Myocardium

Part 36

After expressing my gratefulness once more, Rafael suddenly seemed to listen up, as a calm, slow song, begins playing.

With an oddly serious, but passionate look on his face, he gazes directly into my eyes and utters,
"Would you like to join me for a dance?"
Surprised by his sudden suggestion, I laugh out loud. 
"Rafael, you do realise I have no clue about how to dance, right?"

"Didn't look like you can't dance when you showed your skills on that pole the other night. Come on, I'll teach you the steps if you'd like, it's really not that difficult. With slow dancing, you practically can't make mistakes. And even if you do, it's nobody but me in here who's there to see, so no worries," he encourages me with such enthusiasm that I get taken over by my curiosity about the experience. Slow-dancing with Rafael, I wonder how many people he has asked to do the same with in the past. 

"Oh yeah? Watch me do everything wrong, then," I utter as if I'm challenging him and get up, stepping back as I keep staring deeply into Raf's eyes, who then stands up as well and softens his manner as he quietly expresses his encouragement. 
"You won't, I promise."

Rafael takes another step away from the sofa, so he stands right in the middle of the free area between the L-shaped sofa and the wall with the TV mounted on. As if he's a prince asking someone for a dance, he holds his hand out with a slight change in his posture. Right hand behind his back, feet together, slightly leaned towards me. 

"Gentleman?" he requests in a low voice, fully taking over the royal character. With a defeated, warm smile on my face, I place my hand in his and let him pull me a few steps towards him, until we are standing face to face, close enough for the sparks in my belly to return.

"Do you mind?" Rafael asks me gently, pertaining to his hand that he lifts, yet does not fully put in place yet. As I faintly shake my head, I whisper back.
"Go ahead."

As my hand still lies in his in now only a slightly more angled position, he slips the other one under my arm so he can rest it on the side of my ribcage. He does so very gently and softly pulls me a bit closer to him, I can tell that his intent is to not make me uncomfortable. I am not.

The warmth in my stomach expands and slowly spreads throughout my whole body with every second our bodies are at this distance, and he has his hands on me. As it seems to be a natural reaction, I place my now awkwardly dangling arm on Rafael's shoulder.

"Hey, perfect hand placement there, I'm impressed," he laughs slightly and looks into my eyes fondly. His gaze makes me feel the tingly feeling radiating now not only from my stomach, but also from my eyes, my lips, every single one of my fingertips as well as the very spot on my side his hand touches. I smile back at him, his praise brings me joy.

"Now we basically draw Z's with our feet over and over. First, you take a step back with your right foot and bring your left foot to the side on the next note. You shift your balance to your left leg and back, then bring your feet back together. Next, you take a step forward with your left foot, and bring your right foot to the side of it. Then we repeat that and try to spin. That's it."

When Rafael is done explaining the instructions, I frown. The confusion must be written all over my face. 
"O-okay? I mean, I don't know if I understood that or not, but I can try."

"Don't worry, it'll get a lot easier once you get the hang of it," he reassures me and gestures me to take a step back as he has just explained. At first, we go very slowly as I need to take a few breaks to look down at my socks since I get a bit confused with my left and right from time to time. At least what we do makes sense to me, how he always takes the mirrored steps to the ones I take, taking one forward whenever I take one backwards and vice versa, so our bodies stay close.