Page 73 of Merrily Ever After
“I want to dance,” I say, holding up my hands.
“Gotten awfully confident, haven’t you?”
“You don’t have to.”
“I know that!” She makes a disgruntled noise, but her hand goes to mine in a now-familiar way, and I don’t wait for her instruction as I lead her in a simple box step. My feet don’t falter once. It doesn’t go unnoticed.
“Been practicing with the cows?” Mrs Fallon asks.
“Only because the sheep are terrible.”
Her lips disappear as she presses them together, the only sign that she’s amused.
“Well, you’re not as bad as them,” she says graciously.
“Does that mean you think I’m ready?”
“No. But I think you won’t fall flat on your arse, which is more than I can say for some people.”
“That’s all I can probably hope for,” I say, raising my left arm to signal a turn. She moves instinctively, graceful even though her movements are slow, and for a moment, I think I almost catch a smile.
“You’ll do just fine,” she adds, only slightly reluctantly, and doesn’t correct me once as she lets me turn her around the room until she gets tired.
*
That Friday, we’re nearly an hour late by the time we arrive at the hall. Rachel managed to stain her favorite dress and spent twenty minutes trying to get it out before spending another twenty picking something new.
It doesn’t help my nerves. I dress normally because I’ve no other option but spray the cologne Mrs Fallon gave me before wrapping it in a towel and hiding it under my bed. I have a fear Mam will find it, which is ridiculous, because she rarely goes into my room. But if she found it, she’d probably think I’d stolen it.
Of course, as soon as I spray it, I realize I have to avoid her anyway in case she notices, so I walk around the barn twice before I return to find Rachel waiting for me impatiently at the gate. I keep expecting her to comment, but she says nothing, which then makes me worry that she can’t even smell it, and I put it on wrong or now I just smell like the barn, and we’re almost at the school by the time I tell myself to cop on and stop worrying about nothing. Colleen might not even be there.
Except that Iwanther to be there. I always do.
Since it’s the last dance of the year, someone – Dessie, most likely – has made an effort. For all the complaining he does about us, he takes his job as village DJ seriously. I think he secretly wants us to have a good time, and so the Halloween decorations have finally been taken down, replaced by sparse yet sparkly tinsel. He must have raided the local primary school as well, because childish drawings of Christmas villages and Santa Claus decorate the bare brick walls.
“Hold on.” Rachel turns to me as soon as we step inside, readjusting my collar as Darlene Love plays overhead. “I’ll try to distract Patricia,” she adds, and pats me on the shoulder before disappearing into the crowd.
I let her be and look for Colleen.
It doesn’t take long. Like there’s something in her that calls to something in me, my gaze is drawn to the bottom of the hall, to where I quickly find her standing with some friends.
And this time, I know it’s up to me to make the first move. So I do, keeping my eyes on her and only her as I skirt thewall, edging closer and closer. Her back is to me, but one of her friends glances over and nudges her.
The moment our eyes meet she immediately whirls back and there’s a whispered conversation before the gaggle of friends disappear, leaving as soon as I reach her side.
“Hi,” she says, sounding a little breathless.
“Hello.”
She glances down at her outfit, only to pull at her long sleeves, annoyance flashing across her face. “Sorry,” she says. “They keep twisting.”
She’s worn the dress before but has added a matching brown belt tonight. The skirt ends just above the knee and her hair hangs low down her back, the wispy bits around her face starting to curl from the heat. It gives her a wild look. Like she’s just stepped in from the hills, appearing from another world. But I don’t know how to tell her that. How beautiful she looks right now. How she always does.
“You look really nice,” I say instead.
“Oh. Thanks!” She smooths her hands over the front. “I should have taken the sleeves up. They bothered me the last time I wore it as well.”
“At Halloween.”
