Just One Dance

Chapter One
 Despite being in a crowded office, Taylor Sparks was entirely in a world of her own, as was often the case. She worked for a marketing company that mostly dealt in household goods. At the moment, she and her team were working on a new breakfast cereal campaign, and to say her heart wasn’t in it was an understatement.
 Taylor had finished the work she needed to do this morning an hour ago, and since then her mind had flitted from one idea to the next. She tapped her pen incessantly on her notepad and drummed the fingers on her other hand. These stims helped quiet her ADHD symptoms.
 Her notepad that was largely filled with hearts, arrows piercing hearts, and more hearts. Anyone who saw her scribbles would think her hopelessly in love, but in fact the opposite was true.
 At twenty-six Taylor’d had her heart broken—the last time, a year ago. But that didn’t discourage her from being in love with love. She was quite sure and quite determined to find it someday. That was something she knew for certain. Taylor would never give up on love.
 Taylor’s phone beeped and knocked her out of her daydream. It was a notification from a dating app that she should have deleted by now. She should have known better, but she opened it and saw a nice-looking woman, whose profile described her as: Up for a laugh, and looking for no-strings fun.
 She sighed and closed the app, then finally deleted it. Taylor wanted strings, many strings, love, and a committed relationship. It’s what she’d daydreamed about her whole life. How could you find something so pure and beautiful on a dating app?
 How could you judge a person based on a brief profile and a quick appraisal of their looks? The person you swiped left on could be the love of your life if you had only got to know them the old-fashioned way—the very old-fashioned way.
 Brilliant, thought Taylor. The perfect line for an advert. She wrote it down. Fall in love the old-fashioned way—the very old-fashioned way.
 Taylor got a text from her friend Margo: You ready for lunch?
 Lunchtime finally. Taylor hated to be sitting this long, just one of the ways this job was killing her. She liked to be on her feet, moving, putting her energy into something she enjoyed, not breakfast cereal campaigns.
 She shut down her computer and grabbed her handbag before texting back, On my way.
 Margo worked for a different company but in the same building as Taylor, so they always met up for lunch. They’d first met when their companies teamed up for a joint charity event. Both Taylor and Margo were on the event committee, got on like a house on fire, and became friends ever since.
 Margo was the head of the editing team in her company’s publishing business and loved her job. Taylor envied her in that.
 Taylor travelled down in the busy lift until she reached the Garden Cafe’s floor. They were lucky to have this place in the building. There was greenery everywhere, making it a change from her grey, dreary office, and the food was excellent. As nice as it was, Taylor couldn’t bear to sit down indoors, so they often got sandwiches to go and walked over to the park, even when it was a frosty December day like today. They were fortunate that their building was minutes from Green Park, lucky indeed in the built-up centre of London.
 Both of them liked to get exercise during lunchtime, so they only sat to eat and then went for a brisk walk. The only weather they didn’t venture out in was rain and snow, but today was dry and crisp.
 Taylor heard her name called and saw Margo catching up with her.
 “Hi, Margo.”
 “Hey. Let’s get some food before our favourite picnic bench at the park is gone.”
 They purchased their food and made their way out onto the busy London streets.
 “Good morning?” Taylor asked.
 “Yes, excellent,” Margo said. “I’m working with a new young author. That’s always the most exciting bit for me, the start of a literary journey. How was yours?”
 Taylor sighed. “Boring as usual. I was working on this new cereal brand. I was finished in a few hours and spent the rest of the time itching for the clock to go round.”
 “You’re wasted in that company, Taylor. You’re one of the best marketing people I’ve seen. Come and work for us. I know it’s not your own business that you dreamed of, but at least it’s a creative business, not cereal and washing powder brand campaigns. My publisher is crying out for someone like you.”
 Margo wasn’t kidding. Working with books and authors would be more interesting than what she was currently doing, but Taylor was frightened she would get comfortable and not push herself to start the business that was her dream, the project that she had been planning for the past six months.
 “I think I need to be this bored at work to keep pushing myself. How else will I keep the hunger to open my own business?”
 They walked in through the park gates and made their way over to the picnic bench they liked best. It was situated most beautifully next to a lake, where they could watch the water.
 “How did your meeting go with the investor you lined up?” Margo asked.
 “Not so good. They made me feel like I was wasting their time. If I’d gone to them with an online business model, it would have been looked at differently.”
 “And your business is more unique than that.”
 “It certainly is. But I won’t let myself be downhearted. The Regency Romance Club can be a success. I know it can.”
 “With your energy behind it, Sparkle, I know it can,” Margo said.
 Taylor laughed at the use of the nickname her friends gave her. “I