“Elly, prove her wrong. Walk over to…” I glanced up in time to see him scanning the bar and point to an attractive guy with long hair, “that guy.”

Seriously? Kent wanted me to go hit on a guy in front of him. I felt the familiar squeeze of disappointment in my chest. “No. I don’t need to prove anything to either of you.”

“Good. Then dance with me before we call it a night.” He finished off his beer and stood up, looking at me expectantly, his hand held out.

I shook my head. “No one else is dancing.” I wasn’t going to dance with him while everyone was staring at me, especially not Stacy. She’d probably record it on her phone and taunt me with it.

“Because no one fed the jukebox any money. No music equals no dancing,” he said.

“Only one way to rectify that then, huh?”

“You promise to dance if other people are out there dancing too?”

“Sure,” I retorted.

He grinned as he moved over to the jukebox. He stood there for a moment, mulling over the music. Stacy was watching him too as she finished up her beer. He stuffed some money into it and soon a few songs started to play. He stopped to talk to some people at the bar before coming back to the table. Just before he reached us a few couples moved onto the dance floor.

“He really wants to dance with you,” Stacy chuckled.

“I don’t know why,” I grumbled softly just as Kent approached the table and sat back down. I waited and waited for him to ask me again. He just stared at the bodies on the tiny dance floor while the song played through. I sighed softly and finished off my beer. It figured that Kent would make a big fuss out of wanting to dance with me and then chicken out. It was the story of our lives.

Stacy giggled beside me, her eyes turned down to her phone as she busily texted. Just before the song ended Kent reached over the table and took my hand. It freaked me out a little bit, his touch was so warm and soft. And unexpected.

“Can I have that dance now?” he asked with a warm smile. There was something else there. Something that scared me and made my insides joyful.

He held my hand as he pulled me to the outer edge of the dancers. As soon as we stopped the song ended. I felt his hand slipping from mine, felt the disappointment in my gut. “Dammit…” His fingertips were on mine when he grabbed my hand tightly and pulled me against his chest. “Oh, wait a second. I wonder who played this song.”