Dancing
5 years ago - omission 1
Ava had not forgotten about the dancing part of that fateful night with Beatrice 5 years ago. She had safely stored it away in her memory as one of her favourite parts of the night, that she just didn’t feel like sharing with anyone.
They had already had quite a lot to drink when Beatrice had admitted that that night had been her first ever in a bar or club. And that’s how the whole conversation had started.
“So you have never danced before?”, Ava asked curiously.
Beatrice held her bottle of alcohol half-way to her mouth, tapping against it in thought and then did a cute movement between a shrug and shaking her head. “Not in a club, no.”, she then answered. Ava just looked at her, waiting for her to elaborate. Beatrice sighed, then explained: ”But my parents made me take ballroom dance lessons for many years.”
Ava rose her eyebrows. “Like waltz and shit?” Beatrice laughed at her choice of words. “Yeah. Waltz and other, similar dances.”, she confirmed with a small, but fond grin.
“But why?”, Ava groaned dramatically.
Beatrice shrugged again. “Lots of fancy events to attend, where dressing up and dancing with potential suitors was a basic requirement.”, she answered tonelessly.
Ava grimaced. “Sounds horrible. Glad I never had to go to that kind of events.”
Beatrice gave her a half-smile, then asked in all seriousness: “Have you never done any kind of ballroom dance?”
“No!”, answered with an eyeroll, but when she saw Beatrice starting to write something in her notebook with a smug grin, she laughed: “What are you doing?”
Beatrice held up the notebook to her to reveal the newest addition to Ava’s list: learn how to dance (ballroom).
Ava stared at her in playful disbelief. “Absolutely not!”
But Beatrice ignored her protests. “You should really learn it before Camilla gets married.”
That seriously confused Ava, because: “What? Why?”
Beatrice chuckled. “Because Camilla is going to want a huge, romance novel inspired wedding with all the classical traditions.”, she explained, like it was the most obvious answer in the world. She paused, before continuing with a teasing smile: “Including dancing. And she is going to make you do a classical dance. If you are lucky, she is just going to expect you to know how to waltz. If you are unlucky, she is going to make us all learn the English Country Dance from Pride and Prejudice.”
Ava just stared at her wide eyed. “You are kidding, right?”
“I assure you I am not.”, Beatrice replied with a hint of amusement in her eyes. “So you better learn some ballroom dancing.” And she accentuated her point by adding an exclamation mark to the bullet point on Ava’s list, which made Ava giggle.
She did not give in though. “Nope, not gonna happen!”, she insisted. “I would be sooo bad at it. I am really clumsy.”
She didn’t know what to make of the pensive look Beatrice suddenly eyed her with, until the taller woman revealed the reason for it: “You didn’t look clumsy when you were dancing in the bar before.”
The admission caught Ava off guard and left her speechless for moment. She quickly covered up her perplexity with a wide, cheeky grin. “Were you watching me dance, Beatrice?”, she asked teasingly. It did have the intended effect, Beatrice blushed visibly, but when she replied, she sounded surprisingly confident and collected. “I mean, it was hard not to. You looked so unburdened and free..” She held Ava’s surprised gaze with her own tentative one, before softly adding in a low whisper: “I could never.”
Not exactly the reply Ava had expected or hoped for, but it still tugged at her heartstring. “Of course you could.”, she tried to assure Beatrice with an encouraging smile. “You just need to stop thinking…”
“Yeah, that’s already the first problem…”, Beatrice weakly joked.
Ava sighed and observed the young woman in front of her again. She was still a mystery to Ava. She still seemed so restrained, so controlled. But behind this carefully crafted armour, Ava could see so much curiosity and hunger and passion yearning to be freed. Beatrice just didn’t seem to know how to let it out without feeling like losing control.
And Ava knew she could not open that door for her, but she could help her take one little step. So she energetically jumped to her feet and held her hand out to Beatrice: “Okay, come here.”
Beatrice looked up at her in confusion, but took Ava’s hand and let herself be pulled up. She immediately took a couple of steps back, when she realized that her and Ava had ended up standing very close. Ava rolled her eyes affectionately.
“Come here.”, she insisted softly. “I will show you.”
“Show me what?”, Beatrice asked sceptically, but she did come a step closer.
