Salsa in the City

Episode Two: Six is a crowd

It was the week after the night before; the girls had hardly seen each other due to their individual busy schedules. Kat had remained tight lipped about the mystery man in the taxi. Ava had asked Kat on the phone the next day, as after a night out the girls usually spend half the day calling each other to summarise the antics of the previous night. "It was just an old friend..." she had told her, “nothing even happened". " Umm hmm..."  was Ava's suspecting response.

Kat's impromptu disappearances with “old friends" or indeed new ones is no rarity to the girls so for Ava " Umm hmm." was all she needed to say on the matter at that present moment in time.

After the night they had last week it was an easy decision for the girls to return to the Copa Cubaña for the second week running, and a unanimous one at that. The girls met up at Emma's flat for some ritualistic wine drinking and deliberative dressing, all except Kat who was running late and had asked to be picked up on the way. 

The girls jokingly discussed the possibilities of landing themselves each a Latin lover which seemed an exciting prospect to them all. The conversation soon drifted on to Kat’s dodgy disappearances that she was beginning to make a habit of. 

The conversation continued into the taxi and all the way to Kat’s house where it automatically changed as she entered the taxi. “Hey babes, you alright?” Lauren greeted her with. “Hey ladies,” Kat replied as she fumbled her way into the taxi. “Yeah...” they all said endearingly. 

They arrived at the Copa Cubaña as fabulously as ever. They sashayed in like runway models on the first night of fashion week. Heads turned, men whispered with their friends as if to say “that’s them.”

There are women who have attended the weekly salsa night for quite some time who have never had such attention, and they were the woman who greeted the girls with harsh stares and dirty looks, as if to say “who do they think they are?” As the girls drew nearer the dirty looks automatically became painted on smiles in a shameless act of two-faced cowardice. 

Like an elaborate host of an extravagant ball, Tim the instructor, welcomed the women with open arms and a kiss on each cheek for all four of the attention grabbing females. Before the they could say “Hi Tim, how are you?” he had taken Ava by the hand and led her off into the world of rumba, mambo and cha-cha-cha. 

Whilst out on the floor Ava spotted the bashful gaze of Angelo from the bar, he subtly tipped his glass as if to salute her rhythmic beauty and natural flow. Ava smiled to herself. 

When Tim returned her to her friends she whispered to them “Angelo’s over there don’t look.” “He looks hot,” Emma said enthusiastically. “I thought I said don’t look!” Ava replied, “You better dance with him,” Lauren instructed her. ”And get his number,” she added. Unbeknownst to them Ava and Angelo had been texting back and forth all week. Ava being the most secretive of the girls felt her behaviour towards Angelo to be a tad overzealous and thought it better if she spoon fed updates to the girls in drips and drabs.

As the girls enjoyed Tequila shots, Havana cocktails and a leisure of dancing partners that ranged across the spectrum of weekly salsa night attenders, a quite sizable element of dancers out on the floor suddenly seemed to stutter in a sort of gasping anticipation.  

The girls looked around to see what all the bother was about, suddenly in walked Ricardo, the long haired stallion that had caught the eye of the girls the previous week. Locks flowing like weeping willows in the wind, the Columbian export who hailed from the infamous mean streets of Medellin, home to the Medellin cartel. He had a certain look about him that was quite enticing yet encroached upon danger, and accompanying him was an even dishier catch. Estevan, the Cuban born salsa Prince who could go toe to toe with Tim and match him for every step. This coupled with his boyish good looks and snappy dress sense made him a hit with the ladies at the Copa, and Emma, Lauren, Kat and Ava were by no means exempt from his allure. 

Tim was not impressed by Estevan or indeed by Ricardo. Tim is a travelled man; he has seen a thousand Estevans and a thousand and one Ricardos. Tim likes to use his whit, charm and charisma to keep all of the women at salsa guessing and all of the men on their toes, (literally). Tim also has a habit of collating information (or dirt) on some of the more popular dancers who attend salsa and strategically divulging it when and where needs be. He is like Willy Wonka and this is his chocolate factory, he knows everything that goes on and he has eyes and ears everywhere, he knows every trick in the book and the last thing he is going to do is allow someone to steal his thunder. 

As soon as Lauren clapped eyes upon Ricardo she knew that she wanted him. He had caught her eye the week before and he did stand out as a bit of a 'hottie', but seeing him strut his way onto the floor looking all rugged and edgy - demanding the attention of the room made him stand out in a whole different light. 

Estevan and Ricardo had taken to the floor in a rhythmically domineering fashion, they devoured their way through a plethora of eager dance partners like a pair of hungry kings at a banquet table just before the entertainment arrives. 

Lauren couldn’t be more turned on by Ricardo’s proud display of hot blooded Latin male prowess. She eye balled him top to toe as he spun one girl and twirled another, simultaneously. Ricardo saw her looking and brazenly looked right back at her, his eager dance partners span on the end of his fingertips like wound up toys, unaware of the fact that Ricardo’s attention lay fully with the beckoning gaze of Lauren. As the song ended so did the dance for the eager partners, Ricardo swiftly left them, pining for his well sought out company and approached Lauren. “We will dance!” He told her in a raspy tone. “ OK,” Lauren replied simply, as her usually sharp and sassy tongue momentarily escaped her. 

Ricardo took Lauren’s hand, his hand was course yet firm, like that of a man who has worked manually for years on end. As the melody of the song began to escalate Ricardo pulled Lauren in close, close enough for her to be engulfed in the musky scent of Ricardo’s lucid masculinity. 

As Ricardo whisked Lauren away, Emma, who had been stood next to her felt an arm reach around her waist; a hand gently grip her by the hip and her body being spun around to face a proposing dance partner. She looked up to see Estevan grinning with an irresistible smile and felt him leading her into the next dance in such a subtle and flowing manor that it would have been almost unnatural to decline. 

Ricardo and Estevan were true professionals and had mastered the art of salsa dancing on an incomparable level. Lauren and Emma were dancing their socks off trying to keep up but at the same time felt at ease with the two nimble footed gents, as a man who could challenge them (all be it agilely) is what they are always keeping their eyes out for. 

The chemistry between the two couples was at such an intense level that the floor was almost at a standstill in observance of this melodic tryst. As the four dancers moved in perfect harmony as if well-rehearsed a third couple entered the fray. Tim had plucked up Kat from floor frolicking obscurity and ushered her into a of hot bed of steamy and unadulterated salsa-ing, to which Kat was a willing participant. 

Ava who was at the bar conversing with Angelo was witnessing the whole affair; she observed how Kat seemed to be quite familiar and flirtatious with Tim during their dance. She remembered how the week before that Kat had texted from an unrecognised number which she then went into her messages to view. At the bar there was a flyer, it was Tim's, the flyer advertised salsa lessons weekly and one on one private tutoring. Ava picked up the flyer and scanned through it for a mobile number. She looked her phone and then at the number on the flyer, she then looked up to see that Kat was looking over at her - then she quickly looked away, moments later the lights came up. Ava took Angelo’s hand and headed outside to wait for the rest of the girls...

Submitted by David, The Collective.