Once in a Lifetime

by Chrissie Manby

  When the waitress came over again to ask if anybody wanted coffee, Dani and Nat both almost jumped down her throat.

  ‘No!’

  Two bills were summoned with haste.

  ‘Well,’ said Lola, when at last the dreadful dinner was over and the bills had been paid. ‘Thank you for letting us boring old engaged people crash your little date.’

  ‘It was our pleasure,’ said Will.

  Dani wished she could at least enjoy the fact that Will had used ‘our’ instead of ‘my’, but Lola was still in full control of the evening. Will couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her.

  ‘Yes. Thank you. Now we should go,’ said Nat. ‘Early start.’

  ‘Such an old killjoy. Can you believe it’s his birthday tomorrow? Is this what happens when you turn forty? I hope this isn’t a taste of married life to come!’ Lola laughed.

  Will laughed too.

  ‘You lucky single people can stay out for as long as you like,’ Lola continued.

  ‘Yes,’ said Will, suddenly linking his arm through Dani’s. ‘And that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Come on, Dani. The night is still young. Take me to Newbay’s best dancing establishment.’

  ‘You mean a club?’ Dani asked. This was a turn of events she had not expected.

  ‘Yes. Of course I mean a club. We’re going to dance the night away.’

  Dani watched Lola’s smile stiffen just a little.

  ‘Oh, Nat!’ Lola said then, grabbing her fiancé’s arm in a mirror image of Will’s gesture. ‘We should go dancing as well! You know, we’re going to have to get up on the dance floor at our wedding. Might as well start practising now.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Nat. ‘We really do have to get up early.’

  ‘We won’t stay late, late,’ said Lola. ‘But how often do we get the chance to go clubbing with two great friends?’

  Now she linked arms with Dani too. As though they were new BFFs.

  ‘Dani wants us to be there.’

  ‘I know what it’s like when you’ve got to get up early.’ Dani tried to wade in on Nat’s side. Nat nodded gratefully.

  ‘Don’t encourage him!’ Lola exclaimed. ‘Nat, you’re turning forty, not fifty. Don’t make me feel like our age gap is bigger than ever.’

  That comment hit Nat right in the heart, Dani could tell. He looked visibly pained.

  ‘OK,’ he said. ‘I’ll come dancing but only if you promise that we will be out of there at midnight.’

  ‘Like Cinderella,’ Lola agreed.

  It was Cinderella’s that they visited next. The vast cavernous space beneath the multi-storey car park had always been a nightclub, though it had many incarnations and names in the time that Dani had known it. It was Cinderella’s in the nineties. Right now it was called ‘Dirty Dixie’ and had a Southern US theme with stuffed alligators on the walls and cocktails called things like ‘Moonshine’ and ‘Hooch’.

  That night, however, the music at Dixie’s was pure nineteen eighties and nineties. Thursdays were the big night out for Newbay’s thirty- and forty-something singletons, who liked to hear the music that defined their glory years.

  Will paid for all four of them to get into the club, causing Lola to grab him and kiss him on the cheek.

  ‘You lovely man.’

  He blushed.

  Nat tried to pay him back. Will wouldn’t have it.

  ‘Think of it as an early birthday gift,’ he said.

  The unlikely foursome left their coats in the cloakroom and headed for the bar. The club was still quite empty and they quickly found a table. Will fetched drinks for everyone. Dani had a gin and tonic. Nat said he only wanted water.

  ‘Oh, Nat,’ Lola complained. ‘Don’t be so dull!’

  But even with more alcohol, Dani could feel the party spirit slipping away from her too. What she really wanted was to go home. Maybe they could get away with having just one drink. Nat met Dani’s eyes. It was clear he felt the same way.

  The DJ put on Ricky Martin’s ‘Living La Vida Loca’.

  ‘Oh, I love this song. Do you like it? We should do a routine together,’ said Lola to Dani, nodding towards the dance floor.

  Dani thought once again about how she’d ended up in the backing singer’s outfit. She did not want to be on the dance floor, providing some sort of complimentary shadow to Lola’s glittering fabulousness.