“How to dance like me.”, Ava cheekily replied.
Beatrice blinked at her, looking completely caught off guard. “We don’t have music.”, she drily noted with wide eyes. Ava chuckled, rolled her eyes and got out her phone to put on her playlist. The first song was relatively slow, but one she loved dancing to, so she left it on and put her phone back on the floor.
As soon as she stood opposite of Beatrice again, Ava started to sway slowly to the music. Beatrice just stood there, completely stiff, staring at her with wide eyes. It made Ava giggle a bit, so she grabbed both of Beatrice’s hands and started to sway them back and forth, trying to get Beatrice to loosen up. It took a while, but eventually Beatrice exhaled loudly and mirrored her movement – she was still tense, but a small smile appeared on her face, when Ava held their hands up and dived down underneath them in a playful spin.
She could see Beatrice had relaxed a bit, but the other woman was watching her every move, clearly trying to figure out how to do club dancing right and it nearly made Ava laugh out loud the way she seemed to study her unplanned and uncoordinated movements. It was absolutely adorable.
Ava smiled fondly and stepped closer to Beatrice – so close, that she saw Beatrice flinch and then freeze, looking at her like a deer caught in headlights. She stopped at an arm’s length, but leaned in carefully until her lips were next to Beatrice’s ears. “Close your eyes.”, Ava whispered and she could see Beatrice shiver. When she stepped back again, Beatrice did, indeed, have her eyes closed shut – but she was still frozen in place, her mouth slightly open, her breathing heavier than before, an unreadable expression on her beautiful face. After a moment of silence, which Ava had apparently spent just staring at her, Beatrice opened her mouth to ask something, but Ava quickly stopped her: “Just keep them closed and forget everything around you. Just move your body to the music.”, she explained, while scrolling through her phone to choose another song.
And Beatrice did. It started with soft swaying, just like they had done before. But when the song really started picking up, Beatrice rose her hands above her head, slowly and absentmindedly moving them to the beat like she was floating. And suddenly all Ava could do was stare, completely mesmerized. Beatrice looked ethereal in the orange light of the setting sun and it made her heart pound so loudly she felt like it was bursting out of her chest. Her own desire to dance was completely forgotten. She wasn’t stupid, she knew what that feeling was that was electrifying her whole body right now. And yes, she was also kind of tipsy and she got excited by surprises and she developed silly crushes easily, but that didn’t change the fact that she had never felt that way just by looking at someone.
She was still just standing there staring in awe, when Beatrice opened her eyes and their eyes met in the dim light of the setting sun. The tension crackling between them was undeniable. And Beatrice could feel it, too, if the dazzled look on her face and her carefully slowing down her movement without breaking eye-contact was anything to go by. And there they stood, just looking at each other in anticipation, Beatrice nervously biting her lip while Ava was still unable to move.
The moment was broken when the music changed to an absolutely silly song and broke whichever spell had fallen upon them. They both couldn’t help but laugh, awkwardly at first, then more freely. They both tried some silly movements until Ava rolled her eyes at the song and quickly went to switch it off.
“That was fun.”, Beatrice admitted with a shy smile.
“Much more fun than ballroom dancing, I am sure.”, Ava joked.
“Ballroom dancing can be fun.”, Beatrice replied and to Ava’s surprise she seemed sincere.
“No way. How can anyone enjoy that kind of dancing? I mean, isn’t it horribly boring?”
Beatrice shrugged and then added with a small, but teasing grin: “You know, historically these kind of dances served the same purpose as you dancing in a club today. It was and still oftentimes is a way to have fun, to , you know, flirt, to test the waters. A starting point for courting. It isn’t rare that people end up spending the night together after waltzing the night away. A lot of people find it… appealing.”
Ava had to admit that she was curious now, but she still made a point to stare at Beatrice in disbelief. “And how on earth do you make a waltz sexy..?”
Beatrice tilted her head and bit her lip again, to hide the small smile appearing on her lips. “Physical closeness. Prolonged eye contact. Moving hands. Whispered words.”, she said without breaking eye-contact and Ava was well aware how her body felt hotter with every word coming out of the other woman’s mouth.
