with Edyta Sliwinska.”
“Emmitt and Edyta huh? Interesting team! I bet she will put him through his paces” I chuckled.
“OK, on to the last fellow American to compete …. Helio Castroneves. As you may know Helio and I won series five of ‘Dancing with the Stars’, now, since I am dancing with you, Helio has been partnered with Kym Johnson. Helio’s strength is his natural sense of rhythm and enthusiasm, his main weakness is that his enthusiasm sometimes gets out of control and has an impact on his lines making them seem out of control.”
I sat quietly for a second trying to decide whether to ask the question that was on the tip of my tongue and burning my lips. Why do you think they paired us together Julianne? They could just as easily have placed you with Helio and me with Kim … that would have saved on some of the heartache! Knowing the answer I decided against asking. The truth of the matter was that this was the entertainment industry and in this industry stories of sex, love and heartache all sell magazine and boost ratings. They had coupled us together because they knew that was what the general public would want to see, so instead of asking my question I settled for a rather paltry “OK, so that’s the Americans reviewed, bring on the Brits and the Aussies!”
Julianne looked at me with a raised eyebrow. Could she see right through my bravado? Or was she amused at my enthusiasm? Running my hand through my hair in what I hoped was a dismissive action I then motion for her to continue again.
“OK, now onto the Aussies” Julianne said with a smile.
“First up we have a lady called Rebecca Cartwright. Rebecca was an actress on Australian soap “Home & Away” and she won season one of their version of ‘Dancing with the Stars’. She is 26 years old and is married to Australian tennis player Lleyton Hewitt and so now goes by the name of Rebecca Hewitt, or Bec Hewitt for short. Her strength is that she is very flexible and strong, her main weakness is her impatience. She becomes annoyed and frustrated with herself if she doesn’t master something quickly. The DVD I have of Bec is a little grainy so you will have to be patient with it and take what you can from it. Bec’s partner is a great dancer called Michael Miziner. He partnered her to the title and I know him quite well from my time in London.”
“OK, I’ve got it logged” I said as I tapped my temple with my index finger. Cut it out Apolo man! Your bravado is getting tiring … not to mention making you look like a jerk! I picked my glass up and drained its contents whilst mentally kicking myself for being an idiot. “Would you like another drink Julianne?” I asked as I summoned the waiter.
After I had order the drinks and they had been delivered Julianne continued;
“Next up we have another Australian actress Ada Nicodemou. Ada was also in ‘Home & Away’ with Bec Hewitt and she was also in the first Matrix film. She is 32 years old and she won Australia’s third series of ‘Dancing with the Stars’ with her partner Aric Yegudkin. Her strength is her personality. She is a lovely bubbly person and this comes across in all her performances. Her weakness is that she can sometimes be a little stiff when she dances and she thinks far too much rather than just going with the flow.”
OK! Six down, four to go. If this takes much longer then it will be time for dinner!
“OK, onto the UK contestants” Julianne said re-arranging her legs so that she could stretch them.
“First up from the UK we have Jill Halfpenny. Jill was an actress on UK soap ‘Eastenders’ which is shown on BBC America. Jill is 34 years old and she won ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ in its second series with her partner Darren Bennett. Jill is probably the greatest threat to us of all the contestants. She is considered to be the most ‘professional-like’ armature dancer that this type of show has ever seen in any country. She went on to play Roxie Hart in Chicago in the West End. I caught her in that production when I was visiting London last and she really is very good.”
OK, Jill Halfpenny, remember that name Apolo, she seems to be your main competition! I would study the DVD of her extra hard that night.
“OK, are you still awake Apolo?” Julianne chortled “ Now we move on to contestant number eight. Mark Ramprakash. Mark started out as a professional cricketer who played for England but has since moved into sports presenting. He is 40 years old and he won series four of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ with his partner Karen Hardy. His main strength is his rhythm and fluidity and his main weakness is his lack of confidence. He doubts his ability and gets quite embarrassed by everyone’s attention.”
