“Liz,” I say, in case she’s forgotten. “Good to see you. You take classes here too, right?”

“Gemma just finished the level three class,” Cali says. “We’re very proud.”

“And I’m just here for the pretty girls,” Edward says.

“That’s complete nonsense,” Gemma says. “Well, he is here for the girls, but Edward’s an excellent dancer as well.”

“None of the pretty girls would dance with me otherwise.”

Gemma rolls her eyes and they go to change their shoes, leaving me alone until a moment later when Edward comes back and asks me to dance.

At midnight, Gianluca turns the lights off, and at first I think the social is over. I feel an immediate letdown, the specter of my empty apartment rising up. But then I see people heading back onto the floor and notice that the music hasn’t stopped, just changed. All of the other beginners—with the exception of one or two confused stragglers—have left now, and I wonder if I should too. But I watch Cali and one of the other team dancers going out on the floor in the now-low light, and I’m so mesmerized that I’m frozen where I am. A pop song with a throbbing bass beat plays, and Cali’s body is languid, released from the stiff frame of tango, and she undulates and rolls her hips, tosses her head as she spins. She and her partner dance first in an open frame and then he pulls her in close, and the way their hips are moving together, it seems like something I shouldn’t be watching.

Gemma appears beside me.

“Well, that’s not tango,” I say.

Gemma laughs. “They’re dancing zouk, it’s very popular down here. Quite hot, isn’t it?”

“I’ll say. I feel like I should leave.”

“Why do you think we dim the lights? After midnight, we get into the hard stuff: zouk, some kizomba, some sexy freestyle. Have you had a good night? Got some good dances in?”

“I did. This place is incredible.”

“Careful,” Gemma says with a laugh, “you’ll get addicted.”

Penny Finds God