“Okay…”, she just muttered dumbfounded and couldn’t avert her eyes from Beatrice, who suddenly seemed to get nervous under her intense gaze. “Not that I ever tried any of that.”, she was quick to confess, a cute blush appearing on her cheeks. “My grandma taught me all about this when I was a teenager. She wouldn’t stop telling me how she seduced my grandfather.” She grimaced at the last part and it made Ava laugh again.
But then she suddenly realized something and frowned. “So does that mean you had to like waltz with slimy millionaire sons who were trying to feel you up, while figuring out your networth?”, she asked, both shocked and disgusted.
Beatrice shook her head vigorously and with a face that told Ava she found the idea of that at least as horrifying as Ava herself. “God no!”, she breathed out with a forced laugh. “I mean, hypothetically, yes, that’s what would have been expected of me. But that’s what I brought Michael for.”
“I see.”, Ava said. “And have you ever ballroom-danced with a girl?”
Beatrice shook her head.
Ava thought of her reply for longer than she normally would and then decided to just jump head-in. That was one of her strongest qualities after all. “You could teach me.”
“I don’t think…”, Beatrice started, but Ava interrupted her: “Come on. What kind of song can you ballroom dance to?” She already had her phone in her hand and before Beatrice could even answer, she had found a playlist with “songs to dance to” and clicked on it. “Is this one okay?”, she asked, when the first song started playing.
“Yes.”, Beatrice softly answered.
“Okay, great. So, how do we do that?”
“Well, you have to come closer.”, she heard Beatrice mumble. Ava stepped closer and she could see Beatrice getting visibly flustered. It made her own heart dance with excitement. “Now give me your hand.”, Beatrice softly explained. She did and the way Beatrice tenderly clasped her small hand with her own strong, warm ones while gently putting her other hand on Ava’s upper back made her heart flutter. She mirrored Beatrice’s hand placement, but was immediately corrected. “Your left hand on my shoulder.”, she heard Beatrice shyly mutter. She did, once again, follow Beatrice’s instruction. This time Beatrice kept quiet, just carefully pulled Ava a little bit closer, and Ava took her silence as confirmation that she was doing it right.
When she looked up at the other woman, she realized that Beatrice was purposely staring over her shoulder at some random point in the background. For a breathless moment Ava just looked at Beatrice’s perfect profile, admiring her soft features, observing how her eyes aimlessly flickered around the park in a clear attempt to not meet Ava’s gaze. Ava chuckled lowly. “Thought ballroom dancing required eye contact.”, she quietly spoke into the space between them.
She could hear and feel Beatrice inhaled sharply, but then Beatrice chuckled shyly and turned her head towards Ava’s. Their eyes met and Ava could have sworn that she could see the stars of the night sky shining in Beatrice’s gentle gaze.
“There.”, Ava whispered with a happy smile. Beatrice carefully smiled back and then started to move Ava to the slow rhythm of the song like it was second nature to her, every movement clear-cut and determined, while her hands were guiding Ava with a firm softness. She did avert her gaze a couple of times during the dance, always looking down shyly, but whenever Ava would chuckle and press her shoulder, her warm eyes would find their way back to Ava’s, sending Ava’s heart more and more into overdrive. She did not know how she managed to get through the dance without pressing her lips to Beatrice’s. She had never wanted to kiss anyone that badly.
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Ava was pacing. Her mind was going a mile a minutes since Lilith had come by and casually told her “Beatrice will be here in a minute. She is a really good dancer” like that was a perfectly nonchalant thing to say and wasn’t going to catapult Ava’s nerves through the rooftop. And to be fair, how would Lilith know. It’s not like Ava had ever told anyone about that night she shared with Beatrice. But why, oh why, did she have to ask Beatrice of all people at this huge wedding?
“Stop pacing.”, Mary told her, after she had enough of watching her friend freaking out.
“I can’t.”, Ava groaned. “Beatrice will be here any minute.”
“And?”
Ava breathed out. “With her girlfriend…”
“Who says it is her girlfriend?”, Mary cut her off with her head tilted and a challenging expression on her face that made Ava huff in annoyance. “Come on, Mary.”, she grumbled. “It is her plus-one.”
“I am your plus-one.”, Mary reminded Ava and okay, fair point. But that still didn’t erase all the other hints.
