Free Turnabout's Fair Play by Kaye Dacus

the weekends. He wasn’t about to let his predilection for sweets cause him health problems or stop him from looking his best. Not when people were apt to judge someone negatively if the least bit overweight.
    The music started, and the bandleader announced the bride and groom would have their first dance. Then the dance with the mother of the groom and father—no, grandfather of the bride. Jamie had a clear view of the dance floor when the full wedding party took to the floor and the band started playing Patsy Cline’s “Today, Tomorrow, and Forever.”
    Jamie’s eyes locked on to the tall blond being two-stepped around by the smoothest dancer on the floor—and he wasn’t at all surprised that Jack Colby was a good dancer. In her heels, Flannery was almost as tall as her boss, which made them seem well suited for dancing together. For the first time tonight, she looked like she was truly enjoying herself. Jack apparently said something funny, because she threw her head back and laughed.
    The song drew to a close, and Jack dipped her, just like in all the old Astaire-Rogers movies the ladies at the nursing home loved watching so much.
    “Come on. They’ll want everyone involved in the wedding out there to help encourage folks to dance.” Dennis stood and motioned Jamie to follow him.
    Wait—had Dennis Forrester just asked him to dance? Jamie rose slowly and followed him…at a distance. But Zarah’s boss stopped at the table just short of the dance floor and asked an older woman there to dance, apparently someone he knew.
    Jamie looked around. Really, there was only one person here he wanted to dance with tonight. He took a deep breath and moved forward with purpose.

    Flannery’s little toe on her right foot hurt where the sandal’s strap rubbed on the knuckle. All she wanted to do was sit down and maybe surreptitiously take the shoes off under the table, since the tablecloth touched the floor in front and on the sides.
    She stepped off the dance floor and—found her way blocked by Jamie O’Connor.
    “Hey, Flannery.”
    It didn’t matter how handsome he was. The way he looked at her—no, scrutinized would be a better word—creeped her out a little.
    “Hi, Jamie.”
    “You look really nice tonight.” He rocked from heel to toe—which only emphasized the fact that, with her in these shoes, he was a little bit shorter than she. Which meant they were probably about the same height in actuality.
    “Um, thanks. You look nice tonight, too.” No lie—he was breath stealing dressed in a tuxedo. She hadn’t missed the fact that almost every woman in attendance tonight had, at one time or another, been eyeing him as if he were a plate of caviar in a room full of Spam sandwiches.
    “I like your hair up like that, how it shows off your neck. With that dress, it’s almost like you’re the lead actress in a vampire movie, just waiting for Dracula to come along and bite you.”
    Flannery’s hands flew to her throat—which had just closed in around her windpipe. “Excuse me?”
    Jamie’s mouth flopped open and closed a few times. “N–no, I meant…what I meant to say—” His face glowed like Chernobyl’s meltdown.
    Flannery was pretty sure hers was in the same condition. She returned her hands to her sides, gathering up her skirt just in case she needed to run away.
    He took a deep breath and a step back. “I didn’t m–mean to say that. I wanted to ask you to d–dance.”
    Not in this lifetime . “Yeah…um, look. Thanks, but my foot really hurts, so I’m going to go sit down.”
    Instead of moving closer to get past him between the tables where they stood, she turned and went around the table to her right.
    Dracula? Really? That was his idea of a pickup line? At least he’d had the good grace to look embarrassed when he realized he’d totally wigged her out. Dracula?
    Back at the head table, she pulled the sandals off, flagged down the waiter, and asked for another piece of cake and a refill