Author and writer, living independently.
Author and writer, living independently.
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The band jumps into a song that has a long steady rhythm, and he pulls her up and out onto the dance floor before she can mount a protest. His puppydog style makes her laugh and she soon forgets to be embarrassed. They end up wiggling their way through the growing crowd of dancers, and make a place for themselves in front of the performers. His range of moves go from being all elbows to making neat kicking spins, seemingly to two beats at once, and even though she tries to be sedate and poised, eventually she abandons herself to the music.
At the end of the next song, Stubby and Jasper start the intro of the next one and Charisse adds a low comment into her mic, “Here’s a slow tune, so you can get to know each other better.”
Before she knows it, Matt has Marisa close, with her right hand held out in his left, his other hand guiding her lower back, and she has no choice but to follow along.
“Go with it,” he says into her ear, and simplifies his lead with sways and the occasional turn until she relaxes in his arms.
She says softly to him, “How do you know how to do this?” They sway, turn, and he even spins and dips her, always keeping their place in the song. She drifts to the music, Charisse’s velvety voice, and the dance floor flowing around them.
“My aunt and my mom. They practiced in the kitchen and forced me to learn.”
“For when you’re dating?”
“So they’d have a partner. You’re just getting collateral benefit.” He guides them to make two turns while Charisse croons the song’s catch phrase, and feels Marisa resisting a little, so makes it clear that they can slow down and sway to the music.
“My Aunt was dating and thought that taking a dance class would be a great way to meet good men, so my mom was teaching her – and me – the basics, so that she wouldn’t look like a klutz on the first night. Kinda went on from there.”
He exaggerates their swaying drift, “Okay, hold on. We’re going to do a fast spin to the right. Together...” She ends up clutching on, forgetting what her feet are doing, or if they are even touching the floor, and then he settles them down into the basic sway again. “There. See? You know how to do this already.” He smiles into the back of her neck.
“I almost fell over.”
“You floated around with me. We were flying.”
For just a second. The feeling, the beauty of it. How free. It is like flying, and she’s glad they made him learn, but it’s almost too much.
“Hey,” she whispers, “Let’s not get fancy again.”
“Okay. Yeah, sure,” he lets them slow down. For now.
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