Memories
This had been a bad idea.
"Frances, are you okay?" Dan put an arm around her shoulders, a casual gesture that usually would have made her feel a lot better, all at once. This time, she just felt flooded with guilt.
"Frances?"
This had been a very, very bad idea.
"Frances?"
"Yes?" she jerked, stiffening. She looked up to meet Dan's worried eyes. "Sorry, Dan. I was just—sorry," she finished, lamely.
"I thought you like the idea of coming here again. It sounded like a lot of fun, and my father's known the Kellermans for years..."
"It was a great idea," she said, her voice bright with forced lightness. "Just...memories."
"Bad ones?"
Unbidden, a small smile crept up on her face.
"No. Just...memories."
Johnny Castle had made it, his friends said. With surprise, when they remembered the nobody he used to be. With appreciation, when they saw his nice house, soft job, good pay. Or maybe with regret, when they realized that fun Johnny, the rough-around-the-edges tough guy that he used to be, had been replaced by new Johnny. More charming, more composed, more sophisticated, but less...fun.
New Johnny didn't get into brawls. New Johnny didn't get drunk out of his mind every few months. New Johnny didn't sleep with anything that moved. And new Johnny never smiled.
Not since the summer he'd been fired from the Kellermans' Resort.
They'd taken him back, of course. At first, with a bad attitude and a pay cut. Later, with a raise and some approval. Not only his old friends had noticed the change from the partier to the businessman, but only his old friends were disappointed in the differences. What the Kellermans saw was that no more guests had complained about surliness. No more waiters had come in with busted lips. And, with special relief, no more daughters were being found in his bed.
Not since Baby Houseman.
That had been the scandal that had led to two months out of a job and every night spent in a bar, mean and surly. That had been the scandal that had led to Baby's reputation being trashed, Johnny was sure, and her parents locking her in the house. And even though he had been brought back to Kellermans as a dancing instructor, even though he was now the head of the entertainment at Kellermans, that had been the scandal that changed Johnny for life.
And whenever he wanted to get into a good brawl, pick up a girl, or get nice and drunk, he remembered their summer together and everything else was redundant. Remembering that, just relishing the memories, was enough to make him feel drunk and horny and angry all at once.
He was never going to see her again. But after her, he had been ruined for anyone else.