VALENTINES BALL - CHAPTER 4

(By HGHUNT)

Chapter 4 - The Party Starts

Waitresses dressed in sexy short dresses filtered among the crowd, attending to our drink needs. They pointed out the food bar, which was now ready. The band began with an old Ella Fitzgerald tune. In moments half the place was up and dancing. Before our first drink even arrived, we got up and hit the floor. The sexy slow number made it easy to put my arms around my wife and hold her close. The soft rhythm and liquid voice of the singer perfected the romantic mood. I was in heaven and it made me feel really wonderful when my wife put her arms around my neck and held me. While neither of us are exceptional dancers, we enjoy it very much. We didn't talk much, occasionally remarking something about the other people, the music, or just the fondness of the moment. Gwen glided effortlessly across the floor under my lead. The dancing seemed effortless. The atmosphere, the music, my wife's glorious body held close to mine, all merged together to make the dancing an extension of us. It was bliss in motion. I couldn't have ever dreamed up a more romantic moment.

The first song ended and we stepped over to our table for our first sip. The musicians continued. More people arrived and joined in the fun. It seemed that most couples were like us: here as just a couple without a group. A few people seemed to be in groups, but most were here apparently for the same reasons as us. We occasionally spoke with some of the others, but it was mostly just polite small talk made necessary by the proximity of our tables and the dance floor's confined area. As more people began to arrive on the floor, the bodies dancing were crowded closer and closer together. For some reason this didn't seem to make anyone uncomfortable: certainly not Gwen or me. The men were usually handsome. The women were glamorous. The perfume mixed with the warming, moist air, and created a sort of heady aroma that was both pleasant and dangerous all at the same time. We never felt the least bit bothered by the crowd. It just made it that much easier to hold each other really close as we danced.

The band occasionally belted out a faster tune, creating a sort of free-for-all anarchy on the dance floor. Usually these times provided a bit of laughter and joviality as the dancers tried to keep up with the beat in the confined space. Collisions were common, but it was all in fun and no one seemed to take offense (or so I thought). There were some folks who never would dance a fast number so the crowd thinned a bit during those songs, but overall, the reason many were there was to dance. So the lovely night went on like this. Gwen and I danced about 60-80% of the time for the first couple of hours. We were having a wonderful time. By 10:00 the place was nearly full. Only a few tables had an empty chair.