The only thing that was not as good for Trisha was getting used to her best friend, Amber Dawson, having transferred to Savannah College for Art and Design. They had been best friends for over 9 years and things were going to be different. Jeannie Lorentz became Trisha's new roommate in the AOPi house and soon they became very good friends, although Jeannie was very busy with her drama and dancing through her studies in Performing Arts.
Both Tim and Trisha proved to be busy people and so they averaged one major date and one minor get together per week throughout the month of January. Because Tim seemed to be even busier than she was, Trisha also had time to see her friend Jay once or twice a week in more casual settings. They were becoming better and better friends. Jay took it well when Trisha did the expected and started dating Tim, although he would have loved to have had the chance himself.
All semester, Trisha's friend Shelley continued to intern at WAGA. She was doing a good job, trying to fit in better with the group and was beginning to gain the respect of her co-workers based on the quality of her work in the Sports Department. In late January 2001, a bright and eager new intern, Tameka Thompson, came into the news department from the University of Memphis Journalism School. One Friday, Shelley grabbed a frozen Lean Cuisine and placed it in the break room microwave and sat down at the break table to wait on it to heat. Shortly afterwards, Tameka walked in and Shelley struck up a conversation with her.
"So Tameka, how's the Friday Noon News going for you. That's great that you're getting to give the 12 O'clock news and do those interesting interviews once a week. Interviews are why I got into Sports Journalism."
It's going pretty well, but I did just get some bad news, though."
"What's that," replied a concerned Shelley making every effort to be nice.
'Well, one of my interview subjects for next week just cancelled and I'm scrambling to find a replacement on short notice."
"Who was it?"
"Well, I had someone from here in town who runs a web-site that gives instructions on doing your own home pedicures. I also have a podiatrist scheduled to speak about general foot-care."
"That's to bad. I hope you'll be able to find someone."
"Me too!"
Shelley continued to wait and finally her lunch was fully heated and she went to remove it from the microwave and walk back to her desk when she got an idea. Sitting quickly, she approached Tameka again.
"Hey, I may be able to help you."
"Really Shelley! How?"
"I have this friend in my sorority who takes real good care of her feet. She does her own manicures in the dorm and she loves to show off her pretty feet in elegant shoes - especially revealing mules and slides. In fact, that's probably why she takes such good care of her feet. I'd be happy to ask her for you."
"That sounds great! I'd really appreciate it."
Shelley went home to the AOPi house and knocked on Trisha's door before supper to talk with her about Tameka's problem and asked her if she was willing to help. She found Trisha getting ready to go out on a date with Tim and wearing a dark blue skirt, a colorful sweater and a pair of black slingback heels with a rose adornment on the upper.
"Television? You want me to talk about my home pedicures on television? I don't know, Shelley."
"Are you afraid to be on camera? Are you nervous?"
"Not really, I guess if you're confident on your subject, it's easy."
"Think of it this way, Trisha. You have pretty much on your own come up with a way for ladies to keep their feet in good condition without having to pay for a weekly pedicure. And haven't you said that ladies ought not wear mules and slides if their feet aren't taken care of?"
"Sure, all the time."
"Well, you can do your part to help the female viewers of the 12 O'Clock news to make their mules and slides look better on their feet."
Trisha paused in thought and in a burst of spontaneity, she replied, "Okay, why not? Tell her I'll do it. Next Friday the seventh, right?'
"Next Friday, right. She'll be very pleased when I tell her."
Shelley left and Trisha finished getting ready for her date. Tim was taking her to eat at a new cafe downtown, then they were going to a concert afterwards being given by the UGA Jazz band.
Trisha liked Tim a lot and was happy they had been dating steady for over a month. He seemed to have a knack for planning nice dates - things she liked to do, like concerts and plays. However there was one exception. He was not too interested in sorority or fraternity parties or dancing, though and tonight she was planning on asking him to take her to her sorority's Valentine's Day dinner, only 2 weeks away. He wasn't necessarily against dancing; he just wasn't any good at it.
Tim picked Trisha up at her sorority house and he complimented her, "My you looking real pretty tonight. That's a nice outfit." He did not say this, but his favorite part of the outfit was her very revealing slingback heels.
The two of them enjoyed a nice dinner and conversation at the restaurant he had picked out for them. Trisha was able to relax and have a good time. She found herself slipping out of her straps and treating her shoes like mules to facilitate dangling and shoeplay and of course, Tim enjoyed the view.
