The Last Dance of the Night

After they had their first dance, the wedding party was called up and we all danced together.

It had been some years since high school and college and despite the distance most of us had remained friends.

Once the DJ invited everybody up to the dance floor for a first dance her boyfriend abruptly cut in and took over.

He was not happy at both of us being in the wedding party and dancing together.

Figuring it was a good time to hit the bar before the crowds it was then that I noticed her.

Sitting alone at the table, looking anywhere else but the dance floor.

It was then that I found myself watching myself doing something very uncharacteristic, walking over to the table, smiling, and extending my hand.

I asked her to dance.

Surprisingly it wasn’t awkward at all.

We matched and complemented each other quite well.

More then one of our friends had a look of surprise on their face as they saw us dancing together, laughing together, smiling together.

They knew our history together, or rather lack of it.

In our small circle we were the only two that didn’t date at some point.

Two friends from high school who traveled in the same circle of friends, but were really at competition with each other. No matter how hard I tried I could never match or beat her academically, and no matter how much she tried she could never best me in the acting club.

She left for Florida and a life on the ocean, I had my own path in budo on the opposite side of the world.

Out of all our high school friends that was the one thing we had in common that nobody else had, we knew what we wanted to do, full commitment, after graduating high school.

Before I could ask her to join me for a drink at the bar, I got pulled away for some pictures and my speech for the evening.

The celebration went to the early AM hours and when the music stopped and most of the guests had left that was when I realized I was stuck.

The limo had left without me, an hour from home, and I had lost my phone.

It was there again that we met on the now quiet dance floor and she offered me a ride home.

On the ride home we both agreed it would be funny if our younger selves could have seen us now.

When the car stopped, there was that moment of silence.

We had both run the calculations on the ride home.

An invitation to come upstairs or leave what we shared on the dance floor as it was.