I shook my head and managed a smile, sucking it up. “No…no, it’ll be fun.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Let’s do it.”
Not long into our lesson, it was apparent who the better dancer was.
I squinted at my partner. “Are you sure you’ve never done this before? Maybe took some lessons as a kid?”
“What are the chances you could get Storm to take dance lessons?”
“Uh, slim to none.”
“Not only could we never have afforded dance lessons when I was a kid, but there was no way in hell I would’ve risked taking them and my friends finding out. They’d either have tortured me for years or beaten the crap out of me. Probably both. Most of the world is changing for the better these days, but nothing changes in the old neighborhood.”
Donovan pressed his hand into my back to guide my steps as Bev stood alongside of us counting.
“One-two, one-two. That’s it. Two quick to the side and then a slow step forward. You count the slow over two beats of the music and the quick over one.”
I was glad he seemed to know what the hell she was talking about. Bev directed us to add in the second step now, something called “Together, Together.” But I hadn’t even realized we’d been working on two different steps. Though again, Donovan seemed to catch on quickly and took a strong lead. On our third or fourth pass of putting together the two different steps she’d apparently taught us, I started to feel like I was getting the hang of it. Except at one point, I stepped forward when I should’ve stepped back and wound up stomping right on Donovan’s foot.
He winced, but quickly wiped the pain I’d caused from his face.
“I’m sorry.”
“No worries.” He laughed.
A few minutes later, Bev told us to take a five-minute break and left the room. Donovan bought two waters from the machine in the lobby, and then we went back into the studio.
I was really warm and drank half of the bottle. “I just want to say that it’s an old wives’ tale that if you can’t dance, you’re not good in bed. There is no actual correlation.”
Donovan smiled. “You have rhythm, you just can’t seem to memorize the steps. You definitely still confuse your left and right and sometimes front and back.”
“Yeah…that was always my problem when I was little, too.”
Donovan chugged the rest of his water and winked. “Plus, I have zero worries about us in bed together. I already know we’re a good match.”
“How?”
“Eye contact. You give incredible eye contact.”
I laughed. “I don’t even know what that means.”
“You look at me with an intensity. It mimics the way I feel inside when I look at you. Chemistry is all about eye contact.”
Our gazes caught, and my heart sped up. I guess he had a point. We’d had that spark from the very first moment we met.
Bev came back in, and Donovan excused himself to go talk to her by the stereo. They exchanged a few words, and she smiled as she glanced over at me, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.
“What was that all about?” I prodded when he came back.
“Nothing.” He took one of my hands and wrapped the other around my back as the music started.
Bev was back at our side and counting again before I could interrogate him further. The second half of our lesson went better than the first. I finally started to relax and enjoy myself once I stopped caring what I might look like. To be honest, the way Donovan looked at me, I knew judging me for some missteps was the furthest thing from his mind. At one point, Bev stepped back.
“Alright. There’s about ten minutes left to our lesson. I’ve really enjoyed working with you. If you’re interested in continuing, just give me a call.”
“Thanks, Bev,” we both said.
She walked back over to the music, changed the song, and waved one last time as she walked out of the dance studio and into the lobby.
“I’m confused. Didn’t she just say there were ten minutes left?”
Donovan pulled me into his arms. Unlike the way he’d held me during the rhumba lesson, our bodies were pressed close together now.
“I asked her if we could have ten minutes of time to dance alone. Her lesson was nice, but there was too much distance between us. I want you closer.”
The instrumental introduction to John Legend’s “Slow Dance” ended, and he started to croon. My body melted into Donovan’s touch as we swayed back and forth.
“This was a very thoughtful idea. Thank you.”
“Let’s be real, my motives weren’t entirely altruistic. These lessons were also an opportunity to hold you close for the first hour of our date.”
I laughed, and Donovan spun us around, burying his nose in my neck and inhaling deeply.