Flirting Lessons

Chapter Four

Four

“Guess what?” Avery said when she got into Taylor’s car on Tuesday night.

“What?!” Taylor opened her eyes dramatically. Avery knew Taylor was gently making fun of her, but the smile in her eyes took the sting away.

“I, um, went to the garden on Sunday,” she said.

Taylor’s fake excitement left her face, replaced by a big, and real, smile.

“You did it! That’s awesome. How did it go?”

Taylor smiled at her like she was proud of her. That felt good, especially since Avery was proud of herself. She’d almost texted Taylor about this on Sunday night, but she wasn’t sure if she and Taylor were texting friends. All they’d ever texted about so far was Taylor telling her what time she was going to pick her up and what to wear. Plus, it felt good to tell her about this in person.

“It was sort of fun? Beth, from the bookstore, was there, and the very bossy head gardener assigned us a garden bed together.”

“A garden bed ?” Taylor said. “Avery, you minx.”

Avery laughed.

“That’s exactly how Beth and I both reacted. My God, Taylor, she kept saying things like ‘I’ll take you to your bed’ and ‘are you two willing to share a bed,’ and we almost died.”

“Hmmm, there’s hope for you,” Taylor said.

“What was that?” Avery asked.

Taylor shook her head with a grin.

“Nothing, continue.”

God, that grin of Taylor’s was deadly. No wonder Avery had overheard her friend call her the hottest catch in Napa Valley.

Wait, they were talking about the garden, remember?

“Anyway, the garden stuff was actually fun. I’m not sure how I feel about gardening, it seems both more work and also more confusing than I thought it would be, but like you said, this is low stakes, right? And Beth and I planned what we’re going to plant—we met up at the garden store yesterday. It’s no big deal, we’re just planting some seeds and little baby plants and stuff, but—”

“It feels like it’s a big deal,” Taylor said. “Especially since—I mean, I don’t know you very well, so correct me if I’m wrong—but I get the impression that you don’t like doing things you’re not already good at.”

“Of course I don’t,” Avery said. “Does anyone?”

Taylor laughed. Definitely at her, this time.

“Most people don’t mind it as much as you do. You have to be bad at things while you learn how to do them. At least, most people do.”

“Hmmm.” Avery thought about that for a moment. “Yeah, nope, still sounds terrible.”

Taylor chuckled as she started the car.

“And, on that note, time to head out to tonight’s big event. I hope we aren’t late.”

Avery looked sideways at her.

“Late to where?”

Taylor just grinned at her.

A little while later, they pulled into the parking lot of a community center in Napa. The lot was almost full, and people were still streaming in. Avery looked at their outfits, and then looked down at herself with a frown.

“You told me to wear something I could move in, so I wore leggings and a tank top. Look at all these people wearing flowy dresses! Where are we?”

Taylor gave her a teasing little smile.

“This is a community center! I didn’t realize it was here, either, all tucked away in this backstreet, but—”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it!”

Taylor smirked at her.

“Yep. Come on.”

Avery got out of the car, her mind turning over possibilities of what could be inside that community center.

“Maybe the people in dresses are going somewhere different than we are, and they’re just a misdirection to trip me up. Is this an aerobics class or something? Are you going to make me flirt with people while I do aerobics?”

“An aerobics class?” Taylor asked with an indignant tone. “Do I look like a person who would make you go to an aerobics class?” She stopped and turned to Avery. “I need to know the answer to that right now before I go any farther.”

Avery looked Taylor up and down. She was in a snug black tank top, cutoff denim shorts, and stylish black sneakers. Infuriating, sexy, and impossibly cool—that was Taylor. Aerobics class, she was not. She let out an aggravated sigh.

“Fine, no, you don’t look like a person who would make me go to an aerobics class. If not aerobics, then yoga? Is it yoga? You seem like a yoga kind of person, all relaxed and chill about everything. Only you would wear jean shorts to yoga, but I can see it.”

