‘It’s OK, they were pretty scary,’ he teases.
‘Perhaps if we’d got to know each other like this before we had sex, I wouldn’t have felt so awkward today,’ I say with a laugh.
Chris sniggers.
‘What?’ I reply. ‘I’m sure it’s a bit more typical, to get to know someone before you sleep with them, that’s if you want to look them in the eye again…’
‘Yeah, I’ve heard that said before,’ he replies. ‘It’s just funny because, well, we didn’t sleep together. Do you really think we did?’
‘I, er…’
I totally did.
‘We didn’t,’ he says. ‘We kissed – a lot – but we didn’t have sex. We drank that whiskey, you fell asleep, I fell asleep next to you not long after.’
‘I was in my underwear,’ I point out, a bit embarrassed.
‘Ah, yeah, well there was a dancing segment,’ he replies. ‘I thought I might spare you the details, seeing as though you don’t remember much, but you definitely took your own clothes off, willingly.’
And now I’m a lot embarrassed.
‘How was your dinner?’ Chris asks, changing the subject.
‘Amazing,’ I tell him, taking hold of my clean plate, holding it up for him to see. ‘Thank you. I’m still so surprised by it – sorry, I can’t do this, you say I danced?’
I want to pretend I didn’t hear that bit, but I can’t.
‘It was more of a strip than a dance,’ he says. ‘Don’t be embarrassed – I remember it being really good.’
‘I think that might be more embarrassing,’ I reply.
I pick up my drink and throw it down the hatch. As I said earlier: there’s a reason I don’t do things like this.
‘OK, come here,’ Chris says, hopping to his feet.
He messes with the CD player on the side.
‘Right, stand up,’ he says, holding his hand out.
‘Is this… is this the song fromThe Karate Kid?’ I ask.
‘It’s fromThe Karate Kid II, actually,’ he says. ‘It’s “The Glory of Love” by Peter Cetera.’
‘God, you really are a dork,’ I point out.
‘Come on, dance with me,’ Chris insists. ‘I’m giving you a chance to redeem yourself.’
‘How so?’ I ask as I take his hand.
‘I’m levelling the playing field,’ he says. ‘You get to watch me dance too. And I get to see your sober moves, when I’m sober, so these are the ones I’ll remember.’
‘My moves to the song fromThe Karate Kid?’ I reply in disbelief.
‘The Karate KidII,’ he replies. ‘Yes. I imagine they stream music now, like everyone else does. This power ballads CD was the only other one in the machine.’
‘Power ballads it is then,’ I say.
I let Chris pull my body close to his. We slow dance to the music and, you know what, it’s nice. So nice I could almost forget I was trespassing in my boss’s house, dancing with a man I hardly know – one I stripped for. At least I can keep my clothes on this time.
