Chapter 6

Sara DeLuca, teacher and owner of the Barre and Tap School of Dance, clicked the small remote in her hand and the music began.

Tori loved the way old fashioned big-band music made her want to dance. She wanted to step and kick and know exactly where to put her feet so that she didn’t injure her dancing partner.

Oh yeah, there was that. She also wanted a dancing partner.

Maybe that would happen later. For now she stood to the side and slightly behind Sara and mimicked the steps. All of the newbies to the Thursday night open floor social followed the teacher’s foot placements for the first fifteen to twenty minutes before they broke into dance partners, while the more comfortable students were already partnered up. That was to say, ChiChi and her cronies Pricilla and Lucinda, and ChiChi’s husband Charles.

Tori was painfully aware she was the only new person tonight, and from the look of who else had come, she’d been the only new person for quite a while. There was a distinct age gap between herself, Sara, her husband Trey, and the geriatric set.

And there were only two men, Trey and Charles. From the expression on Charles’s face, Tori wouldn’t be surprised if he only danced with his wife.

Well, she would make the most of tonight. The music was fun, she was expanding her horizons, and more importantly, she wasn’t home alone after Ali and Erin had announced they had a big change of plans for the weekend, that did not include Tori.

Tori didn’t really want her brain to drift into thinking about how she still didn’t have any real friends here. No, not going there. And two three, step four, turn. She directed her focus at Sara’s feet. They barely appeared to be moving, with soft side steps. Oh, a waltz. Tori chided herself for not having picked up on the one social dance she actually knew.

The music changed, and Sara stepped out of her husbands arms and faced Tori. “You ready? I’ll lead.”

The next thing Tori knew she was smiling awkwardly into the other woman’s face. There wasn’t enough room between them to watch her feet.

Sara kept a quiet count going. “Pause and on the left, the other left. Good two three, step two three.”

Remarkably enough, Tori felt like she was dancing. They swung around the dance floor for two more songs before Sara left her for another partner.

To Tori’s surprise, Sara began dancing with Charles. So he did dance with other women.

Considering the majority of dancers this evening were older, the music never whipped up into the frenetic horns and drums Tori was pretty certain she had heard a time or two with big band jazz.

She found herself laughing and dancing with ChiChi as her partner. Fortunately the other woman took lead. Tori knew she wasn’t accomplished enough of a dancer for the reversal of steps required to lead since she was still wrapping her head around back back slide together.

“You’re doing well,” ChiChi encouraged.

“Thank you, oh, and I never did thank you for allowing Peaz’n’Karrit’s Farm to donate compost for the rose garden.”

“The Guild appreciated the offer. The garden smells much better this year.” ChiChi smiled.

She had the opportunity to dance with Trey, Sara’s ridiculously handsome husband and ChiChi’s grandson. He was good. Smooth and unflappable. He made Tori almost believe she knew what she was doing.

When Sara called the last number, Tori decide to sit it out. With an odd number of dancers she had been incredibly lucky to dance as much as she had, especially since there were three women without partners, and two of them couldn’t lead.

This had been nice, but Tori didn’t think she would be back. She was odd man out and threw off the others who clearly had a groove going.

The song ended, and everyone applauded, as if there was a real band to thank.

Lucinda patted Tori on the forearm, “You will come back, won’t you?”

“You were really picking the moves up by the end of the hour,” Sara added.

Tori shrugged. “I’ll think about it. It was a lot of fun.”

Charles helped ChiChi on with her coat. She said, “Come back and bring a friend.”

Tori’s smiled quavered. She felt her lip wobble along with a stinging sensation behind her eyes. “I’ll see what I can do.”

She left without putting her jacket on. Once outside she slid her arms in and pulled the coat closed. She ground the heel of her palm into her eye. That had been a little too close. The tears had sprung up so unexpectedly. Bring a friend, sure. Sam couldn’t come; she wasn’t here. And Tori didn’t have any friends locally, possibly not anymore. She had really hoped to meet people tonight who weren’t older than her grandparents.

Tori slowed her pace. Where was she running off to? All she had was her apartment, and that only reminded her she was alone.

The night had that quality of spring, only a bit chilled, and the scent of fresh growth wafted on the breeze. Maybe she would cut through the rose garden on her way home.

A motorcycle sped past her with a whoosh.

The rose garden wasn’t out of the way, but it was dark. Tori huffed and shook her head. No one was around, and they wouldn’t bother if the were. Sitting amongst the fragrance of new buds would be a welcome way to relax after her dance class.

Another motorcycle rumbled slowly past her. The rider, hidden behind a full face helmet, waved tentatively before zooming off. Had that been the same bike? Tori shook her head. No face, no identity. It could have been any number of people from work. She did try to be friendly with all the growers.

Tori sat with a thud on the bench in the gazebo. Even in the dark, the rose garden was lovely, and it smelled so nice. She was glad the city use composted organic waste from PnK’s farm now and not manure.

She should take a picture of one of the roses. The compost would be a good angle for an Instagram post. Nothing ruined the beauty of a rose garden like the smell of crap.

Even without the smell of it in her nose, Tori could not escape the bullshit that danced in her brain. Erin was one of the first people she had met outside of work. They seemed to hit it off pretty well, plus Ali, but this whole sudden change of plans seemed to be happening more and more. Tori figured if they really wanted to go to the Spigot, they could say so. Tori refused to go in there any more, but she would understand if her friends still wanted to go to their established hang out. She just wished they would say something about it.

