The Band played on.

She sat in the dark as tears streamed down her cheeks. She didn't know what to do anymore. She knew sitting here in the dark, thousands of miles away from him wasn't doing her any good. But she also knew that she needed some space to think. Think about her, him, their relationship.

She ran shaky fingers through her hair absently, trying to get the short brown wisps out of her eyes. But the action brought back loads of pain…James had always brushed the hair out of her face.

Ashley's face crumbled and her green cat-like eyes dropped more tears down her flushed cheeks. Would her world never be the same again? Would everything remind her of James, and of her heartache?

"Ashley, sweetheart come down for some dinner," Amy called softly from the doorway. Her fragile features were meshed up in concern as she stared down at her bumbling heap of a sister. She didn't know the whole story behind her and James, but something had upset her normally happy, optimistic sister.

"No Amy I'm just not hungry," Ashley whispered from her spot on the floor. She lifted her head and tried to smile at her sister, but it came out to be a horrible mess of wobbling lips and tear filled eyes.

"Ashley what's wrong?" Amy asked stepping fully into the room. She couldn't stand to see her sister like this anymore. She flipped on the light switch as she walked towards her sister. Ashley blinking rapidly at the harsh light. Amy sighed sadly at the sight she represented.

Sitting in the middle of the hardwood floor wearing nothing but an old pink terry cloth robe, she looked a sight. Amy sat down besides her and grabbed her hand, holding it fiercely in hers. She tilted Ashley's chin up with her other hand, so her sisters expressive eyes were at level with her own, lighter, green eyes.

"Oh Amy, I fell in love," she whispered as tears once again started their way down her cheek. She leaned her head down onto Amy's shoulder as her body racked itself with sobs.

"Do you remember three months ago when I went to L.A. to promote my up and coming book?" Ashley asked Amy a couple of minutes later, once the tears and hysterics had stopped. Amy nodded her head encouraging Ashley to continue on.

"Yeah, well a lot more than just promoting went on…" Ashley recalled. Her eyes turned misty and distant as she looked back.

…Ashley walked along the empty sidewalk as she breathed in the fresh morning air. It was six in the morning and for once L.A. was, not quiet, but calm. She looked around at the big businesses with awed eyes. As a girl who'd grown up in the small town of Jacobsville in Minnesota being in L.A. was a whole new world to her.

The streets were crowed all day long, with people busily making their way to what, she didn't know. Everything, the people, the styles, just the way of life was different from what she was used to. And she loved it.

The small little cafés that were always crowed with impatient patrons that wanted their caffeine boost for the day. The lovely harbors where bright colored boats floated by with a lazy ease that spoke of normality.

Her heart filled with contentment as she past yet another fancy building. Looking back at the name she stopped dead in her tracks. The Kinning Company. Her mouth dropped open as she slowly retraced her steps so she standing directly in front of the building.

The Kinning Company was the most sought out of its kind. James Kinning, a genius at the world of dance, owned that company. He was a great Director/Choreographer. Hell, for a complete klutz like Ashley he was a God!

She stopped if only for a moment and let her mind wander. To imagine what it would be like if she could dance, if she could gain some rhythm. That had always been her biggest fear as a child, the big High School Dances. She'd made more excuses than she'd thought possible in Junior High to get out of them, and she'd always succeed.

But the big dances, Snoball and Prom, she'd been forced to go by both her friends and family. And just as she'd feared, she'd been horrible. Her dates had tried to get some talent out of her, but she'd been so tense and self-conscious she'd barely moved at all on the dance floor, even during the fast songs.

She frowned and whipped those thoughts from her mind as she again imagined herself, all dressed up in a gorgeous gown, spinning around a dance floor in the arms of the most devastatingly handsome man in the room. All the women would be jealous, and the men hopeful.

A wistful smile played on her wide, unpainted, lips at the thought. So lost in her world Ashley didn't notice the dark metal door beside her had opened. She didn't hear the voice from somewhere inside, as her mind played over that fanciful dream in her head.

She did however feel the hard blow that landed on her back seconds later. So forceful it buckled her knees and made her lose her balance.

"Ahh!" She screamed as her hands and then body hit hard, hot cement. The next thing she knew a hand was reaching down to help her to her feet.

Ashley slowly stood up, dizzy after the fall. Her cat eyes and looked up into dark, near black eyes. They were part concerned part irritated.

"Are you all right?" He asked her, his voice soft, and low. Ashley nodded her head mutely, too stunned to speak.

"What happened?" She croaked out. Her hands hurt and so did her knees. She cringed as she realized that she was probably bleeding. She slowly sat up and examined both injured parts. Good news no blood. Bad news big scrapes.

"I collided straight into you," the mysterious man admitted as he helped her to stand up. That was when Ashley got her first good look at him.

Tall, probably 6 feet or so with dark black spiky hair and those impossibly dark eyes. He had a high forehead and strong dark eyebrows that didn't have a curve in them at all. He had a long narrow nose and wide thin lips the color of burned pink. His face was rather normal all things considered. But put together it was simply beautiful. A dark mysterious kind of sexy…Like a Clint Eastwood sexy.

"Yeah, well I was daydreaming so I suppose I was just as much at fault," Ashley admitted as well. She blushed as she remembered what she'd been daydreaming about.

"Really? What about?" He asked her with a gleam in his almond shaped eyes.

Ashley's brows knotted together as she considered that from anyone else such a question would be rude but for some reason, even though she didn't even know this man, it fit him well.

"I was looking up at the Kinning Company sign and wondering what it would be like to dance," she admitted. She never had been good at lying and she didn't plan to pick the habit up now, so she opted for the truth.

"Like to dance?" He laughed. "Anyone can dance, they just show you have to do it right," he corrected her.

She shook her head, making her short hair fly around her face in lovely disarray. "That's not true. I'm the biggest klutz in the world and I don't know how to dance," she admitted. It, for some odd reason, didn't embarrass her to permit such a fact, funny.

"You can't dance?" He asked her as if in disbelief.

"Nope," she shook her head again in finality.

"What if I were to show you how to dance?" He asked her, grabbing her by the arm. She looked into his dark pools shocked to see that he was quite serious.

"I don't even know you," she mumbled. She was surprised as well to learn that even though she didn't know him she wasn't afraid of him.

"Sure you do…" He smiled at her as he started leading her towards the dark metal door. "My name is James Kinning, of the Kinning Company," he added in unnecessarily. She knew who he was!