“Yeah, but Camilla seemed really excited to meet her, so I am pretty sure…”, Ava started, but once again couldn’t finish her reasoning.
“She was also really excited to meet me.”, Mary threw in. “She pestered you for weeks to introduce us. Camilla is like that. It doesn’t mean anything. And to be honest, Beatrice didn’t seem all that eager to look for her plus one. Girl didn’t even know where that woman was.” Ava groaned. She hated when Mary was right. And she hated when Mary being right left her with no easy way out of situation she would prefer to avoid. And Mary wasn’t done, yet: “If Camila hadn’t reminded her that she even had a plus one, I would still be third-wheeling your blatant, awkward flirting.”
And okay, maybe she had a point, but..
“Hey.”
Ava closed her eyes and tried to calm her fluttering heart. How did Beatrice’s voice become more attractive with every word she said? She turned around to where the voice had come from and saw the other woman standing in the doorway, hands in her pockets. Ava inhaled sharply, because damn, her brain had short-circuited again.
“I take it you ignored my warning and the ballroom dancing is still on your list.”, Beatrice said, her head slightly tilted and an amused smile on her lips. Ava forced herself out of her daze and managed to roll her eyes at Beatrice with what she hoped was an easy smile. “I thought it was already off the list. I did let you show me after all.”
“It clearly didn’t stick though.”, Beatrice teased her and then added with a smirk: “And it wasn’t a waltz.”
Ava looked at her perplexedly. “It wasn’t?”, she asked.
Beatrice smiled warmly and shook her head. “It was a slow rumba. The song you chose would not have worked for a waltz.”
That made Mary laugh out loud and Ava was grateful when Beatrice redirected her attention away from her and towards Mary.
She eyed Mary with a polite, but hesitant smile. “So you are…?”, she started
“Mary.”, Mary provided and held her hand out, which Beatrice seemed to inspect first, before taking it with a very serious expression and a piercing look. What followed was a short, but intense stare-down that made Ava nervous just from witnessing it. Then Beatrice finally broke the tense silence with a short and surprisingly cold: “Pleasure.”
Ava had no idea what had just happened, but Mary gave her a pointed, but also highly amused look and rose her eyebrows like she wanted to get a point across that Ava did not understand. She looked at Mary questioningly, but was called back to the situation at hand by Beatrice politely asking then: “So, do you know the basic steps?”
They both gave a reluctant nod – Ava, because she did go to these dance lessons with Camila and Lilith and Mary, because…. well, Ava really didn’t know, because both their confirmations quickly turned out to be a grave overestimation of their competences. When Beatrice suggested they just show her what they knew, the disaster began. Ava would just stumble through unelegant movements and bump into Mary, who clearly had absolutely no idea how to waltz and would just constantly step on Ava’s feet. It must have really looked ridiculous, because after less than 3 minutes Beatrice interrupted them with a chuckle and gestured them to stop.
The way Beatrice was looking at her with a fond smile and that teasing gleam in her eyes made Ava’s heart summersault and she could feel the familiar mix of anxiety and anticipation creep at on her that made it hard to breathe.
“Okay, so, ehm…”, Beatrice started with another low chuckle. “We could also just swap partners, if you…”, she suggested, but Ava quickly cut her off in panic: “No!” Her heart was not going to be able to take this tonight. Both Mary and Beatrice were looking at her weirdly now after her admittedly uncalled for outburst, so she tried to come up with some solid reasoning for her rejection: “It’s just… Mary is really shy with new people.”
Two pairs of eyes looked at her intently, one in absolute indignation, the other in mild scepticism. “Well, that might be a problem, because…”, Beatrice started, but was interrupted by a questioning voice from the entrance: “Beatrice?”
All three of them turned around and there was a woman standing there, whom Ava didn’t know and had never seen before. A wide, relieved smile appeared on Beatrice’s face when she saw her. “Hey! Come in”, she told the woman and gestured for her to come closer.
The woman had long, wavy, dark hair, brown skin and dark eyes. She looked warm and smart and friendly and Ava hated how she immediately felt guilty for disliking her. But she did. Dislike her. Because obviously this could only be one person.
“This is Yasmine.”, Beatrice introduced the woman. And then she added. “My partner.” Ava felt her heart drop. Of course she was. She gave Mary a pointed look, which her friend countered with an eyeroll.
