I haven't done a weekly word challenge in some time since I have a whole host of other fics-in-progress waiting to be worked on, but the prompt was "dance" and the plot bunnies wouldn't leave me alone. Everyone but Pablo belongs to Naughty Dog and SCEA and as always no copyright infringement intended.
-
-
Elena was drunk and belligerent, and with good cause. "Gimme that, 'm not finished yet!" She snatched her cocktail back when Nate tried to take it away, spilling half of what was left and most of the ice out onto the floor without seeming to notice, and demanded, "Why not?"
Nate looked uncomfortable. He had his reasons, but Victor still found it hard to sympathize. When a lady asked you to dance, you damn well danced with her and without raising a stink about it, especially if that lady was your own wife. But it wasn't his place to say so and risk embarrassing one or both of them, so he mostly minded his own business and poured drinks as required. He was pouring more often these days and that was just fine if you asked him. "I don't want to right now," Nate argued lamely. "It's late, I'm tired; you're drunk-"
"Yeah, so what if I am, don't wanna dance 'cause I been drinking- the fuck kinda sense does that make? I thought getting drunk was the whole point of going out to begin with…" She was unimpressed with his excuses, rolling her eyes and rolling her remaining ice cube around her glass as though she was thinking of ordering another. Nate saw the same and tried taking it again. This time she let him, but cautioned, "You'd better be putting that down so we can go dance."
At least he had the decency to look guilty as he took her hand to help her off the bar stool. "I think we should go. Home, I mean."
She pulled her hand back and kept her seat. "It's just one stupid song! I just wanna dance a little, we don't even have to stay for the whole thing." Elena cast a wistful glance to where others were enjoying themselves on the dance floor, writhing to the music the way young people did. Victor didn't know the song but everyone else seemed to and if the drinks were flowing and money was being made he wasn't about to complain. The place hadn't even had a goddamn dance floor until he'd had to clear out some tables once the jukebox had gone in, and the thing was practically paying for itself besides being far cheaper than hiring a live band every week, although the rise in business meant he had to hire help to keep things running smoothly. Pablo was a good boy, deaf in one ear and mostly blind on the same side due to a childhood accident but neither of those stopped him from working hard and earning his keep, or cutting it up with Chloe like a pro for that matter. They were among the varied group moving along to the same song that had sparked Elena's interest.
Nate's uncertain suggestion that she go out on the floor without him if she wanted to dance that badly earned him a well-deserved I wanted to dance with you, dumbass from his wife and a reproachful frown from Victor. "I just don't… not tonight, okay? Another time, I promise." She was clearly not appeased by that but he went on without giving her the chance to come up with a reply. "Gimme the keys, I'm gonna go get the truck. Sully, tell Frazer we're heading out?"
He nodded over the round of shots he was pouring for the graduates on the patio and pretended not to notice when Elena slammed her keys down on the wooden surface hard enough to startle everyone at the table behind her, spinning her stool so she did not have to face her husband as he sheepishly collected the keychain and made his way towards the exit. On his way back from the patio Victor caught Chloe's attention to point her towards the bar, and either Elena could hold her liquor better than her or being rejected for a dance had completely burned away her buzz. She hardly slurred at all when she requested another cocktail.
"I thought Nate was getting the car? He'll be waiting," he reminded her as he mixed one for the road. She liked to suck on the garnish after so he set a fat slice of lime on the edge of the glass for her.
"He can wait," she grumped.
Chloe's face was flushed from drink and dancing had left her breathless. She hooted laughter when she heard what was wrong, and offered to trade steps with Elena in her husband's place if she helped her find the glass of wine she had set down somewhere and forgotten about. "You won't get him to dance, though," she advised. "He freezes up, poor thing. There was this one time years back, we were out casing this wealthy bastard's house, crashed his fancy party to check it out before we stole, oh, something I can't recall, a map or… I dunno, ask me when I'm sober but— ah, he does love me!" She planted a kiss on Pablo's cheek for producing her misplaced drink to make his face turn almost as red as the wine in the glass. "Anyway, we're casing the place and they've got their shitty music going, I mean it was just awful but apparently money coming out of your ears makes you tone deaf so that didn't stop any of them from dancing to it, and next thing you know here comes this horny old rich bitch wanting him for her partner, she's got everyone clapping and cheering and egging her on..."
