The waitress returned and took drink orders, promising to return for their food order soon.
“Have you actually eaten here?” Rachel asked her boss.
Ben nodded. “I have. Greasy food galore. They’ve got burgers, too. Not a bunch of fancy stuff but a good, old-fashioned burger.”
“I’ll have that,” Katherine said, trusting Ben’s judgement.
“Me too,” Rachel agreed.
“Burgers all around,” Will stated.
Ben nodded and when the waitress returned, he ordered for the table, adding a variety of appetizers as well.
“Hey, if you’re going to be in the bar, you have to have the total experience. We are kicking back and forgetting about our real lives,” he said, holding up his glass of Coke for a toast.
They all clinked their bottles of beer against his glass. Katherine had never felt so at ease. Well, she had, but she couldn’t remember the last time she felt so carefree and young. When the band started to play an old Lynyrd Skynyrd song, Katherine couldn’t help moving her shoulders and tapping her foot.
“You want to dance?” Ben asked her.
She looked at the dance floor and saw a few people out there. Her initial response was no way in hell, but that was the old Katherine.
“Sure!” she agreed, giggling at her newfound bravado.
Ben took her hand and led her out to the dance floor. She wouldn’t call herself an excellent dancer, but she could move her body in time to the music. Ben had his hands on her waist as she spun around, backing against him and dropping low. She had no idea what she was really doing, but it wasn’t hard to imitate what she’d seen on TV.
When the song ended, he leaned close to her. “Damn woman, I want you to do that in the bedroom,” he hissed.
She giggled as he took her hand and led her back to the table where the burgers had just been delivered.
“You’ve got moves,” Rachel said with a smile.
Katherine swiped away the hair clinging to her red lipstick. “Thanks. I’ve never actually danced like that before.”
“No way! I would have never guessed. You’re good. Really good,” she complimented.
Katherine couldn’t stop smiling. They all dug into their burgers, thanking Ben for bringing them to such an excellent place for dinner.
“The best places are the ones no one talks about,” Ben declared, sounding a bit like a wise owl.
Katherine couldn’t help herself and leaned over to wipe the mayo from the corner of his mouth. They were having such a good time she never wanted it to end. Once they finished their meals and she had finished a second bottle of beer, Ben took her back to the dancefloor. All four of them danced, changing partners and having a great time.
Ben was quite the dancer himself. He was remarkably coordinated, and the hip action made her dizzy. Her mind had been firmly in the gutter after the first slow dance when they got to hold each other close and sway back and forth with the loud music drowning everything else out.
“I’m having a blast,” she whispered close to his ear.
“Good. You deserve to let your hair down and shake that fine ass now and again,” he murmured, his hand roaming over her butt and giving a gentle squeeze before moving back to a respectable hip hold.
“I can’t believe you come here enough to know the menu though. This really doesn’t strike me as your scene,” she told him.
He shrugged. “I don’t like to limit myself. To be perfectly honest, the scene I’m supposed to be in can be very boring and stuffy. I hate the judgmental stares and the talk about money all the time.”
She nodded her head. “Trust me, I understand completely.”
“I’m sure you do,” he said, earning a look from her, questioning what the comment meant.
She didn’t get time to think much about it before he took her back out for an energetic round of dancing that the entire bar got in on. Everyone was jumping and waving their hands in the air as the band played for the crowd.
When it was after midnight, they all decided it was probably time to go. Katherine felt like a butterfly. She had spread her wings and it was the most exciting, fulfilling night of her life thus far, she decided.