Salsa in the city

Episode Five: What happens at the after-party...

Almost a week had passed and there had not been much word from either Kat or Ava. As it was Thursday Lauren and Emma had spoken frequently in order to organise this week’s visit to The Copa Cubaña. An occasion to which both Kat and Ava had apprehensively bowed out of. Lauren made her way around to Emma’s flat for pre-drinks, important outfit decisions and some idle chit chat (mostly about the two absent girls). The taxi got them there just in time for the two girls to make their usual grand entrance to the welcoming gaze of the majority of male salsa attenders. At the door, and almost traditionally, they were greeted with a kiss on the hand and the noble bow from the Copa Cubaña’s connoisseur; an ambassador of all things rumba, a centurion of salsa and marauder of mambo…  Otherwise known as Tim the instructor.

“Just the two of you?” Tim asked, “Long story,” Lauren replied. “Ladies, ladies...” Tim said, whilst shaking his head. “The night may be young - but we have no time for long stories as our feet have so much talking to do”. With that Tim took the hands of Lauren and Emma and whisked them away onto the floor, the girls had no choice but to step in time, no warm up dances with the beginners and novices of salsa, no, they were plunged straight into the pulsing centre of the floor. As the girls where naturally quite nimble footed it had not taken long for them to develop into quite the accomplished salsa dancers and Tim amongst others was highly impressed by this.

During the night Lauren and Emma had recognised most of the usual faces but where intrigued by a few new ones. More so than any others they had been graced by the presence of a highly talented, very flamboyant and roguish emerging singer François who was becoming quite a household name on the local circuit, his enigmatic reputation preceded him whever he went. He had just finished a live performance and was looking for a place to unwind. He was accompanied by a member of his entourage, a beautiful dancer whose name was Esperanza and came from Brazil. She had long curly hair and a hypnotic deep mahogany completion. Her figure was a reflection her tropical genes and her dancing background. Her eyes sparkled like precious gems and her husky voice and broken English accent could charm an Eskimo out of his coat.

They arrived about an hour after Lauren and Emma and about five minutes before Ricardo and Estavan. Tim shimmied his way over to introduce himself to the insatiable Esperanza but had no such enthusiasm for the equally attention grabbing François.  His outstretched hand was left unshaken by an otherwise engaged Tim who was exhausting the opportunity to sample the dancing skills of the entrancing Esperanza’s. Lauren and Emma looked on in shock as they watched the drama unfold. François headed to the bar for a round of drinks, as he arrived he received a nod of acknowledgement from an already perched Angelo who seemed to have some sort of recognisable association with the singer.

Ricardo and Estavan also headed towards the bar; both grinning and winking cheekily in the direction of Lauren and Emma. “The boys look good,” Emma whispered to Lauren. “They certainly do,” Lauren agreed. Ricardo beckoned Lauren and Emma towards the bar where a drink each was waiting for them. The girls kindly greeted Angelo who responded with a casual “Hi...” and half a smile much to the girl’s bemusement. Angelo seemed much too involved in conversation with François to entertain anyone else, that was of course until Esperanza approached him and leaned seductively on the bar next to him looking him up and down in quite a provocative manor. Angelo seemed defenceless to her feminine whiles and immediately took her hand and led her onto the floor.

The pair danced intensely, song after song; Angelo’s attention was entirely fixed upon Esperanza. During a slow last dance Esperanza ran the tips of her long fingernails down the middle of Angelo’s back leaving him static and forlorn at the centre of the floor. As she walked away she gave a subtle glance over to Lauren that lasted no longer than a second or two but long enough for her to know exactly what it meant. Emma also noticed this look and was enraged by this provocative gaze. Lauren elected they take the diplomatic approach and calmed Emma down reassuring her that She knew how to deal with a woman like that.

At the end of an interesting night at the Copa Lauren and Emma were stood outside chatting and flirting with Ricardo and Estavan. They were discussing the contingency of the night when they were approached by a François who had also been outside chatting with his group of friends. “Hey kids, we are going to head back to my place for some more drinks and chilling out do you fancy it then?” He offered. Emma responded immediately with “No, it's OK we’re...” “Yes that sounds cool why not...” Lauren interjected to Emma’s surprise. “Nice, follow along.” he replied, before stepping away and hopping into the back of a taxi.

