A group of friends streams their gaming on Wednesday nights. But not all the action is on the dining room table.

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Chapter 18 -- Mistakes Were Made

We were almost to the stairs leading down to the deck with the dance club when I felt the ship lurch, causing me to grip Brian's arm even tighter as my compromised balance sent me wobbling, with even more associated laughing.

"How many drinks did you have?" He asked me, letting me lean against his chest for a moment as I got used to the ship's movement again.

"Three? I think?" I thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yep. Three. Waddabout you?"

"I had a few," he admitted. "Mostly stuck to beers, though."

"Not me!" I said, with more laughing as we started walking. "Couldn't get a dring from the bar lady 'cause o' this thing," I said, giving my baby bump a gentle pat. "Maria brought me some hairy navels at the table, though."

"Hairy... oh!" Brian chuckled too, and I enjoyed the rumble through his body as we walked. "And what about the guy who won?"

"What about him?"

"He handed you something?"

"Oh!" I looked down at the piece of paper still clutched in my hand. "What is it?" I asked him, handing it to him.

Brian unfolded the paper. He frowned but tried to smile again when he noticed I was watching him. "It's, ah, it's his name and number."

"Oh? Oh," I said, feeling a little wooziness that had nothing to do with alcohol wash over me.

"Did you wanna keep it?"

"Do I?" I asked, then thought for a moment. There was something important about that question, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what it was. "I don't think so?"

"Good," Brian said, seeming to breathe a sigh of relief as he slipped the paper into his own pocket.

"Good," I agreed, leaning on him a bit more and wondering why I was feeling the alcohol more now than when I'd been drinking it.

We walked together down the walkway around the outside edge of the ship, looking out at the water, until we reached the doors for the dance club, a fact made obvious by the thump of loud music from beyond them.

Standing just outside of them on the walkway were Maria and the rest of the crew, even Jonah, as well as the camera people, creating a bit of a traffic jam for anyone who wanted to walk past the club itself. When she spotted us, Maria quickly waved us over.

"How'd you beat us up here?" I asked her, maybe a bit accusatorily.

"I walked a straight line," she said, which got a laugh from the rest of the crew, a few of whom looked just as wobbly on their feet as I felt.

"I thought we'd take our time, give Leigh, ah, Lunea a chance to get her sea legs back," Brian said, looking over Maria's shoulder at the film crew.

"Probably a good idea," Maria agreed, looking at how tightly I was holding onto Brian's arm and grinning. "Well, now that you're here, I wanted to talk through the plan with everyone before we head in."

"Sounds good to me."

"About damn time!"

"Whatever."

There really wasn't that much of a plan.

I learned that the dance floor wasn't *officially* open to everyone yet, but instead that we had about half an hour for just our crew before the rest of the ship's guests would be allowed in. After that, we'd stick mostly to one side of the floor, so the camera crews wouldn't get in the way of the other couples, and Maria wanted footage of all of us dancing together, as well as individual dances between as many team members as she could get.

It was simple enough, and with a final whoop as a group, we pushed the doors open and headed in.

For as loud as the music was from outside closed doors, it was deafening within. Later on in the night, the press of bodies as the room filled with guests would probably help to dampen down the sound, but as it stood, with only our little group and a couple of staff behind the bar at one end of the room, the music playing over the sound system reverberated off every surface and hit me like a ton of bricks.

"Whoa," I said, stumbling again as Brian held on to me, the combination of the music and the swimming lights doing nothing for my already shaky equilibrium.

"Easy, easy," he said, barely audible over the thump of the music despite how close we were. "Here."

Brian stepped in front of me and grinned down. one hand still holding my elbow to keep me stable. He asked a question with a quirk of an eyebrow, and I must have nodded because his other hand took my other elbow and lifted my arms until my hands were on his chest. With another quick question in his eyes, he moved his hands to my hips, and just like that, we were dancing.

We were dancing.