As the night wore on, Trisha noticed that her straps seemed stretched. She kept having to lean down and slip them back on her heels. Sometimes she'd let them go and walk in her shoes like mules. Tim said nothing but he did indeed notice. At the Concert Hall, she stepped out of one of her heels briefly going down the steps to their seat.
Their conversation throughout the evening centered on Tim's plans for seminary and both of their current classes, and also a bit of getting to know each other better.
On the way home from the concert, Trisha posed her question to Tim. "Tim, I have something to ask you."
"Sure, anything."
"Well, I know you're not all that thrilled about going to sorority events, but we are having a Valentine's Day Dinner on the 14th..."
"Let me stop you right there."
Trisha feared he was about to shoot her down and she began to make defensive body language. But suddenly, Tim pulled out two tickets to her dinner out of his shirt pocket and showed them to her. "I spoke with your roommate Jeannie one time when you were not in and she mentioned, in passing, that your sorority was having a Valentines dinner. So, I stopped by one day and bought them for us. I was going to tell you tonight before I took you home."
"You're so sweet, Tim!" Trisha was close to tears and she leaned over in the car from the passenger seat and kissed him on the cheek.
"You know, Tim, there might be slow dancing after dinner."
"That's okay, I can handle the standard slow dances, it's the fast stuff I don't care about."
Soon they were back at the AOPi house and Trisha gave him a longer and better kiss goodnight on the steps of the house before he left to go back to his apartment.
--
Trisha arrived at the WAGA studios around 11AM on the 7th to meet Tameka and go over the details of their interview. Trisha decided to make her part of the interview a live demonstration of how she did her weekly Sunday night manicures. Trisha had all the tools she used there to demonstrate, including her hot wax system - purchased from QVC home shopping, a cuticle pick, a good pair of clippers, a pumice stone and a file, and also a small bucket of warm soapy water. Knowing she'd need to be making a demonstration, she wore a dressy pair of dressy black Kenneth Cole mules with a square toe box and a sturdy rectangular heel.
At 12:18PM, Tameka introduced the segment while Shelley watched from behind the cameras. Tameka was seated at an angle to two adjacent chairs one for Trisha and one for Dr. Tuggle, a Marietta Podiatrist.
Tameka managed the interview well and showed promise as an aspiring journalist. Dr. Tuggle gave some good general advice about foot care and foot health. He emphasized how diabetics need to take special care of their feet. He also warned women not to wear heels that were too high for too long. He borrowed one of Trisha's mules briefly - one that was dangling off the end of her crossed foot in his direction - to show an example of a medium high heel that was more reasonable to wear since it was not as high as a lit of heels the ladies try to wear for long periods at a time.
Trisha in turn went through her Sunday evening routine - in abbreviated fashion.
[Trisha's Interview dialog:]
"Ladies, the first thing I do is make sure my feet are clean. (Trisha kicked off one shoe and submersed it in soapy water briefly then washed it off) Then I go ahead and trim my toenails (she quickly trimmed a few toenails - the camera got a good close-up of her bright red freshly polished toenails) - they need to be straight across not curved - that prevents in-grown toenails. I then take my cuticle pick and scrape out any dead skin from the cuticle (she scraped with the pick a couple of times) making a straight line leaving about a third of an inch or less of nail exposed. I then file down any rough spots (she used the file on a few toes). This is a pumice stone; I use that to remove rough scaly skin from my heels. (She rubbed stone on heel). This is especially for women who wear mules and slides. If your heels look bad, that takes all the reasons away from wearing that style of shoe. The last thing I do is a wax treatment using this nice device I bought from a home shopping network. (She dipped her foot in the hot wax for a few moments then took it out to dry) While this dries, Tameka, I'll let you talk about something else.”
Tameka had Dr. Tuggle make a few final comments, then she directed attention to Trisha again as she peeled the hardened wax off her foot and declared the pedicure over. She mentioned that this was a good time to put on a new coat of nail polish. After the camera was off, Trisha dried off her foot and put her single mule back on and gathered her things to leave. Tameka thanked her and Dr. Tuggle for their cooperation coming to the studio. Dr. Tuggle expressed his pleasure in meeting Trisha. He privately wished that he had a few more patients who took as good care of their feet and had feet that looked so good. He enjoyed the demonstration, as did numerous other men who called WAGA or sent email to the station wanting to see her do the same demonstration again. WAGA also got quite a few calls and emails from girls wanting a written copy of the pedicure instructions that she gave in the interview.Shelley was happy that she was able to help her new friend Tameka, who was highly praised for the interview and the feedback it generated, and this only helped Shelley's reputation improve around WAGA-TV.
