By that, I meant, I tapped my foot, made insistent noises, started poking him the stomach, then in the face and then he swatted my hands away. He looked annoyed but also fought a smile when I found a ticklish spot, so of course I kept pestering him.
I’m not sure we were dancing in a strict sense but an interpretation of dancing. Hey, interpretive dance was a thing! I kept trying to get him and he kept backing away, until he started retaliating. Definitely a dance of sorts, moving closer and farther apart, him drawing towards me one minute as I led, then trailing him the next moment.
Not sure which one of us won when we stopped chasing each other around the room. We both had our arms around the other, smiling as we kissed lazily. Maybe we both won.
That was nice, but I’m also just going to say I won.
“Okay, here’s the first lesson,” he said once we got ourselves together. “There’s two parts, leader and follower.”
“Not top and bottom?” Couldn’t help myself.
“No.” He gave me an unimpressed look, then kept going. “The parts used to be called male and female but that’s heteronormative.” Luke looked proud of himself for knowing the word heteronormative and using it correctly.
Huh. “Hey, you really taught me something.” I was proud of him too, both for knowing heteronormative and using it correctly and for teaching me something. I was double proud, so I won being proud too.
“Hey!” His face scrunched up in adorable offense.
“Well, are you going to teach me anything else?” I looked at him expectantly.
Luke shrugged.
We still had our arms around each other and were standing up right, but a glance at the mirror told me we didn’t look like anyone dancing that I had ever seen.
There should be posture and footwork and moving. Dancing involved moving.
“I can’t teach you,” Luke admitted after a moment. “I had a girlfriend once who knew how to dance.” He looked away, not saying anything else even though it looked like he had more to say.
“As much as I want the power to read your mind,” I started, smiling as he looked alarmed at the prospect. “I can’t, so you have to finish the story, babe.”
Looked like he wanted to back away, so I secured my arms more firmly around him and my boo sighed relaxed into the hold after a moment. “When we danced,” Luke explained quietly. “She was the one who had experience. So, uh, she was the one who… She led and I did the following.” He seemed incredibly embarrassed.
Me, being the supportive boyfriend I was, teased him. “Aww, how progressive.”
“Shut up.” His green eyes were disappointed in me but not surprised. I loved that look.
“I’m proud of you, being the lady,” I continued. “We can go get you a handbag now.”
“I just told you they don’t call it that anymore!” He tried to get away and I grabbed his hand.
We weren’t pressed up against each other, so that was a terrible development, but he didn’t move farther way, so we stood there with my hand on his wrist. Okay, there could still be dancing. Neither of us knew how but that had never stopped me before.
“How about I lead and you follow?” I offered. “It won’t be different than any other day.”
Luke scoffed. “As in, I’ll do all the work while you loudly proclaim you’re in charge?” That was the best dynamic ever.
“Which means I’m in the boss,” I decided and was allowed to decide. Because boss. “You’re the worker bee.” I pulled the worker bee closer to me.
While I put my arms around Luke’s waist, he just stood there. “Did you just call me a bee?” Confusion looked so good on him.
“Not like it’s an insult.” Only if you added yatch. Bee-yatch.
“The bees are dying, Ryan.” He gave me an intense stare. “It’s a serious problem.”
“I’ll protect you, my little honeybee,” I vowed, giving him a peck on the lips.
He thought about the new term of endearment. “Think I preferred worker bee.”
I shrugged my shoulders because there was nothing I could do about that. “I don’t make the rules,” I lied.
