“Forward, forward! Back, back!”
With the diligence of a drill sergeant, Tita Tess’s microphone-amplified voice shouts directions to the two hundred people here, most of whom are on the dance floor,Todo Todoblasting over the DJ’s speakers.
The tent smells like summer, tequila, garlic, and salty ocean breeze. It feels like celebration and tastes like festivity. Laughter. Elation.
Georgia crashes into me from my left, and I inadvertently step on the train of her dress.
“Girl,” I huff at her, a little out of breath from the exuberance necessary for line dancing.
“I’m so fucking bad at this,” Georgia pants while trying to simultaneously lift the hem of her dress and spin clockwise.
“Stop being such a stereotype,” Emmanuel trills at her from my other side.
“Me?!” Georgia says pointedly to Emmanuel, who is currently hitting every single move while decorating them with extra spins and hand motions and hair tosses for flair.
“Cha-cha na tayo! One, two, cha-cha-cha!”
“We should’ve just done this at City Hall,” Georgia grumbles.
Oliver swoops in to save her, his tie and tux jacket gone, hair mussed, beaming from ear-to-ear. “And deprive our entire family of line dancing? Could you imagine the phone chains ofchismis?” He moves behind her and holds her in his arms while essentially doing all the dancing for her. “Haven’t my mom and sisters been practicing with you for months?”
“Can’t teach rhythm,” proclaims Tamika, who looks perfect as always. “You either have it or you don’t.”
“Easy,” Elias warns Georgia from behind us, when a wayward arm comes close to hitting Mia’s extremely swollen belly. “Arms by your sides.”
“Fuck you, Captain America,” Georgia hisses. “How the hell are you so good at this, anyway? You look like a giant fucking bear in the figure skating Olympics.”
“Hey!” he exclaims. “Language!” He places his hands on either side of Mia’s belly. “James, don’t listen to her,” he says to her stomach.
“Our parents made us take ballroom lessons when we were kids,” Mia tells Georgia.
“Ballroom?!” Emmanuel shrieks, now seamlessly incorporating vogue elements into the steps.
“Not that kind of ballroom,” Elias says. “White people ballroom.” Since our conversation in Oliver’s backyard two summers ago, Elias has become a learned scholar ofDrag Race.
“I need a drink,” Georgia declares. “Can someone get me a drink?”
I laugh. “I’ll go. I need another, anyway.”
I weave my way through all the family friends and/or cousins and/or titos and make my way to the bar, where Oliver’s youngest sister Izzy is standing with a pair of seemingly identical twins who couldn’t look more different.
“Hey, Iz,” I greet her. “No line dancing for you?”
“Taking a break,” she says. “Lola Ging stepped on my toe,” she says, wiggling her bare feet at me from under her navy bridesmaid’s dress. “Lina, these are my very best friends, Annie and May Li. High school friends turned family friends.”
May, who’s in a simple, elegant dress and pearl earrings and Chanel slingbacks, with shiny black hair in perfect, soft waves, shakes my hand kindly. “So nice to meet you,” she says, her voice strong and serene.
Annie is almost literally covered in tattoos from head to toe, at least from torso to toe, in a slinky dress and gigantic metallic blue platform sandals. I don’t think she did her hair, but it flows long and loose behind her. She extends a tattooed hand. “Hey girl,” she says, voice on the huskier side. “Love your dress.”
Both of them are absolutely stunning.
“Thanks,” I tell Annie.
I order two margaritas from the bartender. “You guys having fun?”
“So much fun,” Izzy says. She gestures with her chin at Oliver and Georgia, both of whom have given up line dancing and are just grinning and turning in slow circles with their arms wrapped around each other. “They look so happy. I’m so happy for them.”
Annie’s wearing a devastating smirk, her eyes on someone behind me. “I’m about to have a fucking blast,” she says, before chugging the rest of her drink and slamming it on the bar. She plants a huge smooch on May’s forehead. “See you guys later. Nice to meet you, Lina.” She slinks away.
