There was a very good chance he was crazy for what he was doing. In his sane mind he would never volunteer to go take a dance class. But that’s what Audrey did to him. She drove him crazy.
* * *
Audrey pushed openthe door to the community center excited for her evening. Out of all the events that Viv was considering for the singles week this was the only one Audrey had actually volunteered to attend.
Tonight, she was meeting with the dance instructors of a program called Show Her Off that taught basic dance moves, no dance experience necessary, for couples. The spin for singles week was that they were going to teach these basic steps at the beginning of the night and then each of the singles would switch partners with every new song that came on.
She wasn’t sure who her dance partner would be this evening, but she didn’t even care. She was basically like Sarah Jessica Parker in Girls Just Want to Have Fun when she’s standing up in front of the class at her new school and her teacher asks her to tell them all a little about herself and she says, in a very dreamy way, “I love to dance.”
That was Audrey. She’d always loved to dance; she’d just never had a partner to dance with. Since she was a kid, she’d romanticized dancing with her significant other. Whenever she was a little girl imagining what her life would be like when she got older, she had never seen herself having babies or kids but she had envisioned herself being married and madly in love. There was one scene that was a recurring daydream.
The setting was the kitchen, she was standing in front of the stove cooking with music playing in the background. Her husband would walk in, see her, wrap his arms around her and they would start slow dancing. She’d tell him she was going to burn the chicken or the rice or whatever was on the stove, and he would just spin her out and then in again and tell her it could burn, the only thing he wanted to taste was her, or some other equally cheesy-slash-sexy retort.
She knew dancing was a silly thing to fantasize about, and she had no clue why that was where her brain always went. But for better or worse, that was her reality.
When she walked into the rec room, where she was meeting the instructors, she had to admit that she was a little disappointed that Josh wasn’t there. In the back of her mind, she’d thought that for sure Viv would take this opportunity to try and set them up again, like she was sure her sister had done with the Dining in the Dark and the AcroYoga.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t there, and neither were the instructors. She walked over to the bleachers and sat down to wait and her mind drifted back to a few nights ago at the shelter. She honestly didn’t think that she could love Josh any more than she already did but seeing him with Thor had caused her to fall even deeper.
Pete took off once Thor was calmed down, leaving her and Josh alone in the shelter. She and Josh stayed in the kennel and waited for the storm to pass. Thor slept on Josh for about an hour before the weather cleared up and she said that they could go.
Josh looked up at her and said, “I’m not leaving without him.”
Her heart had exploded into a million pieces. He adopted him on the spot. It was the most romantic thing he could ever do.
Now that she thought about it, the fact that she fantasized about dancing and thought the most romantic thing a man could do was adopt a dog may be two reasons she was still a virgin.
The double doors opened and when she looked up and saw a man and woman walk in who she didn’t recognize her heart sank. Josh wasn’t coming. She was kicking herself for not texting him to see if he would come with her. She should have taken matters into her own hands instead of just assuming that Viv would be playing matchmaker. If she’d asked him to come, he probably would have agreed.
For the past eight years, she’d just been waiting for something to happen between them and where had that gotten her? Smack dab in the friend zone. After that yoga class, after experiencing what it felt like for Josh to touch her, she wanted more and she was tired of waiting. Audrey had always hated any sort of confrontation and was more comfortable just letting things happen, but this was too important to remain passive.
If she wanted to get out of the friend zone, then she was probably going to need to step out of her comfort zone.
She forced herself to smile as she stood and walked over to meet the instructors. The man introduced himself as Hunter and his partner as Junie. He went over the basic idea of the program and asked if she was ready to start.
“Yep.”
“First, we’ll show you what you’ll be able to do by the end of the night.”
“Great!” Audrey agreed enthusiastically.
He turned the music on and she watched as he and Junie did what looked like a fairly difficult dance sequence, complete with dips, holds, spins, and a few moves Audrey had never seen before.
She had no clue if she’d be able to remember all the steps, but she was excited to find out. When the song ended she clapped and a deep voice sounded behind her causing the tiny hairs on the back of her neck to stand up on end.
“Fancy seeing you here.”
She was already smiling before she turned around and lifted her chin to meet Josh’s deep brown stare.
“You got roped into this, too, huh?” Her voice was a little breathy as she did her best to sound unaffected by his arrival. But she was affected. Very affected. Inside she was jumping up and down like she’d just won the lottery.
“Nonna mentioned that you were going to be here and needed a dance partner and I volunteered.”
Had she just heard him right?
Did he say that he volunteered to come down here?
“Oh.” Audrey was trying not to let herself read too much into what that meant, but her inner romantic had fallen onto the swoon couch with the back of her hand pressed to her forehead.
Hunter walked over and introduced himself to Josh and explained what they would be learning.
Audrey was doing her best to tamper down her excitement at least on the outside, because on the inside she was freaking out. So many nights they’d been at JT’s, not together but they’d both been there, and she’d dreamed of him walking across the bar and asking her to dance with him. In eight years, it had never happened. But now, now her dream was finally coming true. Sort of. This wasn’t exactly the same as him crossing the room and asking her to dance but beggars couldn’t be choosers.
“Okay, let’s get started.”
They slowly walked through the first few steps and while they did she realized why Josh had never asked her to dance, he had two left feet. Which made him showing up tonight even sweeter and caused her to fall even more in love with him.