“Why did he do the show?” I enquired. It seemed pretty silly to me to compete in a dance show on TV and be embarrassed by the recognition.
“He wanted to raise the profile of his sport I think” Julianne said flipping over the page in her notebook “cricket is no longer a big sport in the UK and he wanted to help re-instate it back to the big league.”
She clearly wanted to press on and get this review over and done with so I obediently resumed my listening position.
“Next up is Kelly Brook. Kelly is 30 years old and is an actress and model. She is also known for being the girlfriend of Billy Zane of ‘Titanic’ fame. She and her partner Brendan Cole won the fifth series of the show. Her main strength is that she has been dancing in some form or other all her life - she attended the same stage school as I did – Italia Conti in London. Her main weakness is her partner Brendan Cole. Brendan has a reputation as the bad-boy of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. He argues with judges a lot, stomps off set swearing when put in his place, screams at his partners in training and dances with arrogance. A lot of people don’t like him and won’t vote for him and Kelly because of this.
Hmm! Sounds like a lovely guy! I’ll have to watch out for him.
“OK, last but certainly not least we have Colin Jackson, or ‘Action’ Jackson as Len Goodman calls him. Colin is 43 years old and was a world champion 110m hurdler winning gold in both the 1993 and 1999 Athletics World Championships. He still holds many of the records relating to his event and since retiring has forged a career in sports presenting. He has never won a series of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ but has won more Christmas specials than anyone else and therefore has been included in the line-up. His partner will be Erin Boag who is a lovely lady and a beautiful dancer. Do not be fooled by the fact that Colin has not won a series – he is still very good. He lost to a gentleman called Darren Gough who is not the best dancer in the world but the public voted him champion because he is a bit of a joker and people related to that. Had the best dancer won then Colin would have got his glitter-ball. Colin’s strength is his work-ethic and speed and his main weakness is, as with Mark Ramprakash, his lack of confidence.”
I breathed a sigh of relief as Julianne finished this last sentence – the finishing line had been crossed!
Julianne sat back in her seat and closed the notebook in front of her.
“So what do you think?” she says before taking a sip of her drink.
“Um, it’s a lot to take in Julianne” I say thoughtfully “But I think I’ve got the basics down – they are all pretty good so we need to work hard!”
“Bang on the money Ohno!” Julianne laughed.
As I leant forward to take another sip of my water my eyes caught sight of my watch.
d**n! It’s 2.30! I’m gonna be late for my press appointments if I don’t get a move on soon! Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun my boy!
In the panic that ensued I managed to knock my water over, fall off my chair and generally make a right old fool of myself.
Picking myself off the floor, I explained the situation to a laughing Julianne and agreed to drop her off at a little shopping mall in Vancouver for some retail therapy whilst I met the press. I would then pick her up later for dinner so we could discuss the small matter of training which we had yet to address before dropping her off at the airport for her flight home.
As I pulled into the car-park of the Pacific Centre Shopping Mall I could feel Julianne staring at me intently.
Oh Julianne! Please don’t go into this now! Please let’s keep this professional.
I parked the car and then turned to face her. She was still gazing at me softly. Taking a deep breath I decided to take control of the situation.
“OK Julianne, I’ll meet you here at 6.30 sharp OK?” I said as I reached over and opened her door for her. “That should give us plenty of time to eat dinner and be able to get you to the airport for your flight.”
The smile faded slightly as she unbuckled her seat-belt and climbed out of the car – she looked visibly deflated as though she had been gearing herself up for something only to have been robbed of the opportunity. Once out she turned to me and gave me a little wave and appeared to say something before she slammed the door shut.
As I drove away I thought about what she had said. I didn’t hear it properly because of the squeaking of the door but I could have sworn it was “Apolo, I’m so sorry!”
Author Note - The story continues in part 6.2 on another thread
I'll go read the other part. 