The first song on play was a fast number, and our close dancing didn't really fit, but the next song on was a slower country ballad. As the lap steel began to play, Brian shifted our rhythm to match, and we began the shuffling sway of a slow dance together. With every step, I could feel the slight pressure as the baby bump relayed to my own abdomen each time it brushed against Brian, but for some reason, all I could seem to do was smile up at him as he smiled down at me.

Just like it had in Maria's apartment, my mind drifted to the different types of smiles Brian had given me over the years, and I found myself trying to place the one he was giving me now: his eyes soft, his face relaxed and open, the dimples in his cheeks on full display.

It was a nice smile.

The song began to slow as it came to its end, and we slowed with it until we came to a stand-still as the last notes echoed around us, still standing there, looking into each other’s eyes, and oh so close.…

"Hey," came a masculine voice from behind me as someone else's hand touched my shoulder. "Can I have the next dance?"

As I turned and looked up into Aaron's eyes, I heard a familiar laugh from my left, and there was Sydney, reaching out and pulling Brian away from me. "Yeah, come on, you two, save it for the room after. Partner swap time!"

I gave Brian another glance, but he was already being dragged off by Sydney, who was gyrating in a way that I never could as another fast song took over.

"Hey," Aaron said, getting my attention again. "Come on, let's have some fun." He gave me a smile of his own, nice in its own way but not like Brian's, and with a quick step and a flick of his wrist, I found my hand in his as he seemed to sling me out then spin me back in.

I couldn't help but laugh as Aaron took the lead in an almost swing-y dance that left me with nothing to do but hold on and follow along. It wasn't the kind of dancing I would have expected for the pop-y number playing over the stereo, but it was fun, and for the first time in a long time, I felt loose and just let myself go with the flow, only stumbling a little bit, and never more than a step before he would take hold, re-center me, and we'd be off again.

After Aaron, my next partner was Deedee, who tried to teach me a few basic steps that involved a lot of hips and a lot of shoulder action and that I couldn't seem to manage more than two or three beats of before dissolving in laughter.

That got her laughing too, and when Sydney joined us for the next song after, it wasn't long before all three of us spent just as much time leaning on one another and laughing as we did dancing. It was all a lot of fun, though, and by the time we finished trying to dance as a trio, I could almost manage the little hip-wiggle that they were trying to teach me, or at least imagined I could.

When another male hand touched my shoulder, I was so sure it was Brian that I even tried to do the silly hip wiggle as I turned to smile at him, only to almost fall on my ass when it turned out to be Jonah, of all people.

"Oh! Ah, hi?"

"Ahem," he coughed, looking flushed in the crazy lights of the dance floor. "Ah, Maria told me I had to dance with you."

"Oh, okay," I said, stepping toward him, only for him to take a quick step back when I did. "Umm."

As if it was able to read the awkwardness between us and wanted to make it that much worse, the tempo slowed as another country ballad began to play across the speakers, and the lights changed, the warm tones shifting to softer blues.

Great.

I made another move toward Jonah, only to get another flinch away until I finally let out a frustrated sigh and darted forward, almost winding up in the floor but somehow managing to catch him by the shoulders in the process.

"Hey, hey," I said, when he just stood there frozen. "We get this done, you don't gotta touch me again the rest of the night."

"I, ah," he muttered, now gone from flushed to pale white, but gave me a nervous nod before flailing his hands about, seeming unsure of where to put them. Finally, he seemed to settle on my waist, and we began a far more awkward form of the rocking-swaying I'd been doing with Brian seemingly forever ago now.

With Brian, I'd spent the dance watching him watch me. With Aaron, there had been a friendly, carefree energy. With the girls, there had been lots of laughs, hugs, and silliness. But with Jonah, it seemed like the only thing between us was nerves, as he did his best to look anywhere but at me while he moved in a stiff, jerky fashion.

I sighed again. "Jonah, I know you hate me, but try to act like you're having fun, okay?"

"Huh? I... hate you?" He asked me, licking his lips nervously. For the first time since our dance had begun, he looked me in the eyes before quickly looking away again, a frown on his face. "I don't...."

"Hmm?"

