Page 14 of It Had to be You

"Now listen," she shifted to put their arms back in the proper waltz position, "I want to see what you learned today. So, let’s go."

Okay.

Trying to relax from the revelations of the last few minutes, Alexander drew in a breath and listened for the music. The band was truly talented and he easily recognized the classical tune almost immediately.

Letting out his breath he counted in his head ‘One. Two. Three.’

His feet didn’t fail him.

Big. Small. Small.

Big. Small. Small.

Using the first two measures to ease into the dance, he gently splayed his fingers on Blair’s lower back and steadied the hand he was using to hold hers.

And then he stepped forward.

His stomach turned and twisted with worry, but they turned and began the second part of the circle without incident.

It didn’t take long to complete the whole set and he started in on the same set, needing a couple of repetitions to make sure he had it all set in what Tatum had called ‘muscle memory,’ and he was really beginning to enjoy dancing with-

"Did she teach you to spin?"

He turned his head to look at Blair, but he wasn’t exactly sure what she’d said.

"Did she teach me-"

"To spin your partner." Blair’s big grin was a little tight at the corners. "Something a little more impressive than a basic step."

He bit down on his back teeth, struggling to keep himself from speaking too quickly.

"Then again, you said you hadn’t known how to waltz before today, I guess this is fine."

Okay. He let go of a breath and smiled as he caught sight of Ben and Pearl across the floor. The two were having a great time just moving back and forth at nearly half the speed of the other couples.

Neither of them looked anything but happy with their dance.

During the class when Ben realized that his hip didn’t make it easy to dance at the same speed as the others, he’d felt awful and wanted to apologize to everyone else when Tatum took a moment to work with the couple.

But every other couple had waved off his apology and busied themselves with practice.

Alexander smiled at the memory of watching the whole thing unfold. As the only one without a partner, he watched as Tatum carefully took Ben and Pearl through a few test steps and movements and when she discovered that Ben had no issues with the side to side motions

that they’d learned first she just suggested they use that movement.

"Fine by me," the older man had added, "I get to concentrate on sweet-talking my girl."

When Tatum made her way back across the room and offered him her hand so that they could practice the steps, he could see how happy she was. How much she had enjoyed working with the couple.

And he realized how much he’d enjoyed seeing her work.

"Alex?"

He blinked to refocus his thoughts and settled his gaze on Blair’s drawn expression.

"What’s wrong?" He walked her to the edge of the dance floor and turned so he could see her face clearly. "What happened?"

"You zoned out on me," she shook her head as she reached into the folds of her skirt and pulled out her phone.

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