Romance

by Scribe Leaf Library · 1 min read · 0 views

The dance class was short one partner the night Cormac showed up in mismatched shoes — one dress shoe, one running trainer, the result of a chaotic morning he refused to fully explain — and Odalys, amused rather than annoyed by the sight, offered to partner him anyway. "You'll step on my feet," she warned. "Only with the trainer," he said, which turned out, somehow, to be true; his sneaker-footed steps were clumsy and his dress-shoe steps were oddly graceful, as if he were two different dancers awkwardly sharing one body for an hour. They laughed through the entire lesson, badly synced, mismatched, thoroughly unimpressive by any technical standard the instructor cared about. It remains, eleven years and one mismatched-shoe wedding photo later, the single dance lesson Odalys says she actually remembers, out of the dozens she took that year with partners who never once stepped on her foot.