Deborah barely heard them. She got on the dance floor and put her right hand on his shoulder. He took her left hand in his and they began to dance. “I’m a little rusty,” she muttered. She had last danced with a man about a year before her incarceration. In prison there was no longer anyone to dance with so she hoped she did okay. Let’s see, she thought, right foot back, left foot up and down, right foot forward, left foot forward, right foot up and down, and left foot back. If she could just repeat that all night, she would be fine. She hadn’t lost her touch at all.
He knew a lot of turns and he changed them randomly as they danced. She spun as he turned her and before she knew it, she was laughing and smiling as they danced. A few more songs later and she was hot and sweaty. Deborah was glad for the thin layer of baby powder between the fabric of her dress and her skin. She didn’t have to smell like an ox.
The song changed to a slower rhythm and she let him lead her back and forth across the dance floor. There wasn’t as many turns to this song, but she still followed his lead. At the end of the last song Derek laid her back in a dip. The music was so sensual she thought that he was going to kiss her. She looked at his lips and parted her own, ready to let him ravage her lips, but he just stood her up again and escorted her back to their table.
“When did you learn salsa, Alison?” asked Lia. “I’ve never seen you dancing to anything but hip hop.”
“The last song was bachata anyway,” said Deborah. At least her relationship with Edwardo Lozano for a few months back in college taught her something: Latin dance and running from Consuela Lozano. That bastard never told her he was married. “Besides, the guy does everything. All I have to do is move my feet and follow.” She smiled.
“Where is Alison Murphy and what did you do to her,” said Lia. Deborah quit smiling. She had been tormenting her just a little, but she didn’t think she gave herself away.
“What do you thing I read about in all those romance novels?” asked Deborah. “I’ll tell you: hot Latin lovers.”
Lia laughed.
“James, aren’t you going to ask Lia to dance?” Deborah asked.
“Don’t go there, Alison. I can’t do all that stuff,” said James. “When there is hip-hop or slow dancing I can do that.” The band started to play Soulja Boy and James pulled Lia onto the dance floor.
“You want to dance to this?” asked Derek.
“Not a chance,” said Deborah. “I like you, but I am not doing that.” She pointed at Lia and James trying to jump as if they had a Superman cape when the part of the song that went, “then Superman da oh.”
“Point taken,” said Derek. He looked over at Deborah. “You know, you seem a lot more grown up then I imagined when Dad said I would be taking a high school girl to prom. I didn’t expect I would be wiping noses and changing diapers, but I thought there would be a lot more, ‘OMFG, LOL,’ type talk.”