Layers of dust coated the countertop and the desk clerk bell, also. When Linda and Roger stepped into the empty studio, their footfalls echoed against the emptiness and hard wood. Layers of dust coated the floor and the short wall near the receptionist desk, which had also been long neglected and stained. All of the posters, the reception area Asian rug and the glass cases for trophies had been removed, so that all that remained was a skeleton of its former glory.
"Good lord," Linda remarked as they crept cautiously onto the dance floor, as though it might crackle and sink beneath their feet. "Hasn't anyone looked after this place?"
"No," Roger replied, as his foot kicked a small block of wood that scuttled along the floor, emitting puffs of dust. "Commercial real estate's been tanking for the past several years. I'm sure you know that. In fact, they've talked about tearing down this whole building. The lawyer's office on the first floor is the only one left."
"What a shock," Linda said, laughing.
Roger glanced at the late afternoon sun spilling in through the windows, the same way it had during Linda's most memorable lessons at the studio. "It's a good thing we're here during the daytime. The power's been off for a few month's now." Their voices echoed and reverberated in the hollow emptiness.
For old time's sake, Linda assumed a dance position and stepped back for a couple of slow-slow, quick-quicks in a foxtrot basic. She whirled around to face Roger, who now stood thirty feet away from her. "So, tell me why we're here?"
He smiled as he walked toward her. "I want to open it again."
To go over his business presentation with her, he opened his laptop and showed her a series of dry looking spreadsheets, which showed the decline of commercial rents in the area. "The point is," he said, "commercial rent can be had for a song."
"I get it," Linda said. "You move in, spruce things up, hang up a shingle and reopen. Do you need students?"
"Something like that," he replied. "I would like to reopen it as a Shall We Dance franchise and I'd like to offer you the first position as Grand Benefactor."
Linda knew the "Shall We Dance" organization well. They were national, and had studios overseas. Many times, the dancers who danced with celebrities in "Dancing with the Stars" came from Shall We Dance. "Okay," she said. "What's a Grand Benefactor?"