Adria's Choice

Chapter 9

Lexie laughed at me and handed me some tissue. "I had a feeling we were gonna need it," she explained.

I was a little embarrassed from being so emotional and turned away to dab at my eyes and nose.

We followed the couple from a distance, sure that they had already forgotten about us. Karyl was yakking excitedly about her wedding plans. Then John turned back to us with a wicked smile. "I asked the staff to set up four tents on the beach front. I could never have pulled this off without you two. We're all sleeping there."

Karyl stopped walking. "Four tents? Why four? We only need three."

By then, Lexie and I were close enough see John's grin. "Four. One for each of us. I decided that we should both wait until the wedding night," he said, while caressing Karyl's cheek.

I thought for sure that Karyl would explode, and say it wasn't his right to decide that for her. But she surprised me by going all teary-eyed and kissing him softly. This was the softer side of her that John brought out every once in a while.

I turned away from their glowing faces and tried to wipe away my fresh tears. Without a word, Lexie slipped her hand into mine and squeezed hard, almost crushing my fingers, before releasing me. Looks like I was not the only one affected by that display.

— OoOoOoO —

After Karyl slow danced with John in the moonlight beside the regulated camp fire, she insisted on some privacy and dragged John, halfheartedly protesting, inside her tent. Lexie was staring into the fire and was in such a mellow mood that I didn't want to disturb her. I didn't want to hear or see John and Karyl (the light from the fire made their shadows visible), so I walked away from the tents until I couldn't hear them, and sat down on the shore, right before the sand reached my toes.

Though I tried to hide it, watching them slow-dance reminded me that I had never done that with anyone, at twenty-five years old. I thought I was being discreet by pretending that sand was in my eyes as I surreptitiously wiped them (it turned real though, when I did manage to wipe some sand into my eye).

I felt her presence before I saw her.

"Why are you crying?" Her voice was soft.

I wanted to deny it, but for some reason, I simply told her the truth. "Tom and I, we never danced. He never took me dancing in the five years we were together," I whispered into the night.

I didn't look her in the eye as I confessed, afraid I'd see her pity. After all, no less than four men were clamoring to dance with her just a few hours ago. It was Valentine's Day, after all, and people still wanted to pretend that they were there for luuurve. Yeah, I didn't buy into that crap either.

She was tip-tapping her feet on the sand, playing a game of catch-me-if-you-can with the waves, but at my confession, she stopped and turned to me. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah..." I trailed off. "I love to dance. But I'm not good at it. He didn't like to dance. He knew I wanted to dance with him, though." I threw clumps of sand onto the water to distract myself. "I'm twenty-fucking-five years old and—" I went silent as my brain finally caught up with my mouth. "Yeah, okay that doesn't sound right."

I could see Lexie trying hard not to smile.

"I'm fucking twenty-five years old and I've never slow danced with anyone," I muttered. I tried to not sound so bitter, but there was no getting around it.

It was a while before Lexie spoke. "That fucking bastard." I was taken aback by her angry voice. "I met him at a bar. I was in the middle of the dance floor, when the DJ suddenly played a slow song, and Tom came up to me and asked if we could dance. He can dance, Adria." She shook her head. "I can't—Wait, I can believe that he lied to you to avoid dancing with you. I want to castrate him for hurting you."

I tried to take the sting away by chuckling. "Well, I can't blame him. He saw me dance one time at a friend's wedding, and my partner came back clutching his toes." I tried to smile even as I recalled how Tom laughed along with them, and he refused to try dancing with me ever since that night. Shit, I'd been so blind.

Lexie didn't buy it. We'd gotten to know each other so well over the past year that she was able to see right through me. "If you want, I can...teach you. You just need the right partner. I think your dance partner then was the one who didn't know how. Or how to be a gentleman."

Without giving me a chance to respond, she pulled me up to stand.

"But there's no music!" I protested. I suddenly felt afraid, for so many reasons.

She shushed me, put my hands on her shoulders, and wrapped her arms around my waist. Then she started singing Rihanna's Stay. There was barely any wind so she didn't have to sing too loudly for me to hear her. It was the first time I really heard her sing (that time when she was \drunk and screaming at the top of her lungs inside a car didn't count), and I was unable to suppress my smile. I was impressed.

I started to move, and immediately stepped on her toes. I expected her to react, and was ready to say "I told you so," when she started to lead me through the steps. Instead, I decided to look at our feet as we moved. I didn't know how many times I stepped on her toes before I got the hang of it, but she didn't even flinch.

"The guy should always lead," she said, when she ended her song. She was still twirling me around on the sand, not an easy thing to do.

She flashed me a friendly smile then pulled my head toward her, over her heart. My heart started pounding as we swayed to a new sweet song she started singing, about youthful dreams and romance, in that hopeful-sounding voice of hers.

"This is how it should be. You, resting on his chest, feeling safe, and him leading the dance. Just let the guy lead, Adria."

She kept whispering instructions, as we danced to an imaginary melody, on the beach that Valentine's Day, right under the moonlight.

It was one of the best nights of my life.