The Dance

The music seemed louder to her throbbing ears, the dancers seemed to be gyrating, jumping, and bouncing more than usual. She watched him silently drinking his beer. His leg nervously shaking under the table. She couldn't help but wonder why he seemed so nervous? Maybe he was feeling the difference in the scene as well? 

They had been to this bar many times before. The music was always good, a live band that played a mix of old rock and country. Normally, not too loud, you could always hear and be heard while in a conversation. 

She had been meeting friends here, enjoying the music, and dancing with some of the other regulars for over a year. 

At that moment her memory jumped to the first time she had really noticed him there. The memory of their first meeting just exploded into her mind…

he had said to her “I like watching you dance, your smile lights up the room!” She had thought it was a sweet pick-up line and laughed. He said “no really! I only do ‘wiggle-butt’…rock n roll freestyle dancing, at home, but you glide around the floor with those men as if you own the floor!” They sat and chatted the rest of the evening. 

She remembered she had often offered to teach him the dances, each time he gently declined admitting to a shyness in public as well. 

She had seen him there before that conversation, and remembered she would occasionally see him looking at her, then pretend to look away. She would smile every time, and even now, despite her concern at his tension, she smiled with the memory of the flirting! , She had thought him attractive, but when he didn’t speak to her she thought he was probably unavailable…taken perhaps?! Ah, yes the handsome ones were always already taken. 

After the chatting that evening, he had asked if he could see her again, perhaps a dinner at a quieter location? Throwing her usual caution to the wind, she exclaimed “YES!” And agreed to meet him the next evening. 

Dinner evenings turned to movie nights, and breakfasts out, then they turned to dinner and movie nights in, and breakfasts in as well. 

All the while she continued to go to her favorite local dance place, sometimes he joined her there, other times he said “dancing isn’t my thing, it’s yours! I enjoy watching you but can’t join you.” He seemed to sincerely enjoy just watching her be happy in the dancing. 

They continued this way of life for nearly a year. She would always wonder where he went on the nights she didn't see him at the bar, but theirs was a friendship built on trust so she danced with friends and met him other places on the other nights. 

This night, sitting there with his leg shaking, his fingers tapping on the table, she actually started to worry that maybe he had found someone else? Someone that didn’t push the dancing. Someone that just wanted to spend time with him? What could be the cause of his nerves? 

She started to tremble inside, could she live a life without dancing to enjoy everything else she had found with him? She started to ask him about his shaking… when the band started playing a slow love song that she really liked. She turned to face the band, deciding to wait to ask until after this song just in case it was hurtful news she would get. 

Just then she felt a warm hand take hers. She felt an arm around her waist, and a familiar body join hers in slow motion to the song. 

Right there, next to the table they were dancing! Swaying really, but it was him! He was holding her and dancing with her…In Public! Oh how high she felt, how he had thrown his own cautions to the wind and was now bravely swaying with her to a love song! No wonder he was shaking earlier! 

When the song ended she held him tight not wanting the moment to end. He looked her in the eye, kissed her, and it was then she overheard some of the other non-dancing men say he had “ruined it” for all of them! She heard the women exclaiming he was “a God for treating her so specially!” 

He started guiding her away from the table, she thought perhaps he was embarrassed and needed to leave immediately. She would go with him, and thank him for putting himself in the position to feel awkward!! She would appreciate this moment forever!

He walked her past the other bar tables, he set his drink down at the table of a friend near the dance floor. Now he was guiding her onto the very empty, very public dance floor. What was he doing?

The band started playing her favorite country waltz song and he slowly spun her to face him. He moved awkwardly at first, then 1, 2-3…1, 2-3… he was waltzing her around the floor! She was floating! Effortlessly following his nearly flawless lead! Her heart beating fast, her head swimming with blissful emotion!

When the song ended she again tightly held him to keep the moment locked into her entire being! 

It took her a moment to hear the cheers that had erupted in the bar. She backed slowly out of his grasp and looked around, the bars resident dance teacher was walking towards them. He had something in his hand. She presumed it was something for someone that she couldn’t see behind them. But he stopped right at the spot they stood. He handed the item to her new dance partner while telling the bar that this man had been secretly taking dance lessons from him for many weeks. 

In a sudden move that startled her, her man had dropped to his knees, and was holding the item from the dance teacher up to her as if trying to show her the beauty in it.

He said “I may not be the best dancer here, but I want to dance with you for the rest of my life, will you be my wife and dance partner for the rest of yours?” 

Gasps, cheers, and exclamations of “Awwww” from the patrons reminded her to answer his question! “Yes!”