Page 49 of Love Undiscovered
“Nah that was a joke.”
“You should ask her to dance, man. Get her out on the floor, pull her up close,” I say.
“I can’t dance,” he says.
“What, like you’re bad at it?” I ask.
“Probably. I’ve never done it,” he says.
“How is that possible?” I ask. “What about high school dances and shit?”
“Didn’t go,” he says.
“Weddings? Bar Mitzvahs?”
He shrugs.
I think for a minute. Who doesn’t go to high school dances? There’s no easier way to score, as a teenage guy, than at the prom or homecoming dance.
“Okay, you air drum, right?” I ask.
“You mean like?” he pantomimes drumming on the table.
“Exactly. That’s beat, right?”
“Okay.”
“I have three sisters, man, I was forced to dance with them all the fucking time. If I can do it, anyone can. Okay, so, this is how they got me to understand beat and timing. Take this song, right?”
The song is “I Never Loved a Man”by Aretha Franklin. I’m impressed that I know that. Or else I should hand in my man-card. I’m not sure.
Alex nods in response to my question.
“Okay, so it’s easy to pick out the drums. But alongside the drums is the underlying beat. The part that makes you want to move your head back and forth or tap your toes, right?” I start swaying back and forth and encourage him to do the same. Then I start tapping my fingers on the table. He follows suit.
“You got it, man,” I say.
“How does this teach me to dance?” he asks.
“Well, that sway, that’s what you’re going to do with her, only slower.”
He slows a bit.
“Slower,” I say.
He slows more. But it’s still not enough.
“Watch me,” I say, and I slow my back and forth way down. “You don’t want to be swinging her around. You just want to do a gentle move. Like slow fucking.”
We are still weaving side to side when the song changes. “Tender Years”by Marc Cohn.
But it continues to work. My hand is undulating in the air, kind of conducting the beat for us.
Which is when the girls return.
“If you boys care to do a partner swap, that’s fine by me,” Remi says with a smirk. Alex immediately stops, but I continue moving. Not knowing how else to get out of this, I stand, grab Remi’s hand and pull her toward me, forcing her to step in time.
“We can’t help it, when the music moves us, we must obey, right Alex?” I ask. I twirl Remi a bit, narrowly missing a waiter who looks at us with a scowl on his face.
