AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her jaw drops. “That is so great!”
“Is it?”
“What do you mean ‘is it?’ Of course, it is!” she says enthusiastically.
Of course, it is. She’s right. It has been great. “Yeah, it’s been fun.” I smile.
“So, you met a guy in the class, and now you’re doing the horizontal tango?” She leans in, waggling her eyebrows.
“You know, I knew there was a horizontal tango joke in there somewhere.”
She cackles, picking at some cheese and crackers.
“Except, it’s my instructor,” I add in, almost apprehensively.
“Holy shit,” she says with a gasp. “You go, Julie Martí. You fucking go.”
“Yeah?” I can’t help but smile.
“Yes,” she says absolutely.
“Thanks, Larissa.”
It’s one thing for perpetually happy Larissa to notice something, it’s another for Barbara to notice, too.
She hasn’t said anything, but she’s been asking for more from me, keeping an eye out over her reading glasses. She’s sent some office-wide passive aggressive emails, her favorite thing to do. I’ve been focusing on my caseload just enough but opting not to stay too late at the office. Giving myself a break like the other associates give themselves, too.
And this evening after work, I’ve got plans to go shopping with Tara.
***
“So how are thelessons going?” Tara asks as she browses through different dresses.
“Great. They’ve been great.”
Tara has taken me to Dancing Designs, a retail store for dancers. It’s a large space filled with racks upon racks of dazzling, glittery dresses and matching suits. Salespeople are milling about, helping some customers with fittings.
“Uh-huh. I’m telling you, I wouldn’t be surprised if he likes dancing with you more.” She smiles. “It shows.”
“Oh, no. That’s—”
“It’s okay, Julie. I promise. This is so good, I swear.” She emphasizes those words with such genuine enthusiasm and kindness she’s shown me from the very beginning, and it almost heals something in me. “I always caught him looking at that door like he was willing you to come through it. And then you would appear, and I swear to God, it was like watching one of those wilted flowers come back to life after you water it.”
I don’t know what to say to that, but I think of Logan waiting for me to walk into the dance studio and there’s something about that visual that is so heartwarming.
“So, how did you get started in dance?”
“Irish parents,” she laughs, but I’m not quite sure what she means. “They wanted me in dance since I could walk. I started with traditional Irish dances, believe it or not, but gravitated toward ballroom and then tango. I met Logan at another competition, and I kept running into him. We were friends at first, then we decided to partner up. Just friends by the way. Nothing between us.”
“Oh, I didn’t think …” I trail off, shaking my head.
“People always wondered, which I guess is a sign of a good partnership. But, no, nothing there.”
“You do look great together, though,” I say.
“Yeah, but you two look better,” she counters, smiling. “And what about you? Fancy lawyer. That’s wonderful.”
“Just pushy parents.” I huff out a laugh, looking through a rack of blue dresses.