Instead they had to be all mysterious and change plans on her for the entire weekend. They really hadn’t needed to make such a big point of letting her know she wasn’t included. That had been so unnecessary.

A chill washed over her, and Tori stood. She stepped down from the gazebo and headed into the rows of plants. She would stop by in the morning and get a picture, an open rose with a drop of dew gracefully poised on one of the petals. She found herself humming and following a step step slide together walking pattern. Yeah, she would go back to the dance class next week. It would be good to make friends from a different generation. Maybe ChiChi had more good looking grandsons who weren’t already married.

***

Tori slowed her car at the light. The same motorcycle had been following her for miles. That shouldn’t have bothered her, considering there was only one main route in and out of town, and only two roads that would take someone all the way into Napa. But she kept wondering if it was the same bike she had seen last night. She was being silly. There were lots of black motorcycles and lots of riders in a similar helmet.

Nevertheless, when the bike stuck to her tail once the highway opened to two lanes and she passed through a few towns into Napa proper, she grew paranoid.

She tried to ignore the rider as he pulled up next to her at the big intersection. Two lanes turning left. He was going left, too? It was almost too much.

She kept her eyes forward and did not look over at the biker. She hit the ceiling and jumped out of her skin when the rider knocked on her window. She could see the person was laughing, whoever it was.

He flipped the face visor up, and yep, he was laughing.

She rolled down her window and yelled. “Oh my God, Les, are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

“Pull in up here.” He pointed at one of the fast food restaurants up ahead.

Tori nodded, and this time, she followed him, easing her car into a spot next to Les’s bike. He opened the passenger side door and slid into her car. Her heart raced. It had to be from the jump scare he gave her back at the intersection.

“Damn, your car is tiny.” He wiggled, trying to accommodate his longer limbs into the restrictive space of her Fiat.

“Yep, but it’s a convertible. Besides, it’s typically just me in here. Scoot the seat back.”

The entire car jerked as Les adjusted the seat.

Her heart continued to race.

“Did I see you dancing down the street last night?”

“Maybe. Why?” Tori hadn’t realized she had been dancing other than for a bit in the rose garden.

“What were you doing out that late?” Les asked.

“It wasn’t that late, and I was walking home.”

“Did you have a date? You were all dressed up.”

Tori shook her head. “I was at the open-floor ballroom class at the Barre and Tap School of Dance.”

“Open-floor, meaning anyone can come?”

Tori nodded.

“That sounds interesting.” Les’s voice rumbled with an almost laugh.

“Yeah, well, it’s small. It could use more people.”

“How long have you been ballroom dancing?” Les asked.

“About two hours,” she answered.

She liked his laugh. Les smiled and laughed around her. It wasn’t much but she’d take it.

“It took me a while to figure out I was following you. What are you doing in Napa?”

“I’m going to a movie. What are you doing here?” she countered.

Les chuckled. “I live here.”

“Isn’t that a far commute?” Tori asked.

“It’s not that bad. I’m not gonna move to St. Helena until I feel settled in at the Napa Grand and my lease here is up. I’ll probably move sometime in the summer, I guess.”

Tori really didn’t know what to do. Les was sitting in her car, chatting, as if it was nothing. Right, friends—it was indeed nothing. She was the one making it into a big deal in her brain.

“Who are you meeting?” he asked.

Tori was confused for a moment. She hadn’t said she was meeting anybody. “Oh right, the movie. I’m on my own. I was going to go with some friends”—but they really aren’t my friends and so I’m stuck doing social things all by myself—“but they couldn’t make it, and I was really in the mood for a movie theater movie. You know popcorn, the big screen, that whole experience.”

Les nodded. “Why not just go to the Solitaire?”

“They don’t typically play the movies with the big explosions.” Tori shrugged. If she wanted an intellectual art film experience, she could have stayed in town. But she wanted mindless mass market action adventure or a rom-com.

“What are we seeing?”

She tilted her head at him quizzically. “We?”

“A movie sounds like fun. Mind if I tag along?”

“Okay. Do you want to move your bike, or is it okay parked there?” Tori asked. She was a little shocked that she was now going to a movie with Les. It wasn’t a date, but it was a million times better that being here with Erin and Ali, just because it was Les.

They agreed on a horror movie. When Les said he wanted to see it, and she said yes. She hated horror movies, but for Les, she could give one a chance, couldn’t she?

Big mistake.

About twenty minutes in, she flipped up the divider arm between them and hid behind Les’s shoulder.

“Are you okay?” he whispered.

She flinched at another exploding head. “I’m fine. I’m forwarding my therapist’s bill to you,” she whispered back. She cowered behind him for the rest of the movie.

The credits began scrolling, and Tori grabbed Les’s arm, yanking him out of his seat.

“You should have said you didn’t like horror,” he said as he followed her from the theater.

“I didn’t think it was going to be that gross.”

They continued the conversation as they walked to Tori’s small car.

“Sorry the movie freaked you out.” Les pulled Tori in for a brief hug.

Maybe the icky movie had been worth it. Now that she thought about it, she had spent the entire movie clutching his arm, and now he hugged her.

“I’ll see you at work?”

She waved as he sauntered off.

She didn’t want to friend zone herself. She knew she was crushing on him pretty hard. If this was the only way she was going to get any friends around here, she could handle it. There were worse things than being stuck in the self exiled friend zone, like not having anyone to talk to at all.