"This is stupid," he said, stopping mid-step. I wasn't ready for it and stumbled. Every other partner I'd had all night had been there to prop me up when the alcohol got the better of me, so it surprised me even more when instead, Jonah pulled his arms wide and stepped back, leaving me grasping at empty air as my ankles tangled with one another, and I went down.

THUD

"Oh, shit! Sorry, I--"

"Jonah!"

Even over the music I could hear the anger in Maria's voice, and as I was pulled back to my feet it was her hands that helped me up, and her arm that went around my shoulder.

"The fuck, Jonah!"

"I didn't do anything!"

"Then why was she--"

"HEY!" I shrieked, loud and high enough that it even hurt my ears. "It... it was just an accident, okay?" I said, grabbing Maria's hand and squeezing it to get her to look at me. "Okay?"

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Jonah...." I looked over to where he'd been standing only moments before, shock on his face, but now all that was there was empty space.

"That little--"

"Maria, really. It wasn't... he didn't do anything," I assured her again.

Maria sighed and waved someone away. I looked up and saw it was Brian, who had broken off from a dance with Deedee to come check on us. He gave me a long look and waited until I waved him off, too, before returning to his dance while the camera crews made a point of focusing on him, Aaron, and the girls and giving Maria and me our space.

"Come here," she said, then pulled me over toward the bar. "We could both use something to calm our nerves."

"Fresh air?"

"Mojitos."

"Ah."

It seemed like Maria had barely snapped her fingers when two fruity drinks appeared on the counter before us, this new bartender barely giving my enhanced belly a disapproving glance.

"Drink up," Maria said, handing me one glass while she kept hold of the other. She tilted hers my way, then took a long pull on the straw, giving me a Look until I did the same, wincing only slightly as the freezing cold bite of the alcohol hit me.

"Bleegh," I said, shaking my head, only for another Look from Maria to send me right back to the straw, where she obviously wanted my attention focused.

Thankfully, it only took another couple of cringes at the taste, and another couple of long drags on the straw, before I felt myself loosen up again, and Maria's Look gave way to a broad grin.

"Better?"

"Sure?"

"Good. 'Cause you have at least one more dance to go."

"I do?" I asked, but she was already walking away from me toward the DJ booth.

I took another sip of my mojito, barely noticing the alcohol at all this time, and just leaned back against the bar, catching my breath. The last time I'd been at a bar drinking with Maria, just the two of us, we'd gotten horrendously sick on cheap hurricanes, badly enough we'd both sworn off them forever.

I idly wondered just how much similarity there was between a hurricane and a mojito but was distracted from my thoughts by Maria returning to me with Brian in tow.

"Uno mas?" I asked, pointing toward the dance floor with my drink, only for both of them to give me amused grins.

"After this song is over. I put in a special request just for the two of you."

"I should give up on this, then," I said, placing my now two-thirds-empty glass on the bar. "Otherwise, no dancing for me."

"If I may," Brian said, reaching past me to the glass. Without waiting for an answer, he finished off the last third in one long pull, smacking his lips and shaking his head after.

"Too much?" I asked him while he stood there, eyes squinted closed.

"Brain freeze," he said, which of course, got both me and Maria giggling. We kept giggling right up until the music began to fade.

"Time for y'all to head back to the dance floor."

"If you would?" Brian asked me, opening his eyes and giving me another amazing smile as he backed up and offered me his hand.

I said nothing as I took it and let him pull me in, continuing to back toward the dance floor as his hands again found my hips and, this time, my own hands snaked their way up to his neck, the better to hang on for balance.

I didn't recognize the ballad at first, with its jazzy notes, and the extra alcohol from the mojito was starting to do funny things to my head, but as the chorus kicked in and Brian pulled me in even closer, I couldn't help but start to laugh as I laid my head on his chest and listened.

She's havin' my baby; what a beautiful way of sayin' how much she loves me....

Brian was humming along to the song too, and when I looked up again, he was looking down again. The fuzzy lights behind him were almost like a halo, and my eyes drifted closed even as his hazy face seemed to slip closer and closer to my own.

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NOTES:

Comments and kudos appreciated.