"Bev at work is doing it, says its great fun. Why don't we give it a go, Paul?" My girlfriend Lindsay was suggesting it.
"Won't it be all women, and men dragged along?"
"No, she says she goes on her own, but most are couples who really enjoy it."
And that was ten weeks ago. And I had gone along, because you do when your fairly new girlfriend suggests it. And Bev was there, and we nodded and smiled, although never chatted -- too busy doing it. It seemed that while Bev and Lindsay worked in the same department they wouldn't be described as friends -- they worked together amicably. There was a dozen other couples as well. It seemed to work -- the couples did it with each other, Bev seemed to do it with the instructors assistant.
And I surprised myself -- I loved it! Never thought ballroom dancing would be any fun, but it was great! Quickstep, waltz, jive, cha cha cha -- I loved them all. I wasn't very good, but I grew more and more enthusiastic. More enthusiastic than Lindsay who had suggested it.
Which is why I was ticked off when I got the message. From a friend, first, then from Lindsay herself. She was seeing a soccer player, and I was history.
Truth was, I was a bit sad to end it. She had been sexy, and we'd had fun together, but it was never going to be more than that. What ticked me off was that I no longer had a ballroom dancing partner! I loved the ballroom dancing. Seemed like the end of the New Yorkers, Right turns, side close side...
Thursday evening I went around to the class just to tell the instructors I'd have to stop. No partner. The instructor was a great guy, and great instructor. "Why don't you dance with Beverley? She doesn't have a partner. Give it a go?"
"But I don't really know her -- she knew my girlfriend better..."
"Come on, call me Bev, lets have a go. You're Paul, aren't you?" I hadn't been aware she had come in soon after me, but she had overheard what Tony our instructor said.
"Don't know, I've never done it with anyone else..."
Beverley ("you can call me Bev") smiled. "Worth a try. You seem pretty good at it."
I shrugged. Followed Bev over to some chairs.
Bev was in her early thirties. Lindsay had mentioned she was divorced, or had been with a guy for some years and the relationship had gone wrong. She was mid thirties, whereas I was 26 -- much younger. She clearly did a lot of exercise -- her body was well toned. He ass was round -- I noticed as I followed her across the room. She was attractive, with short blonde hair -- but she wasn't what you might call feminine -- she was a strong lady both physically and mentally. The fact she stood a couple of inches taller than me, and I'm five eight, suggested we might have to adjust our dancing style a bit. Perhaps the dancing touched the 10% feminine side of her personality...
As we moved to the floor to start our lesson she said "Hope you're going to lead me properly -- it's the only place I let men lead me! On the dance floor!"
"I'll do my best..." and the lesson started.
I did do my best. We were okay together, after some initial struggling. Quickstep went well. She mainly had to go backwards, and I guided her as best I could. Same with the Waltz. The Jive we did okay after we got our size of step co-ordinated. Truth was we began to smile at each other, and enjoy dancing together. And it's always nice being close to a hot woman.
The room where we had our lesson was warm, really warm. And dancing is energetic. And by three quarters of the way through the lesson we were sweating, sweating hard, the sweat running down our faces, in our hair, almost soaking our tops -- the sweat made Bev's white t-shirt stick to her body, and her grey jogging bottoms were getting wet with sweat too.
We had a pause between the Jive and cha cha -- everyone was drinking water. Bev blew out breath, then said "I'm sweating like a pig."
Why do I let my mouth speak? What a drab line I had! "Women glow, men perspire, only pigs sweat!"
Bev wrinkled her face. "Then I'm glowing like a pig."
It was then my mouth moved again before my brain. "Well, I could lick all the sweat off your body!"
Bev gave me a strange long look, but then we were called on to the floor for the final part of our lesson. Time for some cha cha cha...
We spent about fifteen minutes working on some bits of the cha cha then danced it to some music. Then the hour was done.
As we got ready to go home, I said thank you to Bev, and said I hope we could carry on next week coming to the lesson.
"I thought you were going to lick every drop of sweat from my body?"
I went red, started stammering. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, I shouldn't have said it, just a joke..."
"When men suggest things I make sure they see them through! I live around the corner. You said you wanted to do it. You'll come and do it."
Ten minutes later we had walked to her flat, and she let me in. she showed me into her sitting room, then went and got us a couple of cold drinks. "My bedroom's over there. Come over in a couple of minutes. Let me get ready for you. You're going to do it."
My heart was thumping suddenly. It was bad enough making a crass comment, but felt a hundred times worse facing the reality. I nervously sipped my drink, then knew I didn't have any real choice. I crossed the hall and pushed the bedroom door open.