“No one else in the world would describe me as relaxed and chill, but I guess compared to you, I am,” Taylor said. “But I feel like you seem like a yoga kind of person, all tense and anxious. People like you flock to yoga and wear perfectly put-together outfits like the one you’re wearing right now.” Taylor gestured to Avery’s black leggings, pink tank top, and white ballet-style sweater. “?‘Something you can easily move in’ doesn’t need to be full-on designer athleisure, you know.”

Avery laughed at her.

“This is all from Target, thank you very much, but I appreciate the backhanded compliment.”

Taylor rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

Yeah, she knew what Taylor meant.

“You’re one of those yoga people, aren’t you?” Taylor asked. “I can tell. I only know what the outfits look like because I see all of the women flocking to the yoga studio on my block, racing to be first in line for class. It’s like they’re in a competition to see who can be the most flexible, or the most meditative, or who can win the prize of best friends with Adriene.”

Avery pointed at her and cackled.

“Aha! I was right! You gave yourself away with the Adriene reference. You do do yoga! You want to be best friends with Adriene and everything! Is that what we’re doing tonight? Is it a yoga class?”

Taylor sighed, but with a grudging smile on her face.

“As soon as that came out of my mouth, I knew I’d given myself away. Fine, I have been known to do yoga with Adriene occasionally . But no, it’s not yoga.”

Taylor looked around as they kept walking toward the community center, and then she turned to Avery and lowered her voice.

“Okay, I can tell why you thought it was going to be a yoga class, because like half of the people here are in either outfits like yours or what I call sexy athleisure—the kind where you can tell that outfit has never actually been worn for exercise, it’s just to make the wearer look as hot as possible. All bare midriffs and slightly too-small sports bras and pristine sheer leggings.”

Avery knew what Taylor meant and held back a giggle.

“Give them the benefit of the doubt! Maybe they are exercising in those outfits, and they just take care of them very well.”

Taylor waggled her eyebrows.

“Oh, I’m not complaining. Didn’t I say they’re wearing them just to make themselves look as hot as possible? It’s working. I’m glad I’m here for the show.”

Avery elbowed Taylor and kept walking.

“You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Taylor walked along with her, a big smile on her face.

“Oh, I am, I absolutely am.”

Did Taylor think her outfit made her look as hot as possible? No, probably not—she’d clearly differentiated Avery’s outfit from the sexy athleisure that other people were wearing.

Whatever. It didn’t matter.

A carful of people pulled into a spot right in front of the community center, and everyone who got out of it was wearing brightly colored dresses with full skirts. Avery turned to Taylor in a panic.

“Okay, now I feel very underdressed, and if there’s one thing I hate, it’s being underdressed. You’ve got to tell me why some people look like they’re going to the most fun wedding in the world, and some people—people like me—look like we’re going to yoga class.”

Taylor patted her on the shoulder.

“Thank you for telling me you hate being underdressed. I should have figured that out, but I’ll remember it for the future. But you’re dressed just fine, and you’ll find out the answer to your question in literally just a few seconds, so come on.”

Avery groaned but kept walking, and once they got close enough, she read the sign on the door.

“?‘Queer Salsa Dancing,’?” she read out loud. Oh no.

“Isn’t it a fun idea?” Taylor said. “I heard about it a while ago, but I’ve never been. There’s a class once a month.”

Avery opened the door for her.

“A really fun idea,” she said, because it was, in theory. Would it be fun for her? Absolutely not. She bit her lip and looked at Taylor. “The thing is…I don’t know how to salsa dance. Like, at all.”

Taylor grinned back at her.

“Neither do I. We’re both learning something new tonight.” She paused. “Well, you’re learning more than one thing tonight, but who’s counting?”

“You definitely seem to be,” Avery muttered.

“Some ground rules first,” Taylor said. Rules, okay, good. She liked rules. “You have to dance with strangers, so if there’s anyone here you know, you can’t dance with them, including me.” She grinned again, that slightly evil grin that Avery was starting to both anticipate and dread. “You also have to be the one to approach people to dance with, and it has to be someone you find attractive.”

Of course Taylor would raise the difficulty of their second lesson exponentially.

“How did you manage to make this sound even scarier than it already was?”

Taylor threw an arm around her.

“You’re going to be great at this. I have faith in you!”