Yasmine shook Mary’s hand first and they introduced themselves, before she turned to Ava with a wide, open smile that made it impossible to hate her. “So, you must be Ava, then.”, she said in a knowing, but surprisingly not unfriendly tone. Ava quickly threw a short look at Beatrice and caught the other woman glaring at Yasmine. The girlfriend just gave Beatrice a teasing grin, which massively confused Ava, and then she redirected her attention to the two disaster dancers in front of her.
“So, who of you leads?”, she asked nonchalantly, looking between Ava and Mary. They both pointed to Mary and Yasmine, without further chit-chat, stepped toward Mary, held out her hands in the typical waltz stance and motioned for Mary to take the lead. “Show me what you got.”, she joked at Mary and before Ava could throw in a warning for Yasmine’s feet, Mary had, without an ounce of shyness or hesitation, followed Yasmine’s command.
Ava and Beatrice both watched in surprise as Mary naturally took in the waltz stance she hadn’t manged before. And then Mary just started to waltz with this complete stranger like she had just suddenly remembered how to. For a moment Ava and Beatrice could just stand and stare, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Ava felt the sudden urge to strangle her best friend alive, but was distracted by Beatrice carefully saying her name.
Ava inhaled deeply, tried to calm her suddenly loudly pounding heart and turned towards Beatrice, who sent a small, crooked grin her way. They looked at each other, both a bit shy and unsure how to proceed. They were just about to step closer to each other, when they heard Yasmine speak out what they both had been thinking a moment ago: “That is not your first time waltzing, is it?”
“No, it isn’t.”, Mary confirmed and with a smug and not very subtle grin in Ava’s direction, she elaborated: “My wife made me take dance lessons before our wedding. Our wedding dance was a waltz. Do you remember, babygirl?”
Ava growled and glared at her and was about to comment, when she heard Yasmine’s voice pipe up. “Oh, so you are married.”, she smartly concluded. Like Mary’s statement hadn’t been clear enough. Ava suppressed a huff.
Yasmine did sound a bit off and when Ava looked at her, she did not miss the brief, examining look the woman had just given her. Ava was confused. Maybe Yasmine was jealous, because she just realized that Mary was not that kind of plus-one for Ava and now regretted that she let her super gorgeous girlfriend practice dancing with her?
“Well…” Mary started answering, but Ava decided to chime in and tease her a bit, because goddamit she deserved payback for the stunt she pulled before: “Oh yes! Very happily and sappily married. In a very cheesy, romantic ceremony actually. She always pretends to be such a badass, but actually, she is a big softie. Believe me, I know. Since I moved in she has been making me breakfast every morning. Aaaand I get to experience her sappy side on a daily basis. She is really a romantic at heart. The perfect wife.” Ava had no idea why Mary suddenly looked at her like she had just said the dumbest shit ever or why Yasmine didn’t seem to be thrilled by her joking teasing or why Beatrice had just taken a step back from her.
“Well, okay…”, Beatrice said, suddenly sounding weirdly distant and overly polite. “So, ehm… We should probably get to practicing the basic steps.” Everyone agreed, though Ava felt like she had just missed an important part of their conversation, because suddenly it was hella awkward – the short conversations, the instructions, and even the dancing. Most of all the dancing. Much more awkward than Ava remembered their last time dancing. Beatrice firmly held her at arm’s length – literally – and had a very serious, concentrated expression on her face. And yes, Ava did remember from her few waltzing lessons that the typical waltzing position was much more stiff and distant than other ballroom dances and that it did actually not have a lot of eye-contact or closeness, but she could still tell that something was off.
Ava wasn’t sure what had happened. And she should probably be grateful for this sudden pointed distance. Beatrice was in a relationship. Maybe Beatrice had just realized that her behaviour could have been read as flirty and that she should keep her distance to Ava with her girlfriend being right here. And Ava was not in any way looking for a relationship anyways. So it was probably for the best to establish clear boundaries and not even be tempted to do anything stupid.
It still felt like someone had hit Ava hard in the stomach though stomach and it made her heart ache for the closeness they had felt that night and that she had thought was still there just a few minutes ago. But maybe she had just been wrong.
