Dance in the Moonlight

Started by RP Dan, February 24, 2018, 10:56:47 AM

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RP Dan

(This was a half-hour exercise based on a phrase AmyMartin used in a note to me. There are stories everywhere. If you have comments, I would be glad to know them.)


Amy stood alone in the warm summer night on the back patio of her friends' home. It was a big house and at the moment it was full of people, Suzi and Tom's summer cocktail party. Servers carried trays of hors d'oeuvres and flutes of Champagne and a 12-piece band played on the large sun porch. The music needed no amplification to fill the house. Amy could hear it outside.

She looked down at her dress, the reason she stood alone facing the party, watching the mingling and dancing. She moved her hands down the sides of the garment, a silver satin affair. It was short but not too short, and high-necked. But it had no back at all, open all the way down to her tail bone. Suzi had been with her when she'd bought it a week ago and had been wild for it.

"It's so lovely!" she gushed. "It's so graceful, the way it shows the curve of your beautiful back. If you don't buy it yourself, I'm buying it for you. It's daring, but sometimes you should be daring."

Amy was anything but daring. Her clothes were all careful classics. But she had bought the backless dress and had worn it to the party for Suzi's benefit. She had come alone, having no one to invite, and now she stood in the new dress, too afraid to go inside the house where people could see her.

She hated the dress; she felt naked. And in fact she was naked under the light garment, whose completely open back permitted nothing underneath. She felt like the girl in the yellow polka-dot bikini from the ancient popular song, the girl who wouldn't get out of the water.

Amy stood on silver high-heeled sandals in the light of the full moon, dark hair falling on the pale skin of her bare shoulders, outside looking in. She had pasted a light smile on her lips but inside she was a tortured, miserable mess. She'd have to stand out there until the party ended and everyone left; only then would she have the nerve to go through the house and out to her car. She couldn't believe she had actually had it in her to come into the house; she had almost immediately escaped to the patio.

Presently Amy saw a man walk through the crowd and pluck two flutes of Champagne from a server's tray. He was trim and handsome, with dark hair, in a dark suit with a white shirt and a red tie. He came out to the patio holding the two glasses and Amy looked up at him wanting to flee but unwilling to turn her back to run. Instead, she took the glass he offered her and smiled and looked up into very kind eyes. She didn't know what to say, so she didn't say anything, just took a long sip of the Champagne and looked up into his eyes with a silent plea to leave her alone.

He did not leave. Instead, he told her his name was David, and when he heard the band play its next song he took her glass and put it with his on a table next to them. Then he took her right hand in his left and put his warm right hand at the small of her bare back and started to lead her in a foxtrot.

His hand burned where he touched her, but she followed him in the dance, anyway. It was better than standing there, mute. He was a good dancer and he made her a better one than she was. When he pulled her a little closer after a while she complied, and placed her head on his chest. When the music stopped, he didn't. They kept dancing to a melody only he could hear, to the beat of her own heart.

Pressed against him in their dance she was aware of the satin rubbing against her, soft at her breasts and hips. She was more aware than ever that she was naked beneath the fabric, but now she liked it. She felt free and unencumbered by all the things of which she had been frightened. She and David spoke of the party, and of Tom and Suzi, and wasn't the moon bright? And didn't it seem so close?

The night-blooming heliotrope opened, releasing its vanilla scent and Amy closed her eyes as the music resumed and their dance continued. David felt strong and solid in her arms, she felt safe and happy and protected in his. They danced miles on obedient feet and talked of nothing and everything and it seemed like only a few minutes later that the band finished its evening and the party was over.

They made a date for the following Monday, sharing shy smiles of anticipation of pleasure to come. He did not kiss her as they parted for the evening, but he grazed his right hand, the one that had held her in the dance, from her shoulder blades to the base of her spine. Just once, a sweet, delicious stroke that made her shiver even later when she remembered it.

Hugs and kisses for Tom and Suzi and then Amy drove herself home. In her bedroom she carefully stepped out of the dress and hung it in her closet.

Goodness, she thought, how I love this dress.

RP Dan

Updates with the song they danced to, light edits to clean.

RP Dan

Updated to fix a phrase that has vexed me since I wrote the piece.

RP Dan

Updated to fix a dead link in a song (and it's a great song!).

Ann Kells

Very nice imagery.  Thank you for the story.