“Has anyone ever told you that you should have been a cheerleader?”

Taylor let out a bark of laughter.

“Not even once. Come on.”

As they walked toward the registration table, Avery kept looking around. She nudged Taylor and inclined her head toward the center of the room, where two older women were practicing moves.

“Look at those two. They really know what they’re doing.”

Taylor stopped, and they watched them together for a while. Their brightly colored dresses flowed back and forth with them as they moved. Everyone had backed away to give them space.

“Fantastic,” Taylor said. “This is going to be fun.”

They walked up to the registration table, and Taylor gave the woman their names.

“You both are beginners, yes?”

“Yes, and some of us”—Taylor inclined her head toward Avery—“are a little nervous.” Of course Taylor would embarrass her like this. The woman at the desk gave them a warm smile and grabbed both of their hands. She looked straight into Taylor’s eyes, then Avery’s.

“Beauties like the two of you? Nervous? Impossible. I can already tell you’ll be the stars of the class today.” She probably said that to everyone, but in that moment, Avery believed her.

They both smiled back at her.

“Thank you,” Avery said. “We’ll do our best.”

The woman released their hands and beamed at them. “I know you will,” she said. “Class will begin in about fifteen minutes. We’re thrilled to have you.”

Taylor thanked her and put her arm through Avery’s.

“Let’s go over here. I have some friends here that I want to introduce you to.” She turned to Avery and anticipated the question Avery was about to ask. “And no, I didn’t know they were going to be here.”

They walked over to a cluster of people. When they spotted Taylor, they all hooted like she was a celebrity.

“Why didn’t you tell us you’d be here?” one of them asked as she pulled Taylor into a hug. Taylor kissed her on the cheek and laughed.

“Because I didn’t know you guys were coming.” She took a step back and gestured to Avery. “Callie, Liz, Rex, this is my friend Avery. Avery, Callie, Liz, Rex.” Taylor pointed to each person as she said their names.

“Nice to meet all of you,” Avery said.

“Likewise,” one of them said, and the other two smiled at her. Shit, she’d already forgotten who was who. That was one of the first things Taylor had told her—to remember names, that people were always flattered by that. She was a flirting school failure already.

“I’m the one who told you about this class, you should have known I was coming,” the person who had hugged Taylor said.

“With everything you know about me, Liz, did you really expect me to remember who told me about these classes?” Taylor asked her. “But I’ve been wanting to come to one of these for a while; I’m glad I finally made it.”

Oh good, so Liz was the white woman with the long dark brown hair and very short bangs. She had on a blue and white sleeveless floral dress with a full skirt. Not Avery’s style, but she still liked it. And it made her wish more that she wasn’t in her boring athleisure.

Though, did she have anything in her closet that she would have worn if she’d known this was a salsa dancing class? No, and she would have torn her closet apart and been stressed as hell about what to wear if she had known. Okay, this might be one situation where ignorance was probably better.

“Hey, there’s wine over there,” Taylor said. “I didn’t even see it; I must have been distracted by that queen at the registration table. I’ll go get some. Avery, do you want some?”

“Um, okay,” she said. Wait, did that mean that Taylor was going to walk over to get wine and just…leave her here? With three strangers? Oh God, this was what she’d signed up for when she’d agreed to this, wasn’t it?

“I’ll go with you,” Liz said. Now it was two strangers, but Avery wasn’t sure if that made it better or worse. “Callie, Rex, you want some?”

Both Callie and Rex shook their heads, which was incredibly frustrating. If one of them had wanted wine, and one hadn’t, that would have made her life much easier. Taylor touched her on the arm before she and Liz walked off. That touch felt like Taylor knew what she was thinking, that she was giving Avery a small you’ve got this . It made her breathe a little easier.

As soon as Taylor and Liz walked away, Callie and Rex both turned to her. One of them looked Latina, with long, bright pink hair and lipstick to match, and had on a black jumpsuit; the other was of Asian descent, with short dark hair, glasses, and wore a pink floral button-down shirt with long shorts. Black Jumpsuit had a big smile on her face, while Floral Button-Down looked a little more standoffish, but not unfriendly.