She probably had, if the way Beatrice kept looking over at Mary and Yasmine was any indication. She was barely paying attention to Ava and the dancing and the silence between them finally became unbearable for Ava.
“You don’t need to be jealous.”, she blurted out.
“Hu?” Beatrice quickly spun her head around and was blinking at Ava now, having stopped all her movements. She was still holding Ava’s hand and gently touching her upper back though, like she had just frozen in place.
“I just… You have been looking over there a lot and I just want you to know that…”, Ava started mumbling, avoiding Beatrice’s wide-eyed deer caught in the headlights stare. “…you don’t need to worry about Mary. She is not flirting with your girlfriend. She really loves her wife. They are really sickenly cute. Living with them for the past month has literally made me feel even more single than I am.” She chuckled drily.
There was a pause and when Ava finally dared to look up at the taller woman’s face, Beatrice had a small, but very confused smile on her face, like she just had a lot to process. When her eyes met Ava’s she blinked again, but then visibly relaxed. Then her smile grew a bit softer. “Yasmine is not my girlfriend.”, she said with a cute shake of her head, her warm eyes holding Ava’s.
“Oh.” Now it was Ava’s turn to be confused. “But you said she is your partner.”, she muttered, feeling herself blush under Beatrice’s soft gaze. Beatrice’s smile widened even more and turned into a cute half-grin. Ava’s heart skipped a beat. Damnit. “My dance partner.”, Beatrice clarified. “For tonight. She is a really good dancer. That’s why I brought her.” Another pause, and then: ”She is a friend. A straight friend, as far as I know. We work together.”
“Oh.”, was all Ava could say. “So you are not…”
Beatrice shook her head, her eyes never leaving Ava’s. And there it was again, the air of something between them that Ava had felt before and had thought she had imagined. And once again, it seemed to take her breath away and leave her heart racing.
“Beatrice, Yasmine.”, someone interrupted their moment and Ava was grateful, because she wasn’t sure how much of this she could take. Once Beatrice had turned towards the entrance, where Lilith had reappeared, Ava exhaled shakily. She kind of heard Lilith asking Beatrice and Yasmine to come help her with something dance related, but she was still in a daze from knowing that Beatrice was single. Her treacherous eyes searched for Beatrice, who was now by the door with Lilith and found the other woman already looking at her with a certain gleam in her eyes.
“You two better do some more practicing.”, Lilith, totally oblivious to the apparent tension in the air, broke their staring again. She was pointing at Ava and Mary. “But be prepared to dance with other people. We are doing some partner swaps in between.”, she added and then left them standing their dumbfounded. What?!?
*******************************************************************************
“I am going to kill you.”, Ava stated as soon as Lilith, Beatrice and Yasmine were gone.
“No, you are not.”, Mary countered with an eyeroll.
“Yes, I am, Mary. I swear to God…”
“On a completely unrelated note: I found out that Yasmine is not Beatrice’s girlfriend.”, Mary just cut her off.
Ava huffed. “Yeah. I know. I also found out. Just now, actually. Like, right when Lilith came back.”
Mary chuckled lowly. “That explains the awkward tension radiating from you two throughout most of your dancing. I can’t believe it took you that long to figure out they are not dating. Though, actually, I am not surprised. You are a disaster.” “Hey!”, Ava protested, but Mary just rolled her eyes again and continued: “I hope you at least cleared up that we are not married.”
“Huh?” Ava blinked in confusion.
“They clearly thought the two of us are married, Ava, because your stupid ass said yes, when Yasmine asked.”, Mary explained in exasperation.
Ava just stared in shock. “What? No, it… what?”, she stuttered, highly confused. “Yasmine asked if you are married. So of course I said yes.”
Mary huff with a dry laughter. “No, she asked if we are married, Ava.”, she corrected. "She even pointed at both of us. And you just went all: oh yeah, totally and very happily and by the way, Mary is such a romantic all day long and spoils me so much and then, on top of all of that, you had to also add that we live together.”
“We do live together…”
“Yeah, because Shannon and me took you in after your breakup. But they didn’t know that.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”, nearly shrieked.
That earned her an amused shrug from Mary. “Well, to be honest, it was just too fucking hilarious at one point--.”
“Bitch, what…?”