  ‘I’m not mad about it,’ said Dani.

  ‘But we only came here to dance,’ Lola said. ‘Nat? Will?’

  ‘I’m ready,’ Will said. He got up and gave a Strictly shimmy. Lola stood up next to him.

  ‘I’ll get up there if you will,’ Dani told Nat.

  ‘OK,’ he said. ‘I suppose I ought to see my thirties out in style.’

  She touched his hand. ‘It will be painless, I promise.’

  Will and Lola shimmied on ahead. They were neither of them worried about being under the spotlight. There was to be no hugging the edge of the floor for them. They headed straight for the centre, drawing both admiring and jealous glances from the punters who were already up and jigging.

  It was obvious that Will and Lola had often danced together before. They put on a routine that was worthy of a pair of ballroom professionals while Dani and Nat jigged up and down like a couple of embarrassed teenagers watching their parents get down like disco wasn’t dead. Except, of course, Will and Lola were not ‘dad dancing’. They were properly setting the floor on fire.

  Nat pleaded with his eyes to be allowed to sit down.

  ‘Another drink?’ Dani suggested as the song ended.

  ‘Good idea,’ said Nat as he gratefully followed her off the floor. Will and Lola didn’t even seem to notice the other two had gone. They stayed on the floor as one dance classic segued into another. Totally lost in music. And each other.

  This time, Nat had a gin and tonic too. The table they’d been sitting at earlier had been commandeered by another group of people, so Dani and Nat leaned on the balustrade that surrounded the dance floor.

  ‘Thank you,’ Nat said. ‘For rescuing me.’

  ‘I wasn’t exactly having the time of my life out there either,’ Dani replied.

  They chinked glasses.

  ‘I’m sorry we hijacked your evening.’

  ‘It probably would have ended long before now if we hadn’t bumped into you and Lola.’

  ‘The last thing I expected was to end up clubbing tonight.’

  ‘Same here. Though I’m always saying how much I miss going dancing. Now I know I’ve got no need to miss it any more. This is terrible.’

  ‘Yep,’ said Nat.

  ‘Music’s too loud.’

  ‘Lights are too bright.’

  ‘Drinks are too expensive. Place is full of young people showing off.’

  As Dani said that, Will attempted to lift Lola above his head Dirty Dancing style.

  ‘That’s the standard you’ve got to beat for your wedding dance.’

  ‘Just watching has put my back out,’ said Nat.

  ‘You’ll make me snort my gin.’ Dani laughed.

  ‘Fancy another?’

  ‘I thought you were leaving after one?’

  ‘Doesn’t look as though that’s going to happen.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘No need for you to apologise. Anyway, I’m very happy to stay here with you.’

  Dani chinked her glass against Nat’s again.

  ‘I second that.’

  ‘And it is nearly my birthday.’

  ‘Better get a couple of doubles, then.’

  When Nat came back from the bar, Will and Lola were still tripping the light fantastic. ‘It’s great, the way that Lola and Will have stayed friends. And the fact that you’re happy to let her hang out with him,’ Dani observed.

  ‘It’s not a matter of letting Lola do anything,’ said Nat. ‘Anyway, they’re just friends. Jealousy isn’t part of my repertoire.’

  ‘That’s a good way to be,’ said Dani.
/>   ‘We’re all adults,’ said Nat. ‘We both have pasts.’

  ‘Does she know about ours?’ Dani wanted to ask. She didn’t.

  ‘So, you’re going to have to get Will to show you how it’s done before the big day,’ said Dani instead. ‘The dancing thing.’

  Now Will was sliding across the dance floor on his knees while Lola recreated the flamenco scene from the finale of Strictly Ballroom, swishing her skirt about her knees.

  ‘I was planning something a little more low key,’ Nat admitted. ‘You know I always hated dancing.’

  ‘I remember.’

  ‘You still rank as the only woman who has ever persuaded me to take to the floor willingly,’ he added.

  ‘Is that true?’ The direct reference to their shared past took her by surprise.

