Dancing Hours (19 page)

We started dancing and th
e
guy could
definitely
move.
His style was reminiscent of an East Coast Swing and I wondered if he had any training.
T
o his credit, he mostly maintained a respectable distance
while we danced
. 
He knew how to lead and I was happy to follow.
I could tell by the way he was looking at me that he found me attractive, if only for right now. 
T
he dance floor became
our
grownup
playground.  It felt good to let loose, but
the alcohol settled in and
I went
straight past tipsy. 
When the music slowed down,
I closed my eyes and
got lost in
the music
trying not to get sick
. 
I imagined that I was in some club in Barcelona or Paris, maybe even Moscow or Hong Kong. 

When
I got bumped
b
y someone
and opened my eyes,
I saw the D
ancing
G
uy smiling at me, then
Rebecca
trying to get my attention
with a  glass of water and then I could have sworn I saw X sitting at a table staring at me.  The lights flashed across him so briefly, my heart started.  As my eyes adjusted I searched
a
gain
,
wondering if I had actually seen him, but
Rebecca
got to me first and dragged me away looking laughingly at
Dancing G
uy who blew me a kiss and put his hands on his heart as I was escorted off the floor.

“What was that?” she asked while I
gulped
down the water she got me.

“I was just dancing.”
I explained.

“
Right
.
  Next time find me a guy to dance with too.
 
By the way” she added “
You’ve got a fan.
”

“What?”

“
T
he dude in the suit over there cam
e in and sat down to watch you.”
she
gestured in the general direction of where I thought I’d seen X.
  “What kind of special sauce
is in your burrito tonight
?” she asked playfully.

“What guy in a suit?”  I was alarmed, but
Rebecca
ignored me
as she searched the room for a dance partner
.

Not being able to see X again, w
e found guys for both of us to dance with and
carried on with our evening
.
  I kept imagining X sitting and watching me.  It scared me a little and, oddly, thrilled me a little too.
  I think the alcohol was clouding my judgment, but I started to not care who was watching.  Then something really weird happened.  In a town of many thousands, if not millions more
people
than my hometown, Noah showed up.

He was walking straight for me on the dance floor when I saw him.   I smiled and o
pened up my arms for a hug.  The part of me that would have felt self-conscious about it had officially left the building.  He did hug me
but pulled away too quickly. 
He stood there
and
we
were looking at each other, the only two people standing still on the dance floor.
 

“What did you do?” he hissed into my ear.

“What are you talking about?  Dance with me!”
I smiled and shook his arms.

“Are you
dating
X?”
he demanded.

I was about to defend myself, two dates doesn’t exactly constitute dating and I had broken it off with him anyway, but then I got angry at
Noah

“What business is it of yours anyway?  Are you jealous?  You took off out of town with a ‘See
ya
’, you ditched me at that strip club and you think you’ve got the right to say who I date?”

He looked resolved not to be baited into an argument. 
“I did not ditch you at the club.” He spat.  “Dance with me.” 

“Seriously?”
I asked, incredulous
that he
now
want
ed
to dance.

“Yes, seriously.
  I’ll explain everything.”
He said glancing over his shoulder.

It was loud in there, but Noah
explained that he owed X
a lot of money for some gambling losses. He’d been trying to get toge
ther enough money to pay it off and
get back in school, but he was in deep.  Now X had taken an interest in me and knew that I know Noah.

“He’s here now, somewhere, I’m sure.  I was told he’s not happy about you dancing with some other guy,
so he wanted me to stand in.  He thinks I’m your cousin.”
He said.

“Why would he think that?”

“Because that’s what I told him.  I don’t want to be in the way of anything that X wants.  Otherwise, I think he’d have the crap beaten out of me again.”
He half-joke
d and I looked at him curiously
.

When
Noah
explained what happened at the strip club, I was shocked.  It didn’t fit with the person I thought X was, but then again I didn’t really know X at all.  And he did warn me that he had a dark side.  I guess
I should have listened.

“Look, I don’t know what you’ve got going on with hi
m, but you need to be careful.” He said.  “
You’re
playing with a psycho
and now I think you might be dragging me down too.”
He looked away, lost in anxiety that clearly had nothing to do with me.

What?  Did he just say that?
 
He thinks I’m dragging him down.  What a peach.
  He went on to ask if I could finagle some debt forgiveness or get X to ease up on his strenuous collection efforts.  He didn’t even look the slightest bit ashamed to ask.  After that conversation, it was official.  I was no longer even the slightest bit attracted to Noah. 

My girlfriends were another story.  When I grudgingly brought Noah back to introduce
him
to them, sparks flew between
he
and
Rebecca
.  He turned on his bad boy charm and disappeared into the night with her on his motorcycle when the other girls and I went home.  I forgot to tell him to call David.

My
robo
-phone rang as soon as I walked in the door
to my apartment
. 

“Did you have a nice night?”
  The cartoon-
villain
voice on the other end of the line asked.

“Yes, I did.  Thank you.  It was nice to see my cousin.  You shouldn’t have.”
I said curtly.

“It looked like you needed a new dance partner.”
He mused.

“Why were you stalking me?”

“I wasn’t stalking.  Come outside and let’s talk about it.”

“Outside?”
  I opened the door and he was standing there in front of it.  “Did you follow me home?”
I hung up the phone.

“Only to ensure your safety.”

“You can’t do this sort of thing.  It’s weird and it does not count as giving me space.”

“You’re right.  I’m so sorry.  I only want you to come back to me.  I can’t think without you.”
He reached for my hands, but I pulled them away.

He was starting to scare me a little bit.  This was going too far.  He started crying uncontrollably
.
I had definitely never seen a grown man cry.  I didn’t know what to do. I offered him a glass of water.

He apologized for following me, fo
r asking his friends to keep an
eye on me, for interfering with my night.  He said he just couldn’t bear the thought of me being with someone else and it was making him crazy.  He promised to give me some space if I would just kiss him.  It seemed easier than refusing and I wasn’t really sure what he would do if I said no.  He kissed me like a man getting his first taste of water after hiking a desert mountain.  I could tell that he was feeling very passionately
, but the feeling wasn’t mutual and I felt a little weird and cheap for letting him do it, so I backed out as quickly as I could.

“Feel better?”
I asked, hopefully.

He held my face and looked at me with desperation “I want to spend every minute with you, but if you need time to realize that we were meant to be together, I’ll have to give it to you.  Just please, don’t make me do anything horrible.”

With that remark, he was gone in a flourish.  I was left standing in the doorway, wiping off my lips and feeling a foreboding sense of dread about what might lead him to do something horrible.
.
. and what that horrible thing might be.  I realized that I might be in
over my head here.  It was time to call for help.

The next
morning, first thing, I called Nan.  The phone rang twice and I worried that I wasn’t going to reach her, but she picked up on the third ring.  She sounded so happy to hear from me. I almost couldn’t bear to tell her what I’d been up to, but I could never hide anything from Nan.  I sobbed into the phone
that there was a guy and he was crazy and he wouldn’t leave me alone. 

“I think I’m in some trouble
, Nan
.”

There was just a moment of silence, then I heard her say “Don’t worry, sweetheart.  I’m on my way.”  The line went dead.