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When the wedding dance started, Ava was nervously waiting at the sidelines with Mary, trying to mentally prepare for the embarrassment she was sure was inevitably going to come once they got their sign to join in with the brides. Beatrice and Yasmine were standing on the other side of the dance floor and Ava constantly found herself looking over at Beatrice. And more often than not did she find Beatrice already looking at her, sending a warm and encouraging smile her way. She was so distracted she probably would have missed her cue, had Beatrice and Yasmine not been selected to be the signal for everyone to join in.
When Beatrice led Yasmine to the dancefloor and then seamlessly converted their walk into a perfect waltz, Ava couldn’t keep her eyes of her for a moment. Beatrice looked absolutely stunning and the way she carried herself with both grace and confidence got Ava mesmerized again. Her staring only lasted for a second though, before Mary dragged her to the dancefloor and they joined the dancing couples.
Mary was really not a bad dancer and they did fine. And the next three dance partners Ava ended up with were also pretty good lead dancers, who kind of managed to prevent her from falling over while she awkwardly stumbled through the steps and the partner swaps. But she could never focus on anything else really but the fact that a forth, meaning next, partner swap would pair her with Beatrice.
When it came, Ava’s current partner kind of let her go in the middle of a step, leaving her to feel disoriented. But only for a second, because Beatrice caught her and flawlessly spun her around in one seamless movement. Because of course she would. Because apparently Beatrice Young was just perfect at everything.
“Hey.”, Beatrice whispered with a smile, once they were face to face.
“Hey.”, Ava breathlessly answered, while Beatrice continued guiding both their movements to the rhythm with a warm and strong hand on Ava’s upper back. "I think you can cross ballroom dancing off your list now.", Beatrice said with a soft smile. "You are doing pretty well."
Ava felt herself blush, but there was also a sense of pride filling her. She was disappointed when the song ended just a few moments later. Their movements slowed down and a new song started. There as shuffling on the dancefloor, people were joining or leaving and Ava was about to step away as well, but Beatrice’s strong hand on her back stopped her.
They locked eyes for a moment and there was a silent question in Beatrice’s eyes. When Ava bit her lip and shyly smiled at Beatrice in agreement, she immediately felt Beatrice’s hand on her back glide slightly lower. Then Beatrice pulled Ava in closer and slowly started moving her to the new song in surprisingly familiar movements, which Ava followed like on autopilot. Her restless eyes constantly wandered between the floor and a random point on the wall, trying to find something to hold on to. She was surprised that her body seemed to remember after all this time. Her heart was beating loudly, both at the memory and at the close proximity they were in now.
“Ava.”, she heard Beatrice whisper, her breath softly hitting Ava’s cheek.
“Hm?”, Ava half-whimpered.
“Eye-contact.”, Beatrice mumbled softly and a bit teasingly.
Ava forced herself to look up, even though her heart was beating out of her chest. Beatrice’s eyes caught hers instantly. Their faces were so close it was hard for Ava to keep her eyes from drifting to Beatrice’s lips. So she kept them locked onto Beatrice’s, but the way Beatrice stared back deeply, her eyes shining in the dim light of the chandeliers, made Ava’s heart beat fast. Every spin was a short relief from Beatrice’s touch and her intense, warm eyes, that would be washed away by a new wave of emotions every time Beatrice pulled her close again. Ava’s breath hitched when she felt Beatrice’s hand slowly slip lower on her back, stopping just above her waist. Beatrice seemed to notice, because she bit her lip with a small, fond smile.
When the song ended, Beatrice finally let her go. Ava was grateful because she was sure she was going to faint from her heart going into overdrive if Beatrice pulled her close one more time. She didn't, but instead she leaned closer and whispered a low "Thanks." into Ava's ear, which made her shiver all over. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, was all Ava could think. Why was Beatrice so cute and so hot at the same time? And why oh why did she have to be single? And why did she have to reappear in her life now of all times, when she was finally free and ready to enjoy single life with noone to hold her back or tie her down?
Ava could see Beatrice looking at her, clearly expecting some kind of reaction that wasn't just Ava standing in front of her and staring wide-eyed and motionlessly. But she felt like being drowned by the overwhelming feelings and conflicting thoughts mingling inside of her, so she just breathed out shakily, muttered an "I need some fresh air" and disappeared into the crowd without another word.