The room was heavy filled with the smell of smoke, alcohol, sweat and a miasma of heavy perfume and cologne. It was dark; you could see the city lights through the open windows. Blue lights shown on the band, with a soft yellow spotlight in the center that enveloped them all. Crowded, loud. The band was playing hot. Fast jazz swing and sultry, slow torch songs. Their following had grown and grown over the past few years and she loved to watch them perform. She was always in the crowd. They could count on it.
She would stand close to the bandstand and sway to the music: always with a drink in her hand, something hard and straight. The dance floor tonight was in a renovated ballroom where the dance floor βfloats.β The floor had a bounce, a give, a feeling like it was alive and a part of the dance.
The bodies pressed against her, the floor moved with an up and down motion that was caused by the crowd. She could feel the heat radiate from the close packed, moving bodies. She anticipated.
She intently watched the crowd, looking for the one. Every evening the band played, she would find the one that would help her in her search to be filled and consumed by the music. This bandβs music was her life and she helped make the music. The man she was looking for could usually be found at the edges of the crowd, standing alone, and also watching. It was someone who was also consumed by the music. She scanned the crowd and the band watched her, waiting.
While she danced with the men who asked her, she would try to find him while she did the fast pace swing steps. Watching her dance was easy. She made everyone who danced with her look better, smoother, than they were. She helped them to become the dance, just as she was. Her hair flew behind her in a sheath of gold; her skirt swirling around her in soft waves of color.
By the middle of the second set, she had found him, just as she always found him. Tonight he was a man in his forties, dark brown hair mixed with some gray. Slender and just the right height for her needs, he was wearing soft, worn jeans and a black tee shirt with a fitted sport's coat. He was intently watching the band and her. His hips followed the rhythm of the beat. She danced one more swing number, keeping her eye on him, smiling and letting him know that she saw him seeing her. It was the last tune of the set. As the number ended, she pushed her hair back to fall over her shoulders and went to the bar for a drink. He watched her and then she disappeared into the crowd.