The bell went and I was the first out the door.
As I sat on the tube my imagination kept popping up the faces of those two smarmy little fuckers that seemed to have deliberately set out to make my life miserable, and my class a disaster. “Man was I going to have a beer tonight!” I thought. Then I remembered that Em wanted me to go to some Salsa dance class that she’d seen advettised in all the local windows. At least it’ll be in a bar I thought.
I’m not great with faces. It’s a running joke that I can never recognize movie stars, and its pretty much the same with people I meet. Somehow people seem to look the same to me. My friend Ben (yes another one) who’s a doctor says that it’s a conditon and that there is some fancy word for it. Anyway I’m not the most reliable witness and don’t even trust my own judgment when it comes to remembering faces, (I could have sworn that I recently saw doctor who in a fish and chip shop in Maribyrnong and that he tried to give me a bible)
Anyway as I sat down to my 8th or 9th guiness at the bar where Em was doing her salsa lesson, the man that was giving her the attention that I clearly wasn’t, looked exactly like that skinny bloke on the scooter I’d seen that afternoon. Of course now he wasn’t wearing a helmet, I’d had a lot of guiness and I’m not good at this kind of thing anyway. But I rekcon it looked like him.
The bar was bascilaly empty except for the dance class. I kicked back in a nice arm chair and, being to drunk to read the novel that was in front of me (who takes a novel to a dance class? Em had complained) I watched everyone doing their routines.
They were made up of mostly middle class couples, a few gay guys, some not so attractive single women and some really badly dressed single blokes. The guy that Em was dancing with kind of stood out for being quite good looking, quite good at dancing and generally not looking like he needed to be there.
The instructor was a short very brightly dressed woman with a definite Spanish or South American accent. Because the first lesson was free I’d found no excuse to avoid some participation, so for the first 15 minutes or so I’d danced with her. She used me to demonstrate steps to the rest of the group. I don’t know if this could be really helping anyone I’d thought as I drunkenly waved my legs after hers. I couldn’t really see what her feet were doing because my eyes kept going to her near naked breasts or her jigling bum when she turned around. I’m sure too that her hands were not just holding me as we danced but actually subtly sroking me. Little touches hidden within the dance. Or maybe I was just pissed. It’s a fair trade off though, getting to perve on the instructor, I reckon, for going to a dance lesson to keep your girlfriend happy.
Em had paired up with that good looking bloke whilst I was being used as a dummy, so when she’d finished with me I took the opportunity to sit down and concentrate on perving and drinking. She didn’t seem to miss me.
When it fishished after a couple of hours I was pretty toasted. The guy said goodbye to Em and kissed her on the cheek on the dance floor, got his coat and didn’t acknowledge me as he walked past. He was one of those London types that just look like they belong everywhere. Every aspect of his clothing and hair looked both very carefully planned and arrogantly thrown together. I couldn’t say if he was that guy I’d seen this afternoon but maybe because of that association, and on account of him seeming so perfect, I had started to casually dislike him.
“Have fun darling?” I said kissing Em as she arrived at my table. She looked flushed and happy and had a hint of someone elses scent. Some man who had been vigerously exercising near her.
“Liam’s a great dancer. I was really lucky to have him as my partner.”
“Right yeh, is that his name? Yeh he seemed good.” I enthused.
“Should we go?” she asked.
“What about one more pint darl? Would you likeadrink?” I slurred the last of these words.
“Sure” She laughed. “You know you’re a working man now, Mr McEwen!”
“Yeh I know. Why do you think I’m so drunk?”
