Stepping Out
Thanks for the reviews guys! I'm ashamed to admit that I laughed so hard at this that my partner closed the door on me. Oops!
Chapter 2 – Let's Sit This One Out
Kate's sitting quietly beside him, all poise and elegance, feet neatly placed together, a wonderful smile pressed to her lips as she watches their fellow classmates glide around the room on invisible clouds of air. Castle sees how happy this makes her, and he wants to be the one who puts a smile like that on her face. So, against his own better judgment, he stands, bows at the waist in front of her, and gallantly offers her his hand.
"Beckett, care to dance?"
But she ducks her head around him, trying to keep her eyes trained on the semi-pros (the losers), and distractedly mutters, "No, Castle. Let's sit this one out."
Shit! She's turned him down flat, and people are staring. No…guys are staring, giving him pitting looks, like they know all too well how that feels, and that they think he was insane to even try it on with the hottest woman in the room anyway.
'But she's with me,' he wants to scream at them. 'We even kissed, once, and it was so hot we never went there again.'
But he just sits back down instead, and stares at his shoes some more, wondering how it came to this.
He's plucking up the courage to ask her again - if they're not here to dance then why the hell are they here? Because he's pretty sure the NYPD aren't paying her, (they're definitely not paying him), to sit around and watch egomaniac New Yorker's parade around in Spandex as if they're finalists at the World Dance Championships.
But, as he takes a deep breath, preparing to win her over with his legendary charm this time, he notices from way across the room, the Latin Lothario who is their dance instructor, making his way across the floor towards them. No, scratch that - towards Beckett…like a heat-seeking, freaking missile!
Kate's still in her 'little girl who once led the ballet troop in Sleeping Beauty' haze, and so she doesn't see Fernandez (and what the hell kind of name is that anyway?) approaching. He bows low in front of her, clicks his little Cuban heels, and extends his hand to her, with the words, "Pleez say you dance with me, beautiful laydee?"
Castle snorts, waiting for Kate to shoot him down in flames…but the fireworks never come. Because, bloody hell, she's standing, and now she's taking this sleezeball's hand, and what the hell? Castle's watching his girl walk off into the sunset…okay, onto the dance floor, with Antonio freaking Banderas, and he's totally speechless.
Apart from the heel-clicking thing and the cheesy line, the guy totally stole Castle's act, and yet he's getting some action. He's so freaked out now he's wondering if it's about the shoes? Does Beckett like guys who wear heels? Did Dr. Motorcycle Boy wear heels? He can't remember. His brain won't work.
His guy-pals, the Class Action gang, as he now thinks of them, are throwing sympathetic looks in his direction.
Fernandez is over six feet tall, tan, slim, muscular, and wearing an all black outfit so tight-fitting you would be hard-pressed to slip a nickel between fabric and skin. His pants are so tight that his crotch should have an R rating, and they're so high waisted he's giving Simon Cowell a run for his money. His shirt is slashed to the top of said pants, exposing his chest, which is smooth and oiled and Castle just bets that he waxes. He could weep. This guy is walking the line between man and hermaphrodite, and Kate picked him! Yes, he has a 27" waist and hips like a girl…and Kate picked him!
He's trying focus on breathing, fighting the urge to take this Nancy-boy down, when his attention shifts from his clenched fists to the rest of the class, who are oohing and ahhing at something out on the floor. When he looks up, breathing becomes a forgotten art altogether, because what the class is fixated on is Kate, Kate and this creature, moving around the floor like they've been doing it forever. He hates the guy with a passion, but he has to hand it to him – Kate's never looked more beautiful, or more free than she does out there.
And Castle feels sick as a dog.
They glide, they twirl, they float and they spin. At one point Fernandez dips Kate so low that Castle's sure her top is going to pop open, and he holds his breath in anticipation, but the moment passes and the jersey dress stays put.
This has got to be one of the most disappointing days of his life! Not only is he stuck on the sidelines, upstaged by this Central Casting Latin Lover, but he's been reduced to perving at his own partner for fun. He can do that any day, sitting beside her desk at the precinct, without the humiliation this adventure is causing him.
He closes his eyes, willing time to pass, and now he's pretty sure Fernandez Badass Banderas is throwing in a few lifts, because his traitorous classmates are going wild, cheering and whistling. Castle can't look. He thinks his heart might actually break if he has to see her in this guy's arms, upside down or not.
Finally, enough is enough. He's a man, and he's wounded, and no man in this room could blame him for giving up. In fact, he tells himself, it's a smart man who knows when to call it quits. So he rises from his chair and turns towards the door. But, before he gets halfway along the mirrored wall, something catches his eye in the reflection of the room.
"Castle, grab me a towel, and then come dance with me," instructs Kate Beckett, all sweaty, and glowing, and joyful, and deliciously out of breath, and the smile she gives him might just be the start of something…so who could refuse a request like that?