  ‘Yes. I do believe that the last time I went dancing was in 1996 …’

  Chapter Forty-Four

  1996

  Julie’s twenty-first birthday fell on a Saturday in the wedding season when, as usual, it was all hands on deck at The Majestic. But as soon as the shift was finished, the whole gang hit the town. It didn’t matter that half the waiting staff was underage. Dave knew everyone on the door at Cinderella’s. He also knew pretty much everyone who worked at the local police station and was thus able to assure the younger members of the group that they would have no problem should the police raid the club and ask to see ID. They wouldn’t bother Dave’s mates.

  Nat didn’t have to worry, of course. He’d already turned eighteen. And Dani had a fake student ID card that she’d bought for twenty quid from one of the druggies who hung out beneath the Newbay pier. It looked quite realistic in the dark. The bloke on the cash desk seemed happy enough anyway.

  Still, Cinderella’s was a deeply cheesy nightspot. It was the kind of place that Nat dissed on a regular basis. It was where people with no imagination spent a Friday evening, he thought. It was no secret that Julie didn’t have much of an imagination. But it was her birthday and for that reason, she got to choose where everyone would be spending the early hours of the morning.

  ‘I can’t believe I’ve got to go to a club where they might play Whitney Houston,’ Nat complained.

  ‘Oh you’ll love it,’ said Dani, as she tucked her arm through his. He immediately felt more optimistic.

  Dave, being the oldest and the most senior member of the Majestic squad, got the first round in. Everyone knew he was keen to impress Julie apart from anything else. She squealed with delight when he ordered her a pina colada that was topped with whipped cream and studded with real sparklers.

  ‘He’s trying to get me drunk,’ Nat heard Julie say to Dani, before adding in an aside, ‘He doesn’t need to. I’ve always fancied Dave.’

  Julie beckoned Dave onto the dance-floor and soon they were getting down to Peter Andre’s ‘Mysterious Girl’. It was quite something to watch Dave – who was built like a rhino – attempting to replicate Andre’s snake-hipped moves.

  ‘I can’t watch,’ said Nat, covering his eyes.

  It was the Spice Girls next. ‘2 Become 1’. Now Nat covered his ears. He then grimaced his way through the opening bars of Livin’ Joy’s ‘Don’t Stop Movin’’. Still Nat was determined not to dance.

  Dani wasn’t having it.

  ‘This is a good tune,’ she insisted. ‘Come on.’

  Standing up, Dani took both of Nat’s hands and pulled him to his feet.

  ‘I can’t dance.’

  ‘Of course you can. It’s easy. Everyone can dance. You just have to let go and feel the music.’

  ‘I can’t feel the music.’

  ‘Rubbish. You’re a musician,’ Dani reminded him.

  ‘Don’t get a lot of dance tunes for oboe.’

  ‘I’m not taking no for an answer.’

  And because it was Dani who was asking, Nat let himself be dragged onto the floor. If only to keep holding her hands. Dave the chef was already in the middle. He was definitely feeling the music, now playing air drums in a manner that looked almost masturbatory. Dani jerked her thumb at their sort-of boss.

  ‘You can’t possibly look a bigger idiot than that,’ Dani commented.

  ‘Try me,’ said Nat.

  He felt painfully shy right there under the flashing lights.

  Dani leaned close and shouted into his ear. ‘Just go for it. No one here is actually watching to see what you’re doing. They’re all too busy worrying how stupid they look themselves. You stand out more if you don’t get down. Don’t stop moving …’ she sang along.

  Dani was a natural. She used Nat like a kind of maypole, taking one of his hands and using his long arm as a ribbon, snaking under and around it, but somehow making it look as though Nat was turning her.

  It was easy to dance with Dani. All Nat had to do was look into her eyes and he could forget there were other people around them. She made him feel incredible, invincible. It was as though when they were together, he suddenly had superpowers.

  Dani even made it easy for Nat to stay on the dance floor when the DJ started playing the ‘Macarena’, the runaway hit from three summers before and Julie’s favourite song of all-time (so far).

  ‘You have to do this,’ Dani said, taking him through the steps.

  ‘I’ll look like an idiot.’

  ‘The Macarena makes everyone look like an idiot,’ Dani yelled back.

