"Cheap Trick!" Anne and Dee squealed together as the infamous "I Want You (To Want Me) blared throughout the club.
"I want you to want me," the two sang.
Catherine smiled as Anne tapped her arm and motioned for her to sing along.
"I need you to need me," the three belted out.
"I'd love you to love me," Tim joined in.
"I'm begging you to beg me," Greg finished.
The five of them continued to sing as Anne took Greg's arm once more and led him to the dance floor. This time, however, Greg took Dee's arm and she took Tim's who reluctantly made his way to the floor with the three of them.
"C'mon," Greg said to Catherine. She laughed and joined them on the floor. She shrugged at Nick and Warrick and waved at them to come out onto the floor, which they did.
" . . . to sa-ay that you want me," the group was singing.
Greg was having a great time dancing in the midst of his new found friends, though he wasn't entirely sure that what Tim was doing constituted dancing, until Nick moved too close to Anne.
She seemed to be having fun nonetheless. Greg watched with a little jealousy as Nick boldly reached his hands out and placed them on her hips as she moved. With no little satisfaction, he couldn't help but smile when she reached her hands down to his and removed them. She gave him a somewhat confused smile, as though she didn't realize that the way she moved had an effect on them, and moved a little closer to Greg.
With smug satisfaction, he reached out a hand and took one of her hands in his, twirling her about slowly to the music.
Nick shrugged and smiled, a defeated smile, Greg hoped, as he continued to dance with Catherine and Warrick.
"What are you doing?" Greg heard Dee ask Tim.
"You're the one that wanted me to dance," Tim answered.
Dee merely shrugged and turned to dance with Anne and Greg.
"Weak," Anne said. "I'll dance with you, Timmy," she said and turned to dance with Tim, leaving Greg to dance with Dee.
"What are you doing?" he heard Anne ask Tim almost immediately.
"Dancing," Tim said and laughed when she turned her back on him.
"I don't think you are," she said and moved closer to Greg once more.
In a bold move, Greg placed his hands on her hips in much the same way Nick had tried but, to his satisfaction, didn't push his hands away. Instead, she looked into his eyes and smiled.
"Fresh," she said and continued to move to the music.
Cheap Trick led to The Cars led The Strokes led to Las Vegas Natives The Killers. And Anne and Greg danced to them all. The Killers brought with them Franz Ferdinand's "Michael" followed by Star Sailors' "One More Time." The two danced to everything that came on for the next half hour without stop.
"Oh my God!" she said excitedly. "Greg, it's our song!"
He placed the bass line and a wide smile spread across his face.
"Careless Memories," he said. "How'd he know?" He pointed to the d.j.
"Who cares," she said, closing her eyes.
Greg tilted his face up to the ceiling and said a silent prayer of thanks for this small miracle. "Dance with me?" he asked as though she weren't already.
"Of course," she said and took both his hands in hers, dancing much the same way she had in the listening booth at Big B's.
Catherine shot Greg a look of warning from the table, hoping to help him remember who the girl he was dancing with was related to and what that relation might do to him if he were anything less than a perfect gentleman.
Greg nodded to her and shrugged his shoulders. He couldn't control his animal magnetism. He laughed at his own joke.
"You're adorable," Anne said at his smile.
He laughed.
"You're drunk."
"I've only had one drink," she said and twirled in his arms. "It's gonna take a lot more than that to get me drunk."
He laughed with her as she continued to twirl in his arms. He caught her, held her still for a split second, and dipped her. She laughed in his arms and kissed his cheek when he brought her back up.
"How'd the lab end up with such a fun guy?" she asked.
"Ha," he said. "Fun guy."
She stared blankly at him for a moment and then got his joke.
"See, that's what I'm talking about," she said laughing. "You don't seem like you'd fit in with . . . nerds."
"Ouch," he said, and placed his hand over his heart, flinching as though she'd struck him.
"Mm-hmm, that's exactly what I meant," she continued. "Nerds. I mean, I guess you'd have to be a nerd to some degree. You're the DNA tech, right?"
He nodded in agreement, following her as she started walking back to their table.
"So you must have nerd in you. It's just not one of your prominent features."
Greg let out a small laugh at this.
"And you're cute," she said.
He gave another small laugh. He knew he wasn't a bad looking guy, true, but it was nice to hear it every once in a while from a girl he thought was pretty enough to . . . but he'd been warned against that line of thought.
