I Pretend You're Mine

14. Ridiculous

"Oh-kay," Sam said awkwardly before spinning around to give the couple  some privacy once he came upon the them making out on the couch.

Tim wrenched his mouth away from Lucy in his surprise at the intruder, then he scrambled off of her to stand up. "Sam," he breathed.

"I-I didn't know...your dance lesson...sorry," Sam apologized, still keeping his back to the couple.

Lucy stood and cleared her throat before nervously scratching her neck. "Right. Dance lesson. We're ready to go."

Tim looked down at his girlfriend and flashed her a "really?" glance. She merely shrugged in reply, so he pursed his lips but gave in. "Yeah, let's go." His hand found one of hers to hold. If they had to leave the couch and the bookstore, Tim still wanted to hold onto her somehow.

As they walked down the street towards the dance studio, Lucy asked Sam, "Has anyone ever told you that you and your wife have bad timing?"

Sam knitted his eyebrows together in consideration before replying, "Yeah, actually, we've been accused of that before." He welcomed them inside the empty studio and shared, "Andy's dropping Olive off with Tamara, and then she'll be here for your lesson. We can stretch until she gets here."

"Olive. That's a beautiful name," Lucy complimented.

"We named our daughter after one of our best friends in the world named Oliver. Of course, now her Uncle Oliver takes credit for every amazing thing she does, which we should've expected from him. But, we don't care. Olive is the best thing to ever happen to us," Sam grinned as his mind filled with visions of his little girl. "Do you two want kids?"

"Some day," Lucy answered without a second thought. If they were planning on having grandkids, surely they would need to have kids first.

Tim smiled. Some day. That was a nice answer. He liked the sound of that.

Lucy saw the way her boyfriend was positively beaming at her and wondered if it was too late to change her mind and skip the dance lesson to go back to the couch in the bookstore.

"Well, parenting is like dancing; you gotta be agile, sometimes improvise when you make a misstep, and trust your partner to work together, so we're getting some practice in right now," Sam noted.

Lucy thought that was a beautiful metaphor. Tim was barely paying attention to the other man as he kept his eyes on her.

"Alright, let's stretch," Sam said and clapped his hands once in the hopes of  getting Tim to focus on anything other than Lucy who he seemed to be solely concentrated on.

Andy entered the studio after the couple had finished stretching. "Hey, guys. Who's ready to waltz?"

"Oh, before we start...Tim and I are leaving tomorrow, so this'll be our last dance lesson," Lucy said, and she was a little disappointed to leave town and stop seeing Sam and Andy. They are a great couple.

"That's a bummer. But, next time you're back in town, we should hang out, and maybe if you stay long enough, we can fit in another lesson," Andy offered.

"We'd love that," Lucy smiled. "You guys are awesome."

"You guys are, too. Since this is our last lesson together, let's make it count," Andy said and reached for her husband to get into position.

Tim drew Lucy into his arms happily.

"I think this is a little close," Lucy whispered, looking down at how their chests were pressed together while Sam and Andy's form allowed for a little distance between them.

"I don't mind if you don't," Tim murmured.

"No, I don't." she smiled.

What started as tiny sparks turned into a raging fire that consumed every ounce of Lucy's blood thanks to how Tim held her and kept unwavering eye contact with her. She could not feel her feet or do much of anything other than cling to him and let him guide them through the dance steps.