Black Jumpsuit leaned closer to her.

“I’m sorry, but I’ll explode if I don’t ask this. Are you and Taylor together, or…?”

“Oh. No.” Avery shook her head. “Just friends.” This question embarrassed her, only because Taylor had never given her the slightest signal that she wanted to be anything more than just friends. Taylor flirted with her, sure, but Taylor flirted with literally everyone; that didn’t mean anything. And yes, she’d told Avery that she was hot, but she hadn’t said it like she was attracted to her or anything, more like she wanted to give Avery a confidence boost. Which she had.

Obviously, she was attracted to Taylor, how could she not be? How could anyone not be? But that was the whole thing—Taylor could date anyone she wanted to, why would she date someone like Avery, who didn’t even know how to flirt with her, much less do anything else?

Oh God, either Callie or Rex was talking to her, and she wasn’t listening, because she’d been too busy thinking about Taylor. She was here to try to flirt with people, people who weren’t Taylor Cameron. Focus, Avery.

“Makes sense. I probably would have heard the weeping of every lesbian north of San Francisco if Taylor was off the market again that quickly. Though I’m surprised I haven’t heard about her with anyone. I bet people are waiting in line for her. She doesn’t stay with people long, but while she does…”

Avery had no idea how to respond to this, so she went to the Taylor playbook. A question.

“What about you?” Avery asked. “Are either of you with anyone?”

Was that too bold a question, right off the bat?

“Not right now,” Black Jumpsuit said.

“Me neither,” Floral Button-Down said.

Black Jumpsuit threw an arm around Floral Button-Down.

“Proud of you for getting out of that,” Black Jumpsuit said, and then turned to Avery. “They just had a hard breakup, but it was really for the best.”

“Me, too,” Avery said.

Floral Button-Down gave her a warm smile.

“You get it, then,” they said. “That’s why we’re here—to have a little fun, post-breakup.”

Avery smiled at both of them.

“Well, I hope this night is fun for all of us.” Okay, she just couldn’t take it anymore. “Okay, now I’m going to explode if I don’t ask this. Which one of you is Callie, and which one of you is Rex?”

They both burst out laughing.

“She’s Callie,” Floral Button-Down said, pointing at Black Jumpsuit.

“And they are Rex,” Black Jumpsuit said.

“Nice to meet you again, Callie and Rex,” Avery said.

“That was fast, even for you,” Liz said to Taylor as they walked over to get the wine.

“What?” Taylor asked. She wasn’t paying her that much attention. Had she been wrong to leave Avery alone with Callie and Rex? Not that she thought Avery shouldn’t be able to handle talking to two strangers without her around, and that’s what they were here for, after all. Still, throwing someone into a situation where everyone but you knew one another was never a fun time. Callie and Rex were great, though; they’d be nice to her. Maybe this would be a way to ease Avery into meeting new people tonight, even though she hadn’t planned it this way.

“You and Avery,” Liz said. “I didn’t know you were dating someone new.”

Taylor laughed.

“Oh—no, it’s not like that. We’re just friends.”

“Oh,” Liz said. “I just thought…bringing someone to queer salsa lessons definitely seems like a date kind of thing.”

Taylor shook her head again.

“Nah, I just remembered about these classes, and when I mentioned it to Avery, she decided to come along.” That was a lie, but it wasn’t like Taylor was going to tell the world she was teaching Avery to flirt. That was Avery’s story to tell. And if she told most of her friends about this, they would think that she was only doing it to get into Avery’s pants.

Yes, she did want to get into Avery’s pants, but she couldn’t get into anyone’s pants for a while, so she might as well try to have other—lesser—kinds of fun.

“Oh. Well. I hope tonight is fun,” Liz said. “Have you seen Gemma around lately?”

They got up to the front of the line just then, so Taylor didn’t have to get into a conversation with one of her exes about another of her exes. She thought she and Gemma would be able to be friends, eventually, in the same way she and Liz were friends. But Gemma had made it clear that she didn’t want to see or hear from Taylor for a while, and Taylor would respect that.

Avery, Callie, and Rex were all laughing when Taylor and Liz got back to them. Good, that had gone well.