Elena cut in unhappily, "The hell does that have to do with anything, he didn't have any problems dancing with me at our wedding? Stupid song's over anyway, doesn't matter. Whatever." The sad sight of her bruised ego made Victor want to go out to the parking lot and tell Nate to get the hell over his insecurities already. But he was grown and married now and they were better off working it out on their own with only mild interference on his part, which was why he had no misgivings about letting Chloe in on the trouble; she knew Nate almost as well as he did and now that Elena was part of the family it was their duty to inform her of any inconvenient quirks already known to the both of them.
"That was slow dancing," he offered as another song too recent for him to recognize blared over the house speakers. The one on his immediate left sounded blown. "Getting close to your partner and swaying in circles is easy. Anything with an upbeat tempo and real rhythm, anything that requires any actual movement on his part, he can't handle it. Freezes up, just like she said."
Chloe backed him up when Nate's wife looked as though she suspected that they were covering for him, making up excuses as lame as the ones he had given her. "Listen, you're not listening!" Wine slopped over her rim as she excitedly implored Elena to heed her words and he was glad the place was not carpeted. "So this lady's trying to make him get down on the dance floor with her, couldn't help herself the dusty old broad, you know how he looks in a suit-" She was too drunk on Merlot and memories to notice the flash of jealousy that passed through Elena's blue eyes like a sudden storm, and was gone just as quick. "-Nate's telling her no, don't, I can't but she just doesn't care, and he's too scared to tell her to fuck off and risk blowing our cover so I have to jump in and save him, made up something about PTSD and anxiety attacks and she bought it hook, line and sinker… and then she gets her rich fuck friends to start offering up prescriptions and their psychiatrist's cards to try and help him out! We still robbed 'em blind, though." She trailed wine down one side of her mouth as she drained her glass.
Elena did not seem wholly satisfied by the story, and Victor elaborated, "He's been like that ever since he was little." Chloe coughed and wiped her mouth with what seemed like surprise, and Elena offered her the ice water she had been chasing her cocktails with as he went on, the memory making him feel absurdly old. "I didn't have him for even a year, I don't think. We were visiting a friend of mine on Maui and the islanders were throwing their own party, festival on the beach, that kinda thing. We'd been there for a little while and he was running around with this girl, the daughter of my friend's cousin, bit older than him but not by much… or was it his brother's cousin? Doesn't matter. Well, we're at the luau and Nate asks her to dance so they get out there with everyone else, and right away the girl just starts laughing. And I mean at him, not with him. Literally pointed and laughed in front of the whole village, all these people that had sheltered and fed us for days, then left him standing there feeling bad about himself to go giggle to her girlfriends." He was surprised at the anger by association he still felt years later. "He was just a kid. But so was she, I guess."
"Whaaaaat. He never told me about that." Chloe sounded incredulous but Elena said nothing, looking as though she appreciated the small victory of there being some fact about her husband the brunette was not previously aware of.
"No reason he would have, it was too embarrassing. Poor kid skipped out on the party after that, stayed on the boat for the rest of the night and when he finally showed his face again that little girl wouldn't so much as give him the time of day. Not exactly something to brag about." He kept an eye on the door to make sure the devil wasn't about to inconveniently walk in while they were speaking of him. "Otherwise he acted like it was no big deal so I didn't ever bring it up, but I've never seen him try again since that night on the beach and I'm willing to bet he's out there right now, kicking himself for not trying for the woman he loves. Don't take it personally," he tried to reassure Elena with a smile and gentle squeeze of her hand.
She returned the smile but furrowed her brow thoughtfully as she stirred her cocktail. "Nobody's gonna laugh at him now, if that's what he's afraid of. We're all friends here." She indicated where some of the graduates had gotten up to dance with the rest of the mixed crowd, moving in rough harmony on the dance floor with unbridled enthusiasm and a shared lack of coordination. "See, nobody looks cool doing that but they don't even care, that's what makes it so fun."
"Pffft," scoffed Chloe, utterly confident. "Speak for yourself, blondie. With the right song on I'm too cool for school."
Victor spared her a chuckle and suggested to Elena, "I'd say it's all psychological at this point. The fear of being made fun of is still in there deep down, even if he knows better. 'Scuse me, ladies." He pulled a fresh pitcher for the group at the opposite end of the bar and broke a twenty for someone who needed singles to feed into the cigarette machine, and when he came back to the girls so had Nate. Chloe twirled the remaining few drops around the bottom of her glass before getting up to go to the bathroom and Elena tossed back the last of her own drink, biting into her lime and swaying slightly as she was helped off of her stool. She swatted at Nate when he tried to make her move along faster than she wanted to.
