Chéri tried to smile in encouragement. Anne was obviously not feeling very secure, but almost no one ever had when they had first tried to dance. Learning was hard. They wished they could have told her.

Chéri kept smiling luminously at Anne, as they tried, once again, to step back, to invite her to execute the step. If they had a bad impression of Anne, they didn’t let her know. In fact, Chéri found it somewhat relaxing to be doing something, for them, so low stakes with someone who seemed to have so little idea of who they could be, who didn’t attach immorality to them the second they appeared. They were going to be very patient with Anne because of that, which was very unlike them.