Ava booked us one really long half a day dance lesson, Henry somehow manages to free up his calendar and accompanies me to these dance lessons. The dance studio is a few stations away from us so one short trip later, we were standing in the dance studio that Ava paid for. I change my shoes from my boots into classic black heels while henry changes his shoes too. We are not the only couple sitting on the wooden bench at the back of the hall changing our shoes. Apparently, we all had similar ideas.

"I hope we are able to walk to the station after this," I whisper to Henry when the dance instructor calls our attention. She is an old lady dressed in all black with a hot pink shawl draped over her shoulders. She had the voice of one of those teachers I had in school that no one would mess with because we all know how serious they were.

"I want you to grab your partner and copy my position," she instructes after her short introduction. Her assistant rushes to her side to her side and they both pose. It looks simple enough. Henry and I try to mimic the position. I place my hand on his shoulder, while his hand is on my hip, while our other hands are joined together. We keep as much distance as possible from each other.

The instructor walks around criticising each couple and telling them how to improve. She uses her walking stick to nudge people. In one case, she tells the man that he needs to go back to school since he doesn't know where his partner's hip is as his hand is a little to low to be considered appropriate for dance class. Henry catches my eye, trying to hold back the laughter threatening to escape. This has me grinning back at him, hoping that he does lose it.

"Ahhh, I see," she comes up to us, circling us. We tense up under her scrutiny, before she concludes, "There is enough space between the two of you to fit a doubledecker bus, move closer."

Henry and I both look down at the space between us at the same time and maybe it is a good thing we can fit a doubledecker bus here since I am sure that we would've bumped into each other otherwise. I take a small step and so does Henry.

"Still too far, closer," she nudges me in the back with her stick and I take a step forward. Apparently, this does not satisfy her. She looks around at the other couples and shakes her head. Maybe we were the worse class she ever had.

"You need to both hug. You are going to be in each other's personal space a lot for the next few hours. Actually, the whole class should do this. I want you all to hug your partners until I tell you to stop," she demands. The one couple where the guy had his hand a little too low are quick to change positions. They look like they are whispering to each other. Henry and I have hugged before but never at the demand of a cranky old dance instructor.

Henry releases my hand and waist, joking as he does, "She could've demanded we kiss so it's all good."

He held open his arms, which I step into, and wraps his arms around me, pulling me closer. I also wrap my hands around him. It is not the same as normal since my heels make me taller which changes the height dynamics that I am used to. After a few moments pass, I tense up since I feel like I should step back except this decides that no one in the class has had enough time hugging. I don't know how much time passes before I relax again. This is Henry after all. I trust him. His scent is familiar, even if the feeling of being wrapped around his arms is not. Henry stays as still as possible and has been tense since the moment we started hugging which is not like him.

"Relax," I whisper, close to his ear, since I tucked my head on his shoulder.

"I am relaxed," he argues back, except I hear it as a whisper in my ear.

"Liar," I tease, moving closer. I hide my face in his shoulder, to hide my giggles.

"You are just not used to feeling all my muscles," he replies back. Suddenly, I release we got closer without me realising it and I can feel some of the muscles beneath his grey t-shirt that I had not felt before. I did not have a chance to reply as we were all told to let go and get back into position. Henry looks up at the ceiling, letting go of a deep breath.

I took the change in position as a chance to get a sip of water. The heater in this room must be very high and we hadn't even started the dancing part of this all. The mirrors on the one wall shows how flustered I am. I hope they turn the heating down or else we will all melt. When I returned to Henry, he said nothing, holding out his hand for me to grab. We return to the starting position. This time the instructor mumbles something about an improvement before moving on to the next part of her lesson, the basic footsteps for the start of the dance.

Everything looks far easier when I watch from the sidelines. When we try to copy, I step on Henry's foot and he soon returns the favour which causes us to both spend half our time hesitating as we move while staring down at our feet. We are not the only couple since she shouts at all of us to stop looking down at our feet and use our bodies to communicate. Who knew dancing required a degree in reading body language?

