Page 10 of Three Meows

“I’m not very skilled at dancing…” Elijah mumbled and seemed to sink into himself, trying to hide his bigger body.

“You see those three people there?” I pointed at a nearby group on the dance floor. “They are literally just jumping up and down to the rhythm. And those two?” I pointed out a couple.“That’s just making out with music added to the mix. You will be fine out there. As long as you want to dance. Do you?”

Elijah opened and then closed his mouth, only to get visibly frustrated when the words didn’t want to come.

“With you,” Rowan said succinctly, and Chester immediately picked up his thought.

“Ooh, Elijah wants to dance, but only with you, Lisa! Is that true, El?” the redhead teased the shy man.

Elijah collected all of his bravery and put it in one word.

“Yes.”

Then he promptly hid behind his hands.

He was so cute I could eat him up.

“How about we let those two order the radioactive drinks you wanted to try, and we hit the dance floor in the meantime?”

“I will order the drinks!” Chester offered, standing up and conveniently unblocking my way out.

I squeezed out from the booth and Elijah followed, even if there was a flicker of trepidation in his gaze.

My hand found his and I squeezed it reassuringly as I led us far enough away we didn’t have to worry about familiar eyes watching our every move.

The song that was playing was nothing more edgy than pop music so I jumped straight into the rhythm, starting with just the simplest moves as me and Elijah faced each other, not wanting to overwhelm the poor man with the kind of acrobatics I practiced with Rowan. There was a bead of sweat sneaking down the brown-haired man’s temple even before we properly got going, and I noticed Elijah was watching me like a hawk, repeating any new move I made instead of trying to complement it. That wasn’t bad per se, but I wondered… I started adding more complicated moves that required both good memorization and reflexes and Elijah copied nearly all of them flawlessly. That was impressive.

“Let’s try this,” I sent a dimpled smile in his direction before I jumped next to him, switching my position so that we were side by side. “You are pretty good at synchronized dancing so I think you will learn some of the meme dances easily. Just repeat after me.”

Turned out repetition and structure were Elijah’s friends and once he got a dance down there was a bounce in his step. By the time Rowan came to fetch us for the drinks Elijah was flushed from the exertion but grinning. I think it raised his confidence when a group of students spotted us doing a dance from a recent movie and joined us, creating a group around us and letting Elijah lead the dance.

“That was fun,” the writer shared as we slipped back into the booth. “Much less stressful than dancing with someone and having to come up with my own moves.”

“I will teach you more dances next time,” I promised. “But we need to do one thing first.”

“What’s that?” Elijah asked politely.

“You need to know where those dances came from, duh!” I grinned. “I will show you all the games, shows, performances, and tiktoks that were the origin of the best and funniest dances.”

“You want to assign me homework?” Elijah asked dryly.

“It’s not homework if it’s fun!”

“Young lady, you are not getting my friend into Fortnite,” Chester said sternly.

“What? Afraid he will be better at it than you?” I shot back.

“Git gud,” Rowan piped up from his corner.

We high-fived while Chester groaned and Elijah looked amused.

The arrival of the radioactive drinks pushed the conversation to nuclear wastelands of the cyberpunk future. The topic swiftly turned into zombie apocalypse scenarios and speculations about who would have the best chance to survive such an ordeal.

I shook my head, smiling to myself and sipping my neon green drink as the three men bickered. This evening was turning out to be truly wonderful. Shame they had some wrong opinions.

I slammed my drink on the wooden table.

“Strap in, buckos, because I will explain to you how wrong you are. And why I am the best companion to have in a zombie apocalypse,” I declared, then launched into a long, detailed spiel.

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