  With Dani by his side, Nat could overcome his shyness and his doubts.

  When she smiled at him, it was as though he was standing in bright warm sunshine. Her laugh was the best sound he’d ever heard. The feeling of her hand in his was pure heaven. He had to make her more than a friend.

  When Dave the chef bounced into their little twosome and bumped hips with Dani, Nat did the only thing he could to stay in the game. He moved to the other side of Dani and bumped hips with her too, so that the three work colleagues looked like some daft kind of executive toy, bumping backwards and forwards.

  ‘You having fun, Frank?’ Dave the chef asked.

  Nat even managed a thumbs-up.

  That night was the very first time they kissed.

  At the end of the evening, the DJ announced the last dance. Nat and Dani had left the dance floor by that time but she wouldn’t let him get away with sitting out the final tune.

  ‘Come on,’ she said.

  ‘I can’t do slow dances,’ Nat said.

  ‘It’s not a very slow one,’ said Dani as the record began to play.

  ‘I love you always forever’ by Donna Lewis was not a song that Nat imagined holding close to his heart, but forever after it would be the song that had been playing when he first kissed Dani Parker and for that reason alone it was the best song in the world.

  ‘… always together …’

  She murmured the words against his lips.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Fast-forward twenty-two years to the double date from hell.

  ‘Yes,’ said Nat. ‘You’re the only woman who ever made me feel comfortable on the dance floor.’

  Dani rattled the ice cubes in the bottom of her glass as she searched for something to say in response.

  ‘I’m sorry if I stepped on your feet,’ was all she could come up with.

  ‘I wouldn’t have cared.’

  ‘Another g and t?’ Dani asked, though they’d probably both had too many.

  That night, the last song was not one that Nat or Dani knew. As the DJ announced the evening’s imminent end, Will and Lola were still twirling in the middle of the floor and Dani suspected they would have stayed there had she not caught Will’s eye and given him a bright but questioning smile. When she did that, Will dutifully escorted Lola to the bar and exchanged her hand for Dani’s.

  ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘We’ve hardly danced at all.’

  ‘All right.’

  Dani let herself be led away. If only to spare Nat the spectacle of seeing his fiancée smooch with her ex.

  Once they were on the floor, Will held he
r in a close but slightly formal hold. His eyes were fixed on the distance over her shoulder and Dani noticed that he didn’t ever turn her around, as most of the other couples were. Will’s attention was all on the exit.

  By the time the music finished, Lola and Nat had gone.

  ‘They didn’t even say goodbye,’ Will complained.

  Dani found she was glad to have avoided that awkwardness.

  ‘Thank you for a lovely evening,’ she said as she and Will got their coats. Dani felt very sober now.

  ‘Let’s do it again some time, yes?’ Will asked.

  ‘That’d be great,’ Dani told him, though she wondered why he was bothering to pretend the evening might be worth repeating.

  Will walked her to the taxi rank, where they took two cars going in different directions.

  Dani didn’t know who to feel more sorry for. Herself – for having looked forward to the evening so much only to have it turn out so weirdly. Or Will – being so obviously lovelorn for Lola.

  At least Jezza was pleased to see Dani when she got in. Ecstatic, in fact. He greeted her as though she had just come back from the front of a distant war. As though she’d been away for years on end. As though he hadn’t dared believe she would ever come back to him. He wagged himself into a frenzy, squeaking his excitement. Though he’d often spend the evening with Jane, Flossie and Sarah, Jezza only really had eyes for Dani now.

  ‘Come on, then,’ she invited Jezza to join her on the sofa, not caring that she was wearing an expensive dress that was almost certainly ‘dry clean only’. ‘This is the closest I’m going to get to anything like physical affection today.’

  Jezza arranged himself across Dani’s lap and let her rub his soft warm belly. If she dared to stop, even for a couple of seconds, he would gently remind her of her duties with an insistent paw pat to her wrist. With his comforting bulk across her knees (Eric the organic veg man had recently revealed that Jezza’s father was an enormous standard poodle, the size of a small horse) it was hard for Dani to imagine that there had ever been a time when Jezza wasn’t part of the family.