As it got closer to seven, Linda knew what would happen next. Ricardo grabbed a mike and said "Hello everyone! Welcome to Friday Night Lights!" He paused.
Several students still straggled in through the door, some of them hanging up jackets or light coats on the racks near the wall. "Tonight's group lesson is the Cha-cha. To get everybody working on that Cuban motion!" To punctuate himself, Ricardo juked his hips from side to side.
Linda greeted a few of her friends as they all stood and formed a line at the outer edges of the floor. There was Millie, and Ginny, and Fran, plus a few of the newer students she'd met recently, including Grace, Cathy, and Angelita. "This is the highlight of my week," Fran said excitedly, as they took their places, in a line directly across from the men. Linda had spoken with Fran many times before, sitting at a table with her and Ginny. Fran ran an insurance agency with her husband, who wasn't interested in dancing.
Ginny glanced across at the line of men forming, smiling as if the first course at a five star restaurant had just arrived. "Hmmm, it looks like we have some new talent here tonight," she said.
True, Linda had never seen the bald guy getting a lesson from Janice before. Now that Ginny had mentioned it, there were a couple of other men Linda had never seen before. Most of them had the same look on their faces the first time they participated in a group lesson. They would shift their weight from one foot to another, poke their hands around in their pockets, and let their eyes roam all around the studio at the floor, the other guys, and the women across the way.
One guy in particular caught Linda's eye. He looked neat-pressed and clean-cut, with sandy hair, bright, searching eyes, a mustache and a trim, disciplined look about him. Usually, men she'd met with that type of look came from the military. While checking him out, she tried to gauge his age. Since he was still thin and had all of his hair, he might be in his twenties or thirties. Suddenly, he looked directly at her, and Linda felt her temples and cheekbones flare up with warmth as she quickly glanced toward another corner of the floor.
Ricardo strutted confidently to center stage, in the middle of the two groups of men and women. He gave his little speech, the way he always did, welcoming all the new students and inviting the students who'd been there awhile to help them out. Linda could see Tony standing near the stereo alcove, his job to stop and start the music.