“Here you go,” she said, handing off the wine to Avery. “I think we have about five more minutes before they start, from what I heard them saying over there.”

Avery took a gulp of her wine, and Taylor held back a grin. It’s not that she thought it was funny that Avery was nervous about this; it just seemed so contrary to how confident and self-assured Avery was in other contexts. She put her hand on Avery’s back for just a second, and she could feel Avery take a deep breath.

“You’re going to be great,” she said under her breath. “A beauty like you?”

Avery’s stoic face relaxed into a smile at the reminder of the woman at the check-in.

“I want to grow up and be just like that woman,” she said. “I’m half in love with her already.”

Taylor nodded.

“Oh absolutely.”

“Attention!” They all turned to the commanding voice at the front of the room, and there she was, a microphone in her hand and a huge smile on her face. “Welcome to our queer salsa class! I am Elena, and this is my partner, Alisha. We are delighted to see so many of you here today, especially all of you here for the first time! Now, let’s begin: at first, we will have the beginners dance with the experts and intermediates, and then we will swap it around. So, beginners, to the green corner! Intermediates, to the pink corner! And, experts, to the red corner!” There was some looking around to see where the green, pink, and red corners were, and some shuffling, but it was apparently too slow for her. “NOW!”

Everyone moved quickly to their correct corner of the room. Taylor grabbed Avery so they wouldn’t get separated as everyone moved around, though they lost Liz, Callie, and Rex. Honestly, Taylor was grateful for that since this wasn’t meant to be a group excursion; tonight was for her and Avery.

“Excellent job, everyone!” Elena said. “Now, Alisha and I will demonstrate the first dance for today, and then you’ll all pair up. We will go slowly at first so you can see the steps, and then we’ll show you how the dance is supposed to look.” She beamed at them all for a second. Then she called out, “MUSIC!”

The music started immediately after her command.

“I wish I could yell like that and have things happen immediately,” Avery said in Taylor’s ear. “Imagine how great that would be.”

“What an absolutely you thing to say.” Taylor turned to her with a grin.

Avery’s eyes laughed into hers.

“You already know me so well,” she said. They smiled at each other for a few seconds longer. She really liked that challenging, confident look on Avery’s face. She needed to do more to boost Avery’s confidence in the flirting and dating arena.

Elena started talking again, and they both snapped their attention to the front of the room.

“Now, we will show you the salsa.” Elena moved her body to the beat in a way Taylor both envied and lusted after. “The salsa can be many things, but it’s nothing without this basic step. It’s the building block of everything, you hear me?” Everyone nodded in unison.

“Now. Watch our feet.” She and Alisha faced the audience. They swayed from side to side for a few beats, and at some unseen cue, started dancing at the same time. “One two THREE four, five six SEVEN eight! You got that? No, of course, many of you didn’t get that, but that’s okay, we’ll keep going! One two THREE four, five six SEVEN eight!”

“I would like that woman to do very dirty things to me,” Taylor said in Avery’s ear.

“Taylor!” Avery whispered in a scandalized voice. Taylor just giggled.

“Now, it’s time for you to do it!” Elena said. “I’m going to do another count of eight, and Alisha and I will dance it again, and then at the second count of eight, you all join in, okay? Some of you will have never done this before; for others, it may have been a while, especially if it’s been since our last class here. If you know it, you can help me demonstrate. Okay! One two three four five six seven eight. One two three four five six seven eight!”

The whole room moved along with her on the second count of eight, some people more successfully than others. Avery was definitely one of the more successful ones.

“And again! One two three four five six seven eight, one two three four five six seven eight. Wonderful job! I can already tell this is going to be an excellent class!”

Taylor nudged Avery when they had all gotten back (sort of) into place.

“What were you talking about, you don’t know how to salsa? You seem like you knew what you were doing there.”

Avery shrugged, a shy smile on her face.

“I just take direction well, that’s all.”

“Oh, do you?” Taylor said. And then she stopped herself. No, she couldn’t go there. Even if she really wanted to.

