AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Dance with me, Cariño.” He opened his hand and offered it to her.
She stared down at it, then looked at us. Marge gave her a nod.
“First, before I say yes, I want you to know who you’re asking to dance.”
He furrowed his brow.
Alice inhaled a deep breath and then started. “I know you think I am this young, sexy, famous showgirl who is elegant and refined. Well, I’m not. The woman you think you love may not be the woman I truly am. And I owe it to you to be honest, so you can decide. I’m ... Oh, God.” She closed her eyes tight. “I’m seventy-six. I’m an old lady. I have bunions. I have chin hair. I have an overactive bladder and sometimes wet the bed. I have to retire from dancing because everything hurts all the time. I have a team of plastic surgeons and estheticians to fight the aging process and keep things tight, but ...” she paused, lowering her head as she let out a sigh. “I’m exhausted. I can’t keep going. The toning. The tightening. The injections. The surgeries. The constant obsession over how I look, what I eat, and how much I exercise. I can’t keep it up. It’s too much. My war against aging is coming to an end, and I need to start letting it happen. The time is coming soon when I’m going to wrinkle. I’m going to sag. I’m going to lose my beauty, and I don’t want you to be saddled with a decrepit old corpse that tricked you into loving her. So there. That’s the truth. All of it. And if you want to run away, I don’t blame you.”
She stood with her eyes closed and then slowly opened them. We all sat in silence, our breaths held tight.
“Well, that was one way to do it,” Marge whispered, and I bumped her with an elbow.
Alice stood in front of Alejandro, her shoulders lifting and falling with heavy breaths. A slow smile started on his face as he slipped a hand behind her head and pulled her lips against his in a kiss so powerful I felt it all the way down to the tips of my toes.
When he finally released his grip on her, he kept his forehead pressed to hers. “We are all getting old, Alice. And I’m not perfect either. I have a list of things I could rattle off that are wrong with me, but then we’d be here all night. We all have insecurities ... things we’re scared will make people stop loving us. I will love you, flaws and all, and I hope that you, too, can love me with all my flaws.
“I do. I will,” she said breathlessly. “And are you sure you can still love me knowing who I am? Who Ireallyam?”
His bright white smile flashed in the candlelight flickering all around us. “Yes, I am sure. I know with all my heart that I will love you ... and your chin hair, overactive bladder, and all the other things that aging will put in our path. I don’t love what’s out here,” he said as he slid his hand along her face, then moved it to her chest, pressing it against it. “I love what’s in here. And I will love you regardless of what happens on the outside. And when you’re senile and forget who you are, I will remind you. I will remind you that I love you and that you love me. That I am yours, and you are mine. I will love you now, and I will love you always.”
She closed her eyes and sighed, pressing her head against his.
Alejandro kissed her forehead, then stepped back, a charming smile lifting his lips as he stuck out his hand. “Now, I ask you one more time. Dance with me, Cariño?”
A stream of tears started down Alice’s face as she reached forward and took his hand. “Yes. I will dance with you. Forever.”
He pulled her against him and spun her out onto the dance floor, holding her tight against him as he swayed with her to the music.
“That was the most romantic thing I’ve ever seen.” I wiped the tears from my eyes. “I can barely stand it.”
“It’s a miracle.” Doris sobbed, pressing her hands together in prayer. “A true miracle. Alice has found love.”
“I knew our girl had it in her.” Marge grinned. “Glad she quit being a pansy ass. Now someone better get that girl a taken tag.”
We watched them dancing, Alice spinning around on the dance floor looking as light as a feather. I then tipped my head and chuckled. “Do you think she would die of embarrassment if she realized she was still wearing your orthopedic shoes?”
Marge and Doris looked down at Alice’s feet and then burst into laughter.
With a snort, Marge answered, “Oh, yes. She may be willing to show Alejandro her flaws, but the moment she figures out she’s dancing in those shoes in public, she’s gonna be screaming over here to hide behind the couch again.”
We burst into laughter, clinging to each other as we laughed until we cried watching Alice dance away with her love in her orthopedic shoes.
“May I have this dance?” Axel asked with this thick drawl.
I looked up to see Doris’s handsome cowboy standing with his hand outstretched.
“Of course,” she replied with a girlish smile, taking his hand and following him to the dancefloor.
“I’m going to get Roxie. I promised her another dance.” Marge slapped her thighs and stood. I watched her cross the dance floor and sling an arm around Roxie’s waist, pulling her giggling girl out to the dance floor and spinning her around. I couldn’t strip the smile from my face as I watched them all dancing around together, laughing as they spun by.
“You gonna let me take my wife for another spin, or now that we’ve danced to Elton John live, are we too good for DJs?”
I looked up to see Tom standing above me.
Tom. My Tom. My one true love. The one my widows had returned to me. The one I now called husband thanks to them.
I smiled and gave him my hand. “I’m gonna dance with you every night for the rest of our lives.”