The amount of time we spent mumbling sorry to each whenever we misstep is ridiculous. The most spoken word in the door was probably sorry. At some point, the assistant switched on music with a repetitive beat. This helps a lot and suddenly it's like the whole room has started to improve.

The less we thought, and more movement means less stepping on each other's feet.

Maybe a degree in reading body language isn't needed. Just some music to let go of all the thoughts. As time progresses, more and more moves are incorporated into simple steps. There were now twirls and other sorts of movements which I am sure Ava could tell me the technical names of. At some stage, during some twirl, I decide to see how everyone is doing when I notice the instructor literally gagging while looking at the one couple who was close to grinding instead of doing any of the dance moves she showed us.

The loss of concentration has me tripping when Henry tugs me back towards him to end the twirl move. I am close to face-planting against the polished floor when Henry grabs me around my waist to steady me. This cuts off my laughter. Henry searches my face to see if I am alright and relaxes when he realises I am okay.

"Falling for me, baby?," Henry jokes, knowing that I am okay. My trip does not go unnoticed as the instructor decides that now is the perfect time to take a break.

"I don't think we need to resort to nicknames now."

"I am on boyfriend duties, I got to make sure no one steals you." He points with his chin in the direction to that couples, who are still glued to each other even though we were given a break to be away from each other,

"Fake boyfriend," I correct him. I wonder if I will be able to put my heels back on if I take them off like many other people are. I fear if I remove them now, I will just call it a day and go home.

"Please say it louder, I don't think the people in the back heard you." Henry opens the water bottle and takes a long sip from it. Dancing is another level of workout and my fitness level is going to start showing soon.

"You are right," I turn around and cup my hands around my mouth like I'm about to announce it to the whole hall, which has Henry laughing since he knows I wouldn't do it. The break does not last long enough before we are summoned back to the dance floor to carry on practicing. I think it's great Ava organised one lesson because I doubt I would return to this again.

As we near the end of the class, we are all given a chance to dance in front of everyone else in the class. Each couple shows off the same moves we spent the day memorising. It is not long before Henry and I go up. I expected some sort of stage fright but when the music started playing, my body moved in its own accord after all the conditioning it went through today. We did not step on each other's feet this time so I think the lesson is a success even if the dance is considered something simple.

That couple, who've kept things interesting this whole lesson, is the last one to go up. It reminds me of that scene from Shrek 2 where Prince Charming had a rose between his mouth and was pretending to be Shrek near the end of the movie. The man obviously has more experience than the woman, since he pretty much moves her around like a rag doll, inserting his own moves here and there. That was the only couple that did not look like everyone else's dances. I think they manage to stun us all since it takes a few moments after they stop dancing for us to start clapping.

"Thank you all for attending, the songs from today's class can be found on our Spotify playlist, you can scan the QR code on your way out," the instructor announces, ending the lesson. Some couples gather around her to have a chat while some of her made a run for our normal shoes. The feeling of being flat on the ground is relieving once I put away my heels.

"So this is what girls feel after pulling off their heels," Henry says, pulling off his shoes. He doesn't seem to be in a rush to put his other shoes on while wiggling his feet in his blue socks.

"You can't even imagine how my feet feel after dancing in pencil heels," I reply. He puts on his shoes and we grab our bags. I scan the QR code on my way out and scroll through my phone while taking a slow walk to the station. For some reason, the platform is busy when we arrive. It comes as no surprise when we step into the carriage that all the seats are taken and we have to stand. I hold on to the yellow pole, and Henry does the same, standing next to me.

I yawn, knowing that my new plan is to shower and go to bed. I don't realise how tired I am until I nearly fall over when the train starts, jolting me into Henry. Henry moves to stand behind me, wrapping his hand around the pole close to my hand, to keep me from falling. We stay this way the whole way home. I don't protest even when we walk, hand in hand, home. 

~*~

I wrote this when I was super tired lol. I also hit 15k words last night!!!

What's your favourite Shrek movie?

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