“Next,” Elena said, rescuing her from Avery’s raised eyebrows. “You’ll all split up into pairs. Once you find your partner, we will demonstrate how to do this together, okay? Beginners! Go find a partner. Don’t be shy, you can do it!”

Who knew that instead of making rules for Avery, all she’d needed to do was rely on Elena.

“Go get ’em,” she said to Avery. At first, Avery didn’t move. But then she took a deep breath and walked across the room, stopping next to a woman with dark brown skin and bright red lipstick. Taylor was too far away to know what Avery said to her, but the woman smiled back at her and nodded, and then took her arm. Okay, one mission accomplished, at least.

Taylor scanned the room, then walked over to an older woman in a very ruffly floral dress and asked her to dance.

“Of course, my dear!” she said. “I’d be delighted. Won’t this be fun? I love these classes. I’m Val.”

Taylor smiled at her.

“Hi, Val. I’m Taylor. Nice to meet you.”

They faced the front of the room. Taylor positioned them close enough to Avery so that she could see how it was going for her, but not so close that Avery would see her watching. Avery would be at least a little self-conscious no matter what; Taylor didn’t want to make it worse.

She looked at the woman Avery had selected. Was that Avery’s type? It must be. Taylor had told her she had to ask someone to dance that she was attracted to, and as Avery had said, she was definitely a rule follower.

She seemed a little more…femme than she thought Avery would be into. Well, she didn’t actually have any real idea what kind of woman Avery would be into. The bookstore event hadn’t helped with that because it was full of bookish femme types—not that there was anything wrong with that; Taylor was a big fan of bookish femme types. But it had meant that Taylor hadn’t been able to figure out what Avery was looking for.

“Attention!” Elena said from the front of the room. “Now we will show you how to dance the salsa with a partner. Intermediates and experts, remember, you will lead! Beginners, that means you will dance backward! I promise, you can do it; watch me and do the steps like this. MUSIC.” Surely, at some point, Taylor would get used to Elena’s voice becoming a megaphone without any warning. “We’ll start by going backward. Again, Alisha and I will show you, and you’ll join us on the second count of eight. One two three four five six seven eight. ONE two three four five six seven eight.” She stopped and nodded at them. “Excellent job. Now that you have the building blocks, Alisha and I will show you how to dance together.”

She took Alisha’s hand, and they stared into each other’s eyes for a full count, and then, again without any clear signal, they began to dance together, first in place, and then around the stage. When they finished, they both curtsied to the class, who cheered wildly, with plenty of hooting and hollering. Taylor did her share of both; she saw Avery turn and look back at her, a slightly indulgent smile on her face. Taylor winked at her, and she laughed, and then she turned and said something to her dance partner. Was it That’s my friend, isn’t she great, she’s a delight to be with, and super hot, too ? Or was it No, I don’t know that person, I don’t know what you’re talking about ? Probably something in between.

“Thank you, thank you, you’re very kind, though yes, we deserve all of that,” Elena said to much laughter in the room, and even more cheering. “Now it’s time for what you’ve all been waiting for: time for you to dance! Turn to face your partner!”

Taylor grinned at Val as she turned to face her. Val smiled back at her.

“Take your partner’s hand,” Elena said. Taylor put her hand in Val’s.

Val was just a little bit shorter than her, even with her high heels on, which was kind of adorable. She squeezed Taylor’s hand gently.

“Don’t be nervous, you’ll be great,” Val said. Hmm, maybe Avery should be with Val. She was so encouraging.

No, Taylor—the point of tonight was for Avery to flirt, not just to learn how to salsa dance, remember?

Taylor glanced over at Avery and her partner. Avery’s hand was on her partner’s shoulder, and her partner’s hand was on Avery’s waist, and they were hand in hand, just like they were supposed to be. But Avery was very stiff, and at least from behind, she still looked nervous. Though Avery had incredible posture, she always looked stiff.

“Wonderful, you all look beautiful,” Elena said. “MUSIC! I’m going to count again, and you’ll start on my second count of eight. If you mess up, which many of you will, that’s okay, just stop until you get to the one again, and start again. Alisha and I will walk around and help you. Now…one two three four five six seven eight, ONE two three four five six seven eight.”

