Emily could have tried harder to stay in touch, but that meant being around Melissa, and Emily had no interest in that.
She finished her drink and reached for the fresh one behind her. As much as Gabby wanted her to get back out there, Emily had no interest in getting involved with anyone. Not in any kind of a serious way, anyway.
Emily searched her memory as she watched Gabby smiling as she danced, her blond hair flying up with each spin, and she couldn’t think of a single one-night stand. There were plenty of short-lived relationships. Two months with her college roommate. Five months with the bartender from their local sports bar. But never a one-time thing or several nights with no-strings attached.
There were always strings attached, because Emily had never been into those wild nights that everyone else seemed to have when they were in their early twenties. She’d always been searching for someone she could settle down with and look where that got her. Five years of happiness. The two after that were anything but.
Melissa’s ‘mistake’ with a student, a one-time thing that she swore would never happen again, had put an end to their marriage. Looking back, Emily couldn’t believe that she’d fallen for it. Melissa never had any intention of ending it with that student, and Emily never should have given her a second chance.
But it was easy to say those things in retrospect. At the time, the whole thing had come as a complete shock to Emily, and when she thought about the months after she discovered that Melissa had been cheating on her, Emily just wanted her life to stay the same. She’d been grasping at straws, desperate to save their marriage, reluctant to throw away their relationship and all those good years that they’d had together.
Over a student.
Emily took a drink. Melissa was only two years older than her, and the thought of her cheating on her with a nineteen-year-old student still left Emily feeling a little sick to her stomach.
One of the reasons Emily had given Melissa a second chance was because Emily had assumed that lust was the only possible reason for having an affair with a woman fifteen years younger than her. There couldn’t have been a serious connection.
Emily didn’t even know anymore which one was worse. A lust-filled fling with a student that lasted a few weeks and fizzled out or an affair that Melissa was willing to risk her marriage and her career for. Well, it turned out to be the second one, because they were still together.
That was the last straw for Emily, hearing through a mutual friend that Melissa had moved her girlfriend, who was a senior now, into the apartment they’d bought together six years ago. Emily could still remember that first day, when they’d thrown themselves an impromptu paint party, turning up the music and making an absolute mess while they painted the walls of their first home together.
Emily took a deep breath. She was so over Melissa. It wasn’t even a question anymore. She could be civil with her ex-wife when they bumped into each other on campus or at a bar, but Emily had no feelings for her anymore. Of that much, she was sure.
Her confidence and her ego were still bruised, but she was getting there, and even though Emily hadn’t enjoyed the first salsa class that Gabby had practically dragged her to, she was glad that she’d stuck with it.
This time last year, this whole scene, being here in Miami, at a salsa club with a live band… It was so far from what her life in Seattle looked like. She’d traded her usual blouse and black or charcoal gray slacks that she lived in for work, and even the dance classes, for a simple black dress with a plunging V-neck that showed off her figure.
Tonight, Emily felt better than she had in years, and when a strikingly beautiful blond-haired woman locked eyes with her from across the room, she had a feeling her night was about to get a hell of a lot more interesting.
2
Alex Whitley closed her eyes for a brief moment before she caught her partner’s hand and twirled her under her arm before easily sliding an arm around her waist. Even though nothing would ever happen between her and Maria, she was the highlight of Alex’s nights at the club. They’d only been dancing together for a little over a year, since Alex had turned twenty-one, but their chemistry was off the charts.
The music was perfect tonight. It was always good. Her uncle wouldn’t let just any band on that stage, but tonight there was something special about the way the band was vibing with the packed dance floor.
A bead of sweat trickled down her back. Maria was in a red dress that fanned out with every turn. Alex wore black shorts and a black tank top, her blond hair falling across her shoulders in loose, beachy waves.
Maria was exactly her type. Around forty. Brunette. Amazing legs. Incredible dance moves. But thankfully, Alex wasn’t interested in her. What they had was limited to the dance floor, because Maria was straight.
Alex did her best to soak it all in, to stay in the moment, and Maria flashed her a smile as her dark hair swung into the air as Alex spun her effortlessly, sashaying to the music as they both danced on their own for a few beats before coming back together.
Alex knew people were watching them. Well, the regulars didn’t pay them much attention anymore, but anyone who was new to the club always seemed to focus on them.
Yes, it was unusual for two women to be dancing together at a salsa club like this, although they weren’t the only ones. She knew the couple dancing beside them, and even though they’d been together for at least five years, their chemistry paled in comparison to the way Maria and Alex moved together.
She could never thank her uncle enough for encouraging her parents to get her started with salsa dancing. As a ten-year-old, Alex was more interested in learning how to skateboard. She still managed to do that, but the regular, weekly classes that year weren’t for skating. They were for salsa.
Her uncle had asked the couple who taught classes for adults here at the club, to give Alex and her cousin, Nick, private lessons at his house every Saturday morning. Alex had to be dragged there, but her parents had insisted because her uncle had gone to the trouble of hiring some of the best instructors in Miami to teach them.
Now, Alex was beyond grateful for that early start. At twenty-two, she’d already been dancing for twelve years, and looking back, salsa was what gave her the confidence she had now. It wasn’t just the dancing skills. It was the social aspect of it as well.
She had to wait until she was twenty-one to get into a club like this, even with her uncle being the owner, but there had been plenty of opportunities over the years to dance at gatherings or when there was music outside, and it turned out that it was an amazing way to pick up women.
Alex had started neglecting the gay bars that her college friends went to and came here most nights she felt like getting out and having a few drinks. She also might have gotten sick of meeting unavailable women there. Who knew that straight married women liked to frequent Miami’s gay bars?
Alex still couldn’t make sense of those two disastrous relationships. Could she even call them relationships? Yes, they’d both lasted almost six months each, and while Alex had no clue until they’d been caught that either woman had been married, they were never really going anywhere.
Not that she knew that.