"We should get going," Tim said, interrupting Greg's musings. "I've got work in the morning."
"You should've thought about that before you decided to come out," Dee said.
After a brief pause, both she and Anne giggled and Greg thought he knew why.
"Ha," Anne said. "Come out." And the two of them burst into fresh peals of laughter, Greg now assured that he was right in his assumption.
Anne placed her hand on his arm as she laughed and Greg felt himself smile a bit, although he knew that his smile had little to do with the words "come out."
As the four stood to leave, Greg saw that both Catherine and Warrick were giving him looks of warning. Clearly, they were mind readers. Nick's look, on the other hand, Greg wouldn't interpret as anything less than utter jealousy that Anne was leaving with Greg and not Nick.
He waved his goodbyes to his friends and coworkers and followed the smaller group to the parking lot outside.
The rain had let up a bit and was now just a scent on the air. Droplets of water formed nearly perfect, uniform lines on the windshield of Tim's Mustang. He tossed his keys at Greg who, not being prepared, let them hit his chest and fall to the ground.
"I'd be careful with those," Dee slurred. "He treats his car better than me."
"That is a boldfaced lie," Tim said and pulled her to him for a kiss. "I treat you slightly better."
The two laughed raucously and Greg gave a soft laugh to himself as he stooped to retrieve the keys from the ground. Anne saved him the trouble of looking for too long an jingled them gently in front of his face.
"Thanks," he said.
She merely smiled and went to the passenger side of the car.
Greg made no move to open the driver's side door for a moment. He didn't think that smile was like any of the other smiles she'd flashed him that day. It was a slow, deliberate smile that made his stomach flutter just a bit.
He shook his head to clear it. Now he was just making stuff up.
"Any time tonight, kiddo," Tim said from behind him.
"Yeah, sorry," Greg muttered and unlocked the door. He climbed in and unlocked the passenger door then got back out to allow Tim to pull the seat forward so that he could climb into what looked to be the most uncomfortably small backseat on Earth.
"And don't screw around with my radio," Tim added as he fumbled with his seatbelt. "I finally fixed it from the last time she did it." He was speaking to Greg, but looking pointedly at Dee.
She merely scoffed and rested her head on his shoulder, seatbelt still unfastened.
"Buckle up for safety's sake," Anne said to her friend.
Greg smiled at her concern for her friend and started the car.
"We'll go ahead and drop you off first," Anne said to Greg. "And I'll take them back to Dee's place."
Greg nodded.
"I don't think so," Tim snapped. "I like the idea of letting a complete stranger drive my baby than letting you."
"F-you, Timmy," she said good naturedly.
"No," he said quickly. "The first, last, and only time I let you drive my baby, you flooded the engine."
Anne rolled her eyes.
"One time," she defended herself weakly.
"I don't know why you thought she could drive a stick to begin with," Dee said. "I told you she couldn't."
"I told him I couldn't," Anne added.
Greg listened to the easy back and forth between the three of them and was feeling a bit left out when Anne rested her arm across his shoulders as he drove the four of them back to Dee's apartment at Tim's insistence. It didn't matter much to Greg who got dropped off first. He could always take a cab back to his place.
He swung the Mustang around the corner of Dee's block none too soon by the look of things in the rearview mirror. The two were going at it pretty hot and heavy for having two other people in the car.
"So, we're here," Anne said, following Greg's slightly embarrassed gaze to the two in the back. "Time to get out, get upstairs . . . get a room," she added with a smirk.
She smiled apologetically to Greg and they got out of the car. Anne took Tim's car keys from Greg and flung them into the backseat. She closed her door carefully behind her and smiled once more to Greg.
"How far do you live from here?" she asked.
"A ways," he replied. "I'm gonna get a cab."
"Or," she said slowly, coming around to the driver's side of the car, "we can walk for a ways and then get a cab."
"You want to walk me home?" he asked. Stupid, he scolded himself. Here he was: beautiful woman wanting to spend as much of the remainder of the evening with him as possible and he was questioning it.
"Sure," she said. "Can't a lady offer to walk her escort home?"
"Sure, ladies can," they heard Dee joke from the interior of the car.
Anne tapped on the window and flipped her friend the bird.
"Let's go then," Greg said with a small laugh.