Page 263 of Every Almost

The woman was making a demand, and she had gotten pretty specific about it. Nothing cautious or temporary, that she wanted the kind that was still going in forty years, and she wanted it, she was very clear about this, from aman.

And Charlie stopped dead when that word hit and shook her head, big and slow, all the way to both sides, with her whole face making a production of it. She pointed one finger straight up at the speakers like the song had personally offended her.

"Nope," Charlie said.

"Nope?"

"Not for me." Charlie was laughing again. "Wrong. Whole thing, wrong."

"It'syoursong."

"It's agreatsong! She's just wrong about that man part." And Reyna laughed again, boisterous and resonant.

Then Charlie spun herself under Reyna's arm, which made Reyna lose the beat entirely. But she didn't even care.

Charlie stopped and put a hand on Reyna's side.

"Okay," Charlie said. "Give me your hand."

Reyna didn't hesitate.

"Other one," Charlie said, grinning. "God, you really are bad at this.Thisone. Up. Out. Like that. Now hold on."

Charlie's hand was flat against her ribs. Reyna's other hand was up in the air, locked into Charlie's. There was a pattern in Charlie's feet that Reyna's were apparently supposed to answer, and she got about half of it.

They went around the Observation Room in a wide crooked circle. The nebula wheeled in the viewport behind them while their reflections danced across the glass.

"Where did you even learn this?" Reyna asked.

"Television."

"What?"

"Late-night television," Charlie said, like that explained it. "Ask me later. For now, just spin."

"Spin?"

And Charlie took both her hands in one of hers, and spun her in her arms.

But the part that Reyna didn't see coming was that one second she was upright, and the next, Charlie supported her entirely and the room went over sideways. Reyna made a sound she had never made in her life, a short, undignified yelp.

And then she was laughing so hard she couldn't stand up.

So Charlie hauled her upright, but Reyna went straight back down again, folded over, one hand on Charlie's shoulder, wheezing. Then Charlie was laughing too, and the two of them stood in the middle of a nebula holding onto each other, laughing so hard they couldn't breathe.

"What the hell was that?”

“A dip!”

“A dip? Is that something that happens in dancing?”

“It does.”

“So youdippedme!?"

"You bet your ass."

"Pardon?"