Tau Ceti (an Ell Donsaii story #6) (26 page)

Bridget went back to simply moving freestyle to the music while watching in amazement as Ell quickly added more and more of the steps the young man was performing. She shook her head, with anyone else she would have thought that they had been teasing when they asked what the dance was and then immediately demonstrated that they were an expert at it
—
but she’d seen Ell dance other dances and suspected that picking up clogging just felt easy to her.

A few minutes
later Ell was doing everything the young man was doing, essentially following him in the same steps at the same time and occasionally throwing in a flourish of her own. When
he turned, she turned. E
ven though they were across the floor from one another
,
it looked like they were
dancing as
partners.
She really liked it, the fast pace of the foot movements was great exercise
,
though she wished that it
also
incorporated something for her hands to do.
She grinned, the joyful activity had brought her out of her funk. She looked at Bridget and raised her eyebrows. Bridget grinned back at her
.

The song drew to an end and Ell headed back over to her drink. Bridget came up behind her, “Don’t you want to dance another one?”

“Hah! I was workin’ out there, not just freestylin’ like you were. I need a break.”

Bridget laughed, “OK,” she put her hands up, “I’ll admit, I took the easy way out.” She looked to Ell’s right and raised her eyebrows.

The guy who’d led the clogging out on the dance floor was standing next to Ell, eyebrows raised
,
waiting to speak
,
but not wanting to interrupt
.

When
Ell turned to him as well he said, “Hi, I thought I should come meet my d
ance partner. My name’s
Shan
.” Tall and rangy looking
,
with shaggy blond hair, h
e held his hand out to shake.

Ell shook his hand, “Hi, I’m Raquel
,” she motioned, “this is my friend Bridget
.”

“Where’d you learn to clog?”

Bridget opened her mouth to say,
she learned here tonight!
But Ell beat her to
answering
, saying, “Oh, just here and there, a little bit at a time.”

Bridget opened her mouth to protest but caught a little head shake from Ell and subsided.

“Have you clogged with a partner?
I mean other than dancing the same steps as me like you just did?
”

Ell shook her head.

“Would you try it with me?”

Ell shrugged, “Sure, but you’ll have to teach me how.”

The band swung into “Orange Blossom Special” and
Shan
held his hand out. Ell took it and they headed out to the floor with a lot of other enthusiastic dancers.
Shan
took her hands and turned her into a cuddle,
which Ell was
familiar
with from swing dancing.
T
hen they started doing clogging footwork similar to what they’d been doing across the floor
from one another earlier.
Shan
began taking her through some turns. Ell found it to be different from the swing dancing she’d done in the past because the footwork was much faster but the turns
much
slower. She really enjoyed it
,
but
realized
she’d be exhausted pretty quickly with her poor stamina and the fast pounding of
their
feet.

Shan
was excited to be clogging with someone so good at it.
She matched his footwork effortlessly. When he threw a different step in from what he’d been doing
,
he could barely tell that her feet had lagged his in doing the same thing. It wasn’t as if she’d read his mind and knew what he was about to do with his feet, it was as if she
seemed
supernaturally fast at correcting what she’d been about to do
,
to what he’d
already
started doing. She followed him effortlessly through turns, no matter how complex. When Orange Blossom finished he tried to get her to stay out on the floor
for another dance
,
but she insisted she needed to rest.

Shan
worried,
to look at her
,
the girl was in great shape,
so he didn’t think she could really be
all that
tired
.
M
aybe she just didn’t like dancing with him? Usually, because
most guys either couldn’t dance or were terrible at it
, girls kind of flocked around
him
wanting to dance and he had his
pick
.
But this Raquel danced so well that he could
easily
imagine that
she
might
be
bored
with him.
There was
just
something about her… he really wanted to get to know her better.
He noticed her red wristband indicating that she was too young to drink.
“So are you a student o
r have you joined the workforce?”

“I work out in the triangle and take a couple of classes at UNC.”

“I’m a Tar Heel student too
.”

“What are you studying?”

He shrugged diffidently, “Math.”

Ell had the impression he took a lot of pride in his major but didn’t want to sound like he was bragging. “Hey, that sounds hard.”

He wrinkled his nose, “Some of it’s pretty tough, but I like it
,
so it’s mostly fun to me.”

“What
are you gonna
do with a math degree when you’re done?”

“There’re lots of jobs in statistics and analysis and finance, but I’m hoping to stay in the ivory tower, teaching and trying to do innovative things.”

Ell grinned at him, “Sounds cool, you ready to dance again?”

Shan
said, “Sure,” turning toward the floor while wondering whether he’d sounded too pompous with
his
“ivory tower” remark.
Oh well,
he mentally shrugged to himself,
if she doesn’t like it, there’re a lot more fish in the sea.
His dad had often
said that to him in the past. B
ut… there’s something about this girl…

After another fun dance they came back to their usual spot to find that Bridget was taking her turn out on the floor, freestyling with a young man there.
Shan
said, “Can I buy you a drink?”

