Page 36 of The Late Bloomer’s Playlist

It soon became uncomfortably clear that “the type of dancer they need” was code for pairing men and women together. Sheila and I were among the last to volunteer ourselves for the change around.

‘Come on, ladies, there aren’t many partners left.’

It happened so fast that it took a handful of seconds for my body to catch up with it. But I soon realised that what I was feeling was Sheila’s palm pressed against mine. ‘I actually came with a partner,’ she answered.

The man clasped his hands together. ‘Righto.’ His mouth bobbed open, closed, open. ‘Righto,’ he repeated, before pulling in a considerable breath. I couldn’t make sense of it; he was young enough to have seen lesbians before, surely? On the Discovery Channel if nowhere else, I thought. ‘Let’s all get started,’ he finally said, much to the relief of us all…

* * *

We were fifty minutes into an hour-long session when a song came on that I recognised from Dirty Dancing, and there was a collective sound of enthusiasm around the room. Sheila’s smile widened that bit further, too.

‘Now we’re talking,’ she said in a low voice. We were the only same sex couple in the place – two of the instructors having paired up with lone dancers, after Sheila’s refusal to switch partners – and to say we’d attracted some interest from the other couples would be an understatement. But now, as she pulled me that little bit closer to her again, I thought at least three heads might have exploded around us. And a girlish giggle tumbled out of me.

‘Right, everyone, take your partners…’

‘Like I need telling,’ Sheila said with a raised eyebrow, while the dance instructor rolled out his advice on how to move to this particular track. ‘Just follow my lead.’ Our hips were pressed together, the only distance being the small gaps that appeared as Sheila rolled her hips and I tried with all the might left in my body to match her movements. By the time we were a minute in, though, I found that the movements were coming much easier. Our bodies were all curves and twists, and my heartbeat was a thrum in my ears that added an extra percussion to the music. I didn’t know whether it was the exercise or the thrill of it all that had caused the pulse spike, but given that it had been such a long time since I’d had either things in my life I wagered it might be a medley of the two.

Sheila leaned in to speak in a whisper to me. ‘You look like you’re into it.’

‘I feel like I’m into it,’ I said, all the while conscious that I’d pressed my hips that little bit harder against hers while speaking. The gesture was matched by Sheila slipping her hands down to my lower back and pressing me closer again, while my back softly arched away from her, and for a second I could imagine that we were twenty-something-year-old sweethearts in a sweaty dance hall on a Friday night. Though if we had have been that age, this is definitely not what my twenty-something self would have been doing. She doesn’t know what she missed, I thought with a finger-pluck of sadness that I tried to quickly push away. At least we’re here now, Patti, at least we’re here–

‘Is everyone ready for a big finish?’ the instructor asked the room.

‘Ready?’ Sheila asked, already smirking.

‘I think so,’ I answered, my voice breaking with another laugh.

‘Trust me, okay?’

‘Oh, Sheila, what on earth are you–’

Sheila’s hands moved up my back and she applied pressure to my torso with hers, leaning into me until I began to lean back and my body, as though acting intuitively, took the cue of what she was asking me to do. I leaned further back still and let her spread palms take the weight of me, and there I was, suspended in the arms of a woman who I’d known for five minutes and had been waiting for for forty years. From my skewed vantage point, I took a look around the room and saw we were the only couple who had been brave enough to try a dip – and one or two couples looked sincerely put out that we’d managed it. I strained to get my head into a more upright position, thinking Sheila would take the cue to lift me back to standing, but of course, there was one more part of the big finish to come.

Because that’s when she kissed me – square on the mouth, like we were twenty-something-year-old sweethearts…