Step, step, step, pause; step, step, step, pause. At first, Taylor was too busy dancing herself and trying to follow Val to even look at Avery. Elena and Alisha had made this look so much easier.

After a few rounds, though, Taylor managed to look up and over at Avery and her partner. Avery still had ramrod straight posture, but she no longer looked as anxious. She was dancing away with her partner, like she’d been doing this for years. Her partner’s hand was now more toward the middle of Avery’s back, and…were they closer together?

Taylor stepped forward when she should have stepped backward and landed on Val’s toe.

“Sorry, sorry,” Taylor said.

“That’s okay, sweetie, don’t worry about it!” Val said. “Remember what Elena said, we’ll just stop and start back up again. And…one two three four five six seven eight.”

Avery laughed at something her partner said, and her partner smiled at her. Huh, that was going much better than she thought it would, at least this early on.

Taylor almost stumbled again, but Val held on to her so securely that she found her footing. Thank goodness Val knew what she was doing; Taylor was weirdly distracted by watching Avery and her partner. Why did that distract her so much? She had to focus.

Avery’s partner leaned closer to her, and Taylor stumbled again. And then it all became clear.

She was jealous! That was all. She wasn’t the jealous type, but she was so sexually frustrated because of this stupid bet; she wanted to be the one with her hands on Avery, watching her body move, smiling at her and making her laugh. It all made sense now. Well, she’d deal with that problem with her favorite vibrator later tonight. That would calm her down.

Once she diagnosed the problem, Taylor did a much better job dancing with Val and her other partners. After an hour and a half of dancing with only quick breaks to change partners and learn a few more moves from Elena and Alisha, the music stopped.

“My friends, my darlings, my wonderful dancers!” Elena said. “It breaks my heart to say this, but our class is over for this evening. You all were a joy, especially you beginners, who exceeded my already high expectations for you. Thank you, thank you for everything for this evening, and please come back to our class next month!”

The class broke out into applause, and there was even more cheering than the first time. After one particularly loud “woooooo” on her part, Taylor felt a tap at her shoulder.

“Remind me to have you in the audience if I’m ever performing at anything,” Avery said.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Taylor said.

The crowd was loud and friendly and euphoric on the way out of the community center. Taylor and Avery both stopped to thank their partners on the way out of class, and Avery had a big smile on her face as they exited the community center. Taylor turned to Avery.

“Did you—”

“Taylor!” They both turned to find Liz, Callie, and Rex behind them. “Hey!” Liz said. “Did you guys have fun? We’re heading out to get a drink and something to eat now. I’m starving after that—do you want to join us?”

Taylor was also starving, and she would usually say yes to that, but she wanted to do the class debrief alone with Avery.

“I wish,” Taylor said. “I have to get up early tomorrow morning, so I think I’m going to go home and crash. Next time, though.”

The three of them looked disappointed, but they all exchanged hugs and goodbyes and nice to meet you s with Avery before Taylor and Avery walked off toward Taylor’s car.

“I don’t actually have to get up early tomorrow morning,” Taylor said as soon as they got in the car, “but I figured you might need a break, and I didn’t want you to think you were still on the flirting clock if we went out with them.”

Avery laughed as she clicked in her seat belt.

“Thank you. Tonight was fun, but going home to eat something and crash sounds great to me. But your friends all seemed nice; I’d love to hang out with them again another time.”

This was maybe the most enthusiastic Taylor had seen Avery so far. Even more so than when they’d been at the winery party and Avery had been about five glasses of wine in.

“We’ll do that sometime,” Taylor said. “Did you have fun tonight? I can’t believe you were even slightly nervous about this; you looked great while you were dancing.”

Avery laughed again, an adorable bubbly laugh that Taylor had heard from her only once or twice before.

“Like I said, I take direction well, and luckily, I had good partners. But yeah, once I got the hang of it, I wasn’t nervous anymore. And I think it helped to be in that space—everyone was so warm and welcoming, so I wasn’t stressed about messing up in front of them. And…”

Her voice trailed off, but Taylor waited instead of prompting her. After a few beats, she started talking again.