Feeling guilty having a student buy her a drink
,
but reminding herself that this was how the game was played, Ell nodded, “Coke please?” She admired
Shan
as he headed to the bar. He looked older than the usual student
and quite handsome in a rugged ropy kind of way
.
Could he be a grad student
?
She won
dered, thinking that he certainly didn’t look like the prototypical math nerd.

Bridget came back and introduced “Raquel” to Ryan, the fellow she’d been dancing with. “What happened to
Shan
?”

“He’s at the bar.”

“Is not,”
Shan
’s voice said over her shoulder, “He’s back with the goods.” He set a Coke down in front of Ell.

“Thanks!” Ell said taking a sip and then introducing him to Ryan.

“Actually, Ryan’s my housemate.”

Bridget rolled her eyes, “Don’t tell me you guys are out as a team and we’ve just been picked up by a smooth talker and his wingman?”

Shan
put his hands up in surrender, “Now, now. A man and his housemate go out in the evening and while he’s out enjoying a
solo
dance, a beautiful young woman starts dancing with him
,
even though she’s all the way across the floor. Merely to be polite he goes to meet the girl he’s been dancing with. His friend happens to innocently notice that the clogging girl has a beautiful friend. Completely an innocent series of events.”

Ell lowered an eyebrow, “Hmmm, sounds entirely too well rehearsed to me. What do you think Bridget?”

Bridget looked back and forth from
Shan
to Ryan, “I would have characterized it as, ‘Two young ladies go out intending to devastate the men of the town. Shortly after demonstrating their astonishing dancing skills they find they’ve attracted two hapless victims.’”

Shan
and Ryan laughed, “A much more accurate depiction. No doubt that’s what just went down.” Ryan said.

Ell turned to Bridget, “Now that we’ve got them
where we want them,
what are we going to do with them?”

“Dance some more!
”

This time when they got out on the floor
,
Shan
said, “Do you swing dance?”

Ell nodded and he took her hand pumping gently to establish
a slower
step
rhythm
then beginning to twirl her around the floor.

Shan
’s eyebrows rose. He’d been surprised at how well she’d followed his rapid clogging footwork
,
but the way she followed him through rapid turns and twirls astonished him. She followed effortlessly, never getting a cue wrong, never turning the wrong way. Her elegant, graceful form as she spun rapidly back and forth
seemed
more like a ballerina than
an amateur dancing for fun.

“So what classes are you taking?”
Shan
asked when they’d returned to their drinks. He noticed that she was staring at her drink, “Is something wrong?”

“Somebody moved my drink,” Ell said, looking around. “Maybe they mixed it up with their own?” She carefully set it down and stuffed the napkin in the top of it so that she wouldn’t forget and take a sip. Steve frequently reminded her to be careful of her drink in public places but this was the first time
that
her precautions had ever
recognized a change
.

Shan
looked at her drink, surprised she’d ruined it with the napkin just because it’d been moved. But maybe she thought someone had taken a sip? “Do you want me to get you another?”

“No thanks… I’m taking an astronomy and a biology class.”

“Th
at’s
a weird pair, what degree are you working toward?”

“
I’m
…
not, actually. Just taking the classes
because I’m interested.” She smiled, “Trying to better myself.”

Thinking that she sounded kinda aimless,
Shan
asked, “Where do you work?”

“Quantum Tech.”

Shan
frowned, “Never heard of them, but that’s an interesting name. What do they make?”

“
QT
’s really small, they mostly do research. Tell me more about you. You don’t look like the prototypical nerdy mathematician?”

“Oho! I’ve been stereotyped! Just ‘cause a guy likes math, it doesn’t mean he can’t like sports too, you know?”

Ell lifted her chin
in question
, “What sport?”

“I like ‘em all, B-ball’s probably my favorite though.”

“Hmmm, I played a little basketball back in High School.”

Bridget and Ryan came back off the dance floor, “Hey you guys look awfully serious!”

Ell said, “I’ve been learning about
Shan
. He’s a
M
ath major. What do you do Ryan?”

“Biomedical Engineering student.”

“You going to design the first successful artificial heart?”

“How did you know?” he grinned.

Ell grinned back, “You’re wearing your heart on your sleeve.”

They all had a laugh
,
but then Bridget finished her beer saying, “Well, some of us have to work in the morning.”

Ell turned to
Shan
, “It was good clogging with you. Thanks for the lesson.”

“Can I call you sometime?”

“Sure, I’d like that.”

As Ell rode home with Bridget she felt more peaceful.
Shan
seemed nice and it was kind of fun flirting with someone new. Maybe he couldn’t replace Roger or Phil, but
perhaps
someone else would. At least her love life didn’t
seem
as
bleak;
after
all, she’d met
someone interesting on her first foray with Bridget.