Back at the François’ apartment it was a wonderful soiree of merriment and festivities. They drank and laughed together and he even played them a preview of his new unreleased album that according to him was a real masterpiece and he was going to use it to take the world by storm.  By this point they had all lost any sense of time but were having too much fun to care. 

François was sat in the corner of the room with dark glasses on in a state of in-depth musing.  All of a sudden he jumped up and said: “Right! who’s ready to have fun?”  He grabbed an empty wine bottle, sauntered to the middle of the room commanding “Come on ladies and gents you know what to do”.  Everybody gathered around him in his now designated play area, “what is it spin the bottle?” Emma said. “Looks like yeah,” Lauren replied. “ I'm not playing!” Emma spat, as she sat back with her arms folded.  “Are you playing Lu?” Emma asked. Lauren shrugged her shoulders and gave a persuadable grin. “Get your asses over here you two!” shouted François. “Er, no thanks.” Emma replied. “Ah... come on - it will be fun...” Lauren said, as she stood up and walked over. “Oh alright.” Emma sighed.

They walked over and joined the circle that had congregated around the empty bottle of wine that was lying flat on the floor. The artist appointed Lauren to take the first spin. With a feeble turn of her wrist the bottle top so conveniently stopped pointing straight at Ricardo who grinned bashfully at Lauren who then beckoned him across the circle with her finger in a ‘come hither’  type of motion. Ricardo leaned across the circle and placed a polite kiss on Lauren's lips. “Tongues! We want tongues!”  Proclaimed François, a request to which Lauren and Ricardo happily obliged. 

The empty bottle had worked its way around the circle a good few times; at least half of the games participants had played tonsil tennis with each other so far. It came to François’ turn to spin the bottle. He leaned into the centre of the circle and gave the bottle an almighty spin. The bottle stopped with the top pointing directly at the Esperanza who giggled and applauded accordingly. “Come here sexy boy...” She demanded. They crawled slowly towards each other and engaged in the most over-elaborate Hollywood screen kiss esque snog much to everyone’s entertainment. Esperanza spun the bottle in a similar fashion to that of Lauren’s unconvincing effort, the top of the bottle stopped opportunely pointing in Angelo’s direction.

Angelo seemed to glimpse over to Lauren and Emma from the corner of his eye as the predatory Esperanza closed in on her ensnared prey.  She pounced on Angelo and kissed him passionately, the powerless Angelo didn't quite know where to put himself. Whilst returning to her place in the circle she again gave Lauren the same subtle glance that again which spoke volumes. Lauren simply looked at Emma and rolled her eyes. A flabbergasted Angelo took his turn spinning the bottle, he span it as vehemently as he could, the bottle span and span until gradually slowing down and stopping with the nozzle pointing straight in the direction of Emma...

All around the circle eyebrows were raised in anticipation; Emma looked straight at Esperanza and crawled over to Angelo who had now resigned to simply closing his eyes and puckering up. Emma wrapped her hand firmly around Angelo’s jaw and domineeringly turned his head to one side; she then leaned in and planted a bright red love bite on Angelo’s neck before sitting back down as if nothing had even happened. Gasps were heard all around the circle closely followed by an over lording applause from François. “OK, that’s enough now ladies.” he declared. “Poor Angelo.” he sympathetically added while rubbing the back of Angelo’s head.

The excitement of the occasion seemed to have peaked at this moment and began to subsequently decline. Lauren and Emma decided it was time to head home before any more catty behaviour resulted in any further regrettable reactions. On the way home they discussed the events of the night.

“If that hussy shows up again I'm going to tell her some things - did you see her all over Angelo?! it was disgusting!” Emma ranted. “Oh I know girl - but you certainly shut her up though, did you see her face? It was a picture.” Lauren replied.  “Ah I know, I went a bit too far though I think...” Emma said. “Maybe so - but she was asking for it that little skank!” Lauren responded brazenly. Emma suddenly gasped “What if Ava sees it?”  Emma said anxiously. “Yikes!”  Lauren blurted. “She won’t mind will she?” Emma asked. “Come on this is Ava where talking about.” Lauren confirmed. “I can't just not tell her either though, look at what happened with Kat. Oh! why did I do that?” Emma said in frustration. “We have to tell her what happened before she finds out from someone else cos that will cause all sorts of drama.” Lauren explained. “Yeah, and we don’t need any more of that.” Emma agreed…

David, TCC