was one spotlight lit. You could see nothing on the other side, and I tried my hardest, knowing that she was over there. Was she as nervous as I was?
When the music started, we would walk toward one another and meet in the center of the light before a few other lights came up. My heart threatened to explode from my chest, and I wiped my hands down my pants.
Oh, shit—shit—shit!
What the hell was I doing? What if I forgot the dance? What if I dropped her? What if I did all this, and it was for nothing? I put my hand to the collar of my shirt, and even though it wasn’t buttoned at the top, I tugged on it as if I couldn’t breathe. I forced myself to swallow.
For a second, I froze. What if she didn’t pick me? I wanted her to pick me. I wanted her to choose me. I didn’t like to lose.
A soft male voice sounded off to my side. “Ready, and three, two, one.” A palm in the center of my back gently pushed me forward just as the music began to play. Five steps later, I reached the dance floor. I could just make her out on the opposite side. We stepped in unison again, and my fears vanished as I began to make out her features. I dropped my chin to my chest, staring at the ground as I took the last few steps as was my part in all this.
A light-purple gauzy dress flowed around her pretty legs, and her feet were bare. Her toes were dainty and painted the same color as her dress. Please don’t let me step on her toes. Her small hand landed on my chest, her fingernails also light purple, and I couldn’t help but smile as I began to lift my face but snapped it to the side as she took my hand and placed her right hand into it. I curled my fingers around her warm skin, and she lifted my chin with the tips of her fingers, her touch sending waves of something warm through my chest. Our eyes made contact for the first time, and I felt electrified.
For a few beats, we stared at one another. I wanted to pick her up right then and run away with her, but a moment later, she broke eye contact as she spun to the side away from me and began to move through the routine. There were no other thoughts besides taking every step with her, being beside her. When I wasn’t thinking about what came next, I was thinking about how beautiful she was with her dark wavy hair coursing down her back and that sexy dress wrapped around her body. The moves came without effort—almost without thought—as I lifted her with ease and treasured every moment that our bodies were in contact. I spun her around, I lifted her, I held her, and just before she’d move away again, I’d feel a pain in my chest as if I knew what was coming and didn’t want it to.
At one point, we turned toward one another, meaning to come nose to nose, but we were so close that our lips brushed, and I heard her gasp slightly as she twirled away from me. My lips tingled from the slight touch and continued to do so for another few seconds.
She was elegant and beautiful, and she entranced me down to my soul. During one point in the song, we were both on the ground, and I pulled her to me. I could instantly imagine having her there in the crook of my arm for years to come, but in another beat of the song, she was up and moving playfully away.
I loved touching her, loved the feel of her body as it slipped down or slithered around me. I adored the smiles on her face as she peered at me through her lashes, almost shyly, but also seductively as if begging me to be the man she needed—the man she had dreamed of having.
There was one move that I feared slightly, and it was one of the hardest steps for her. She would lie on the floor, and her legs would wrap around my waist as I began to lift her. Only she would be doing most of the work as she slowly curled herself from a backbend up and around me.
She made it seem effortless, and she fit so perfectly against me