Free Grease Monkey Jive by Ainslie Paton

have to let them enrol and then work out a way to make sure they didn’t waste too much time or annoy Scott or the other students too much.
    “We want to try something different. Is that so wrong?”
    She dropped her arms from their defensive folded posture. “No, it’s not. The beginner’s class is Monday nights at 6pm and the new term starts next week. Dress in something loose and comfortable. You need shoes with leather soles. Bring a towel.” She wagged a finger at them. “And don’t be late.”
    “Thank you, Alex,” said Dan. He put his hand out and she felt it, warm and calloused in her own. “We’ll be here.”
    They made just as much noise leaving as they had arriving and Alex wondered if they truly would be back or whether the bravado would wear off in the street. She wondered what it was that made a man like Dan suddenly decide he wanted to learn ballroom dancing and convince some friends to come with him. She wondered why shaking his hand had been a tiny bit thrilling.
    As she made her way back into the studio proper, Belinda caught her eye. “What did that lot want? Waste of space cowboys.”
    “You know them?” said Alex, a sinking feeling striking her.
    “Yeah. Mitch is my ex-boyfriend.”
    “Did you know they were coming?”
    “Absolutely not.” Belinda shook her head emphatically. “I can’t imagine for one minute why they’d be here, but it’s got nothing do with me. We broke up two months ago and we’ve not even spoken since.”
    “Are they trouble?”
    “Not trouble exactly. Fluke is a sweetheart, but Dan is a player and Mitch – I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.”
    The sinking feeling became a deep hole. “I did give them a hard time. They might not come back.”
    Belinda’s expression brightened. “We can only hope.”

11. Cavemen Can Dance
    “You were going to tell me about the three Neanderthals exactly when?”
    Alex grimaced. She should’ve warned Scott, but she really thought the three new starters for the beginner’s ballroom class would have vaporised like vampires in sunlight by now. But there they were – Dan, Mitch, and the skinny redhead with the nickname, Flunk, Flung, no Fluke, that’s right.
    Just looking at Dan, Alex was reminded of his attractions. He was wearing a pair of very faded blue jeans with rips at the knees and the pockets torn out of the backside and a much-washed soft cotton t-shirt that fell against the wall of his chest, doing nothing to disguise his sculptured muscle structure. His hair was wet and brushed back from his face. He looked tanned and relaxed, like he’d just come off the beach and tumbled into his old favourite clothes.
    Neither Mitch or Fluke looked quite so at ease. Both of them were wearing loose cotton pants with drawstrings and surf brand t-shirts.
    “I did try to get rid of them,” she said.
    “Not hard enough, girlfriend.”
    “They’re here now and they help even up our numbers, so you don’t have to work so hard being the extra partner.”
    Scott grunted so Alex said, “Is that caveman talk for ‘I’ll behave’?”
    “Tell me when I haven’t behaved like a perfect gentleman?”
    Now it was Alex’s turn to go non-verbal. She snorted.
    “Oh very classy, Alexandra,” Scott eye rolled. “Let’s get this over with. If we’re clever we might only have to suffer one week of them.” He tipped his head to study the three men. “At least two of them are pretty and one of them is very pretty –” he looked back to Alex, “– in a Neanderthal kind of way,” and Alex knew she was forgiven for not scaring them off.
    Scott clapped his hands for attention and Alex said, “Hello everyone, I’m Alex, this is Scott, and we’ll be teaching your ballroom for beginner’s class for the next twelve weeks.”
    She surveyed the motley assembly of people: three couples, two of them in her mother’s age group, and the third, snuggled together, were wedding waltz L-platers. Four single girls,