“And I guess because it was in a queer space, I just felt so much more comfortable. Like, I wasn’t worried about people judging me, or hitting on me in a way that would feel creepy, or making me feel bad about myself. It was just…it was really nice, that’s all. Thank you for bringing me.”

“I’m so glad,” Taylor said. Was there a way that she could express how touched she felt by what Avery had just said? She had no idea, and she didn’t want to make Avery feel weird, so she didn’t even try.

“There’s, um, there’s one other thing, though,” Avery said after another pause. Was she going to say she didn’t want to do this anymore? That Taylor had given her enough flirting lessons and she could now carry on with this all by herself?

“What is it?” Taylor asked.

“I had a great time tonight, and I talked to my partners, and we danced and stuff, but…I don’t know if I quite ‘flirted’ with them? I still don’t feel like I’m any good at the flirting part of this. I don’t think I’m doing any of it right. Am I failing flirting lessons? I’m failing at flirting lessons, aren’t I?”

Taylor couldn’t help but laugh.

“You are such an overachiever. Of course you would think you were failing at flirting after only two lessons. You’re not getting graded on this, you know!”

Avery scoffed.

“Obviously I’m not getting graded on this; why would you think I would think that?”

She looked at Taylor, and now they both erupted into laughter.

“Okay, I understand why you’d think I would think that,” Avery said. “But…do you have any feedback for me, or things I could do better, or…I don’t know.”

Taylor patted her hand.

“I’ve been trying to ease you into this, but okay, I can give you some feedback. But first I have a few questions: How did you feel about the people you danced with? Did you have fun dancing with them? Did you have fun talking to them? Did anyone in particular stand out?”

Avery thought for a second, and then nodded.

“Yeah, I mean, I had fun with all of them, though I had more fun as the night went on, mostly because I relaxed about everything. But as for anyone who stood out, that woman with the short overalls on, the one who hugged me on the way out…she was great.”

Taylor nodded. She’d sort of suspected that.

“Okay, so, you do this thing when you’re nervous, or someone gives you a compliment, and you don’t know what to do about it or whatever. You kind of withdraw from them. You look away, don’t really respond, sometimes you change the subject. And that makes most people think that you aren’t interested, that you don’t like them. I saw you doing it with that woman, both while you were dancing and when she hugged you when we left. She said how much fun she had dancing with you, and you looked away and mumbled that you had fun, too, and then walked away from her. That was an opportunity to keep flirting, that’s what she wanted, and from what you say, that’s what you wanted, too, but you didn’t do that.”

Avery was silent for a moment. Had Taylor said too much? Had she made Avery feel bad about all of this? Would Avery not want to do this anymore?

But then Avery nodded.

“You’re right. It feels so…bold to keep looking at someone when they give me a compliment. Like I think I deserve it.”

“You do deserve it!” Taylor said. It blew her mind that someone like Avery felt that way.

Avery didn’t respond to that, and just went on.

“And I guess I worry that if I hold eye contact with them, or try to flirt with them, or show them that I’m interested, they’ll laugh at me or something, so I freeze up.” When Taylor tried to interrupt her, she said quickly, “Even though I know that probably won’t happen. That’s in the back of my mind.”

Taylor didn’t say anything for a minute. She could tell it had been hard for Avery to tell her that. It felt good that Avery could be honest with her.

“I get it,” she said. “We can work on that. We’ve got time.”

Avery groaned.

“Oh no, how much time is it going to take to make me even slightly passable?”

Taylor laughed.

“First of all, you’re already more than passable. I’m going to make you great. Also, we aren’t on any timeline here.” She thought for a moment and then smiled. This was going to be fun. “Okay, I have an idea for next week that I think will help.”

“Oh no, that sounds scary,” Avery said. “What is wrong with me? I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Taylor shook her head.

“After the past two weeks, when you came in all suspicious and you ended up having a great time, can’t you give me the benefit of the doubt that you’ll have fun? Trust me.”

Avery let out a deep sigh.

“I do trust you, but I never know what to expect with you!” she said.

Taylor grinned at her.

“That’s what they all say.”