Jack couldn't help the grin, despite the fact that David was glaring at him. As they walked back toward the group. Jack said, "Ask her to dance."
"What?"
"The band isn't playing the group stuff, now it's couples music." And that much was true. The band had changed their tunes, they were playing some classic slow dances for couples.
"I teach here." David pointed out with a huff. " The last thing I need is to be embarrassed by her usual standard of put down." When did he become a coward, he wondered? In any case, he thought they had moved on. That they had put their history behind them, but now, it seems their future was going to be incomprehensible.
"Coward." Jack challenged. "What happened to wanting to make out in the paddock in front of everyone?"
David glared. He knew he was normally a calm, relaxed, happy man. But the last few hours had turned his life into chaos.
"Ok. I'll ask her." Jack proposed calmly. "You ask Amelia."
"How the fuck is that supposed to help?" David grumbled.
Jack looked at his brother, and shook his head. He could see David's frustration, and Jack understood that, given his relationship with Amelia was a circuitous route. "We swap on the dance floor. Do one dance, then a casual bump into each other and I'll demand my woman back!" Jack suggested, as if he had found the perfect plan.
"That has got to be the lamest effort..."
"You don't have any better ideas." Jack told him. They reached the table and began to hand out the drinks.
"Where's Greg?" Jack glanced around as he put Greg's bottle of beer on the table.
"He's dancing with that woman from the book store." Ella replied coolly. Her voice even icier than normal as she tracked Greg and the woman on the dance floor. Then she looked over and spotted her friend Mallory. Mallory was also watching Greg and the woman dance. Ella felt for Mallory, knowing exactly how it felt to see someone you loved in another woman's arms.
"Ella." Jack gave her the bottle of diet coke. "Speaking of dancing. You haven't danced with me." Ella visibly recoiled. Jack smiled at that reaction. " Come on." He took her by the arm before she could protest in earnest and he steered her into the throng. Jack threw David a look just before they disappeared into the melee.
David watched Jack and Ella for a second, then he turned to scan the group at the table. "Amelia?" She looked at David, having tracked Jack and Ella onto the dance floor while she wondered what Jack was up to. "Would you like to dance?" David said with a smile.
She beamed at him. "Yes, please. Thanks, David."
They did a slow circuit of the hall. "Jack's idea is that we bump into them and trade." David finally told Amelia.
"Bump into who?" Then she grinned, ah-ha, that explains Jack's behaviour! "Oh right. Great. When?"
David shrugged and frowned. "It's a lame idea. She'll probably walk off."
Amelia stopped moving, tipped her head back so that she could look into his eyes. She said with a sigh, "You like her, don't you."
"Yes." He mumbled.
Amelia wanted to bang their heads together. "Honestly, the two of you are just plain stupid!"
"Thanks!"
" You asked her to look at your house. She went around to your place. But apparently you haven't seen the drawings, because you haven't bothered to arrange the follow-up meeting! I know she gave you her card, and I am pretty sure that you have not forgotten her office number or forgotten her office was at the back of her section." Amelia shook her head in remonstration. "She apparently told you to call her when you are ready to discuss it, and she would check her diary to book you in. But you haven't done that. If you like her why haven't you..."
David interrupted, "I know. I know. I just haven't worked out how to...."
And Jack chose that moment to bump into them.
"Trade David. I don't like the way you are holding my girl." Jack grinned.
Amelia rolled her eyes. She looked at Ella and said with a huffed, "This was Jack's plan to get you to dance with David. So don't make a fuss, and just swap ok?" Then she stepped into Jack's arms and gave him a non-too gentle nudge to get him to move.
For a second David and Ella simply stood, looking at each other, waiting for them to make a move.
"Will you dance with me?" David finally asked.
Ella nodded. She slid a hand into his, and rested a palm on his shoulder. He splayed a hand in the small of her back and slowly guided her into the dance.
They danced in silence. By the start of the next piece both had relaxed slightly, so that their bodies now coasted each other. He'd folded his arm and brought her hand to rest against his heart. She felt it hammer and knew that hers was racing just as fast. When his hand in the small of her back brought her closer to him, she tipped her head back to warn him off, and never issued the warning. Instead her lips trembled as his mouth brushed against hers.
Several feet away, Jack grinned. "A good idea."
"What?" Amelia asked and tipped her head back. Jack lowered his head and imprinted his smile on Amelia's lips.
Several feet away, David and Ella were slowly forgetting where they were.
A whisper of contact. David's mouth moved tenderly. A slight touch that just teased her lower lip. David felt her acceptance of his kiss.
His arm at her waist hauled her closer. When her lips parted he inched closer, his mouth fusing to hers before his tongue slowly made its way into her mouth to taste and touch and play with her tongue. He kept it light, gently teasing, tantalising. Turning his head one way then another as he tasted her, gently. His blood raced from his toes to his hairline and back again. Ella grabbed his shirt front with one hand as she held onto his neck with her other hand, and held on for dear life as kiss set off a mini set of fuses. She gave him permission to take it further. David was about to take her up on it when they were jostled.
"Mr Mackenzie." The principal's voice cut through the haze, "You might want to take this somewhere more private." He said quietly and waited for David and Ella to acknowledge the situation.
Embarrassed, David was really uncomfortable. He expected to find himself at the end of a verbal onslaught from the woman he had been kissing so publicly. Instead, as she looked at him, her lips twitched, then her mouth curled up at the corners. She glanced at the principal who had moved on and she started chuckling.
David frowned in confusion, "Why aren't you mad about this?" His breathing was still uneven. And he realised this moment would change his life forever. If he remembered that kiss from ten years ago, that their relationship could be this good, he'd have made sure that the last two years were not a drought.
"Because it's funny." Ella replied with a rueful shrug, accepting the fact she knew an expert kissed her. And she reacted wholeheartedly to his kiss.
"Really?" His eyes watched her and saw her raw emotions in her eyes.
She shrugged, told him with suddenly confidence, "Because, well, it like being back in school, at a school dance and being told to maintain a decent distance!"
Her response was not what he expected. The corner of David's mouth quirked. "Didn't happen with me! Until now!" He hadn't been told to move away from his dates at his school's dances when he was a student, and yet, here, as teacher, he was told by his boss to step away!
"Except we are way over the age of consent." Ella reminded him. She rubbed a finger beneath her nose, just above her lips and ran her thumb beneath her low lip, hoping that her lipstick had not been smudged by the kiss and her thumb had erased any lipstick outside of her lip's contour. She swiped a tongue across her lips, and noticed that her lips were still trembling.
"But not exactly setting a good example." David ran a hand around the back of his neck. He looked around. No-one was taking any noticed of them. Thank goodness, he thought.
"I guess not." Just like David, Ella looked around. "We should head back to our table." And she turned to make her way off the dance floor. "I guess this is embarrassing." She told him.
"No." His hand on her shoulder stopped her.