"C'mon, babe, I left the engine running," he urged, which seemed to have the opposite effect. As she set down her glass and pushed the stool back under the bar slab she gave him a long look that said he wasn't exactly out of trouble yet. Nate seemed to be about half as annoyed with Victor for having the jukebox put in as he was with himself for not dancing with his girl. Ah, well. He would just have to deal with it.
At least Chloe was still in a good mood. She came back to say goodnight to their friends as they left, and asked if he'd care to join her out back for some fresh air. The guy he'd made change for was going back to his table with his overpriced pack and the smell made Victor crave his own, patting his pockets for the leftover stub of cigar and glancing around the immediate area when he couldn't find it. "Sure, I could use some air… say, did you see where I put my cigar before? Goddamn lighter's gone, too."
"I said 'fresh air,' not 'stale tobacco air.'" She wrinkled her nose and stuck out the tip of her tongue to visualize her distaste. "Thought you were cutting back?"
He assured her that he was. "Ask Pablo if you don't believe me, I don't think the boy's capable of lying; ask him where he put the box of matchbooks I just had printed while you're at it. Go on ahead, I'll be out in just a minute." It didn't take long for him to call off the search and start a fresh smoke, and he was bumming a lighter from one of his regulars when Chloe was back again, grinning from ear to ear.
"Sully, you gotta see this," she said with breathless excitement. "Come take a look before they stop."
He flagged Pablo down to mind things while he was out back and pulled her bottle out from behind the bar, "You need another?"
"Yeah, yeah, sure," she rushed, eager for him to see something before it was over. "Come on." Victor handed her the fresh glass and followed her outside, where a gentle breeze rustled the palm fronds overhead and made the lights sway back and forth on their string. The house speakers did not extend out here on purpose, providing a nice quiet refuge for anyone who wanted to get away from the noise and crowd. He enjoyed the shade out here during the day and the peaceful calm at night, and liked to sit and smoke at the table opposite the breezeway, where he could keep an eye on things inside without actually being inside.
The patio was L-shaped and she was beckoning him around the bend, to the side of the fence that faced the parking lot out front. He didn't see what was so exciting out here, just some college kid on his laptop nursing a pint of craft beer and the group trying to be discreet about passing a joint around the corner table. Beneath the strung lights he noticed Chloe's wine moustache, an extension of her smile tinged in reddish-purple. She leaned in and looked at something on the fence and when she turned to grin back at him he realized she was actually seeing something through a gap between the fence boards. There was some kind of flowering vine growing back here that he was trying to encourage onto the fence to fill in those gaps and make the patio more private, but it had not climbed high enough to entirely block the view of the parking lot. Through the slats and stray tendrils of greenery he saw only dirt, parked cars and a few dark outlines of treetops. "I don't get it." The sound of the sea was in the distance, and the muffled thump of the music machine inside, but when he paid attention he could hear the faint hum of a car radio coming from somewhere in the lot. "What, someone forget to turn off their engine?"
She laughed, pointing. "No, look there." Victor took the cigar out of his mouth so he could get closer, squinting through the opening to recognize Elena's compact pickup truck parked on the far side where dirt met sand. Tire tracks in the soft earth showed where they had backed away from across the entrance, and between here and there it seemed a compromise had been reached. Against the backdrop of beach and surf and starry sky, two silhouettes held each other close and moved in time to the music gently wafting from the vehicle speakers, a slower song than the one she had originally wanted to dance to, but one that he appeared more comfortable with and Elena sure seemed happy nonetheless. Nate spun her in a circle and as she twirled to face him she playfully leapt up into his arms, wrapping her legs around his hips to send them tumbling backwards over the tailgate and into the bed of her truck. Laughter rang out and this time it was joyful and loving and sweet, and definitely not one-sided.
"Ah, that's nice," he said approvingly, and Chloe snorted into her wine.
"I know, it's enough to make you sick, isn't it?" she agreed with a devilish grin. "Let's go set off the alarm on the next car and give them a scare."
"You don't mean that."
"I don't." She turned away from the fence and put her arm through his, and Victor let her lead him back towards the side of the patio that faced the bar. "Come on, old man, we can't let them have all the fun. Or don't tell me you have some sad story that keeps you from enjoying a dance as well?"
The song resonating from inside was another new one he wasn't quite sure of, but the beat was decent and he felt confident he could fake it. "Oh, I have some stories, all right, but I'll save the sad ones for another time."