TITLE: Dance Lessons
AUTHOR: Clairisant
CLASSIFICATION: AJ/Other
FEEDBACK: Would love to hear both good and bad feedback but please try to be kind and constructive.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This was written for Brenda on her birthday. Happy Bday Brenda!
CREDITS: A special thank you to my beta reader Qupeydoll.
Chapter 1
It had been storming all day and for the last several hours there had been flash flood warnings out. But the work of the day needed to go on as long as they were already there. Admiral AJ Chegwidden had been upstairs in one of the courtrooms checking on Lieutenant Commander Bud Roberts. Today was his first time sitting on the bench.
AJ smiled as he remembered the young man's shock when he'd been told earlier in the week that he would serve as a judge on Friday. Bud had become a very good lawyer over the years, proving to be both sharp and innovative in his pursuit of justice for his clients. Now he was being given a chance to experience the law from another viewpoint.
The case he was hearing seemed to be going well and because of that AJ was headed back to his office to deal with the endless amounts of paperwork that his job entailed. As he stepped into the elevator he heard a female voice call out, "Please hold the elevator!" He reached out a hand to block the automatic doors from closing and an attractive woman that had just been on the witness stand in Bud's courtroom joined him.
"Thank you," she smiled at him as she entered the small space and turned to face the front.
"No problem," AJ told her as they both reached out to push the floor buttons that they wanted at the same time. Both laughed and pulled back. "Ladies first," AJ said, indicating the panel.
With a nod she reached out again to push the button for the first floor when the elevator lurched and the lights went out. She gave a gasp of surprise as she found herself thrown against the handsome officer she shared the elevator with. AJ's arms automatically came out and around his fellow passenger to keep her from falling. They were in complete darkness for what seemed like endless moments before the emergency lights came on, giving them at least a bit of light to see by.
"I guess the cosmic forces are telling me that you should have chosen your floor first," she said with a nervous laugh as she regained her footing enough to right herself and stand on her own.
"Oh I doubt the cosmic forces are concerned about such trivial things. It's much more likely that the storm caused the power to go out."
She chuckled and replied, "So my decisions are not cosmically worthy of notice?"
"Oh I wouldn't say that," he told her. "After all your decision to ask me to hold the elevator allowed us to meet."
"Yes it did," she answered with a wide grin.
"I'm AJ Chegwidden," he said holding out his hand.
"Brenda Steele," she replied, taking it, but just giving it a gentle squeeze rather than shaking it.
After the introductions were over, AJ opened the panel on the emergency phone only to find that it wasn't working. He opened his cell phone, but discovered that he couldn't get a signal in the elevator. "It looks like we may be here for a while. So Brenda, what do you do when you're not testifying in court?"
"I'm a dance instructor."
"I can picture you doing something that graceful by the way you move," he told her and then asked with a self depreciating grin, "So what do you do when you have a student with two left feet?"
"I just find them a partner with two right feet," she laughed.
"Ah, so you're not just a dance instructor, but a matchmaker as well?"
"Well I usually give group lessons instead of private ones, so I just match people as well as I can then help them improve together."
"What kinds of dances do you teach?" AJ asked.
"All kinds, and if the students want to learn something I don't know I either bring in a guest instructor or research it myself until I can teach it."
"Does that happen often?"
"Less and less as I learn more and more," she responded.
"So what is the easiest dance to learn?"
"Actually it varies with the student. The dance you want to learn the most is usually the answer because that's the one that you have the drive to learn and therefore will practice the most."
"And how does someone without a partner practice?"
To be continued…