Roger took her hand and escorted her out onto the dance floor. There would only be two couples on the floor. Linda felt pleased that she was more-or-less getting the dance floor to herself. He guided her to the corner of the floor nearest the music alcove. Before he spoke, he clenched his teeth together slightly and motioned with an insistently pounding hand. Linda could tell that he'd worked a whole speech together for her and was having trouble getting the words out. Finally, he said "I've been looking over your chart, and I have to say, I'm really impressed!"
"Well, I love to dance," Linda said, reaching out to touch his arm, to try to get him to calm down.
"But I see here that you've done showcases, that you've danced in competitions, and that you're at the silver and gold level…"
"Yes, I know that, but did you also check the date for my last lesson? It's been over a year ago. I'm bound to be a little bit rusty. Roger, I just want to dance. I love the waltz and foxtrot. Maggie probably told you that. Now, I presume you know the triple twinkle, and the passing twinkles, right?"
Roger nodded, nervously. "Uh, yes. We work on those all the time."
"Well you could start off by working on those steps with me, kind of knock the rust off, you know what I mean?"
He looked down at her belly again. "Yeah, sure. We could do that." He had been holding onto her chart and looking down at it here and there while talking to her. Before he could begin his lesson, he had to lay the chart down on a stool beside the music alcove. "Let's get into dance position and try a few dry runs of the triple twinkle and passing twinkles. Before that, though, let's just do a few basics."
Linda put her arms up, to receive him in dance position. Ordinarily, a dance such as foxtrot would have been led from the diaphragm. This made it easier for the man to lead.
Linda's swollen belly would make it impossible for the two of them to dance diaphragm to diaphragm, however. Or would it? Was there any harm to someone pressing up against her? Roger kept his arms stiff and had bent forward at the waist slightly, avoiding any contact with her belly. He kept a strong dance position and Linda knew she would have no problems following him.
"Okay, let's groove," he said. He led her through two basics and then guided her out into a promenade before swinging himself around and turning her into position for the passing twinkles.