That afternoon after Trisha's interview on TV, she and Jeannie started talking about the Valentines Dinner and about how she had been so busy that she had not found a date and she did want to go.
Trisha and Jeannie discussed several of the guys they knew and none of them seemed to be right to ask. Then Trisha had a brilliant, it seemed at the time, idea. "How about my friend, Jay?"
Jeannie hesitated because she wondered if her secret was out - that she had a crush on him. She did not know Jay very well until Amber moved to Savannah and she became Trisha's roommate, but in the month since then, he found him to be a nice and handsome gentleman that she'd like to date. Knowing that he had an interest in dating Trisha, she was not sure how to proceed. Things could get awkward, she feared. "So you think he'd go with me?"
"I guess we won't know until I ask him, but I think he will. He's not dating anyone else at the moment and I doubt he'd turn down the chance to take out a pretty girl for Valentines Day."
"Do you think he considers me 'pretty'?"
"In fact, he's told me he thought so and that he was surprised that you did not have your fair share of dates."
Jeannie bristled a little and thought it was odd he would say that about someone but be unwilling to ask her out himself. But she tried to put that thought out of her head and realized that if he ever asked her out, that might kill any chance he ever had with Trisha.
"Actually, Tim's out of town at a conference and I'm meeting Jay at Wendy's to grab dinner and watch a movie over at the Beta House. I'll ask him tonight, Okay?"
Jeannie reluctantly agreed, "Okay, thanks."
Trisha who was casually dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt put on her favorite pair of brown flat-heeled mules and left for Jay's frat house. As usual, there were several guys and a few girls piled up on the array of couches and chairs in the great room where the large screen TV and VCR were located. There was also a lot of good food and drink for the group. Tonight's movie was the new horror release What Lies Beneath with Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer.
Shawn wanted to wait on Donna to show up in about a half hour to start the movie, so Trisha suggested that she and Jay grab some snacks and go out on the deck out back. Since becoming good friends, Trisha and Jay had their own section of the deck railing where they often sat side by side and had long talks. Jay was tall enough to touch the floor with his tiptoes when seated, but Trisha's legs hung well above the floor. Trisha would often swing her legs in rhythm back and forth as they talked. With something to ask Jay about that made her nervous, tonight was no exception.
Jay and Trisha engaged in a bit of small talk - mostly about her interview on the 12 O'clock news earlier in the day - Jay had taped it and watched it 5 times already, but he, of course, didn't tell her. As the conversation continued, Jay at times, lost focus on the conversation watching Trisha swinging her feet back and forth, letting her mules slip most of the way off, then wiggling them back on - several times and on one occasion, she dropped a mule and reached down to get it, exposing her pretty red toenails on her bare foot.
Trisha began to change the conversation topic, "So, you have any plans yet for next Friday?"
Jay knew that Trisha's plans were to take Tim to her sorority dinner, so he just assumed she was making conversation. "Nothing, really. Some of the other guys without dates were talking about getting together and doing something - maybe even driving into Atlanta. Why?"
"Well, you know my roommate Jeannie in my sorority?"
"Yeah, sure, nice girl, pretty curly black hair, great singer, dancer and actress."
"I was wondering if you would consider being her date to our sorority dinner next week. She's been real busy with rehearsal for Guys and Dolls coming up in March and hasn't had time to really look for a date."
"Oh, uh, well, uh, I don't know. I guess I could take her."
"Jay, you sound less than enthused. Just go as friends and have a good time, that's all she wants." Trisha had no idea about Jeannie's crush on him so this was not meant to be a lie. She wiggled both mules off her feet and onto the deck then flexed her toes to enjoy a few moments of crisp cool air as Jay intently looked on.
"Sure, Trisha, tell her I'll be her date. I'd be honored."
Soon it was time to go back inside and enjoy the movie. That night, Trisha told Jeannie the good news and she was thrilled to get this free chance to spend time with Jay.
A couple of days before the dinner, Trisha came home to find Jeannie trying on a new-looking taupe colored dress. It still had the tag from Rich's on the sleeve.
"Jeannie, that's a pretty new dress."
"Yeah, I bought it for Friday night. How does it look?"
"You look pretty as usual. So what shoes are you going to wear?”
Suddenly a wave of despair came over Jeannie. She realized that she had not considered she might need a new pair of shoes. "I don't know. I don't think I have a pair that will match."
Trisha asked, "What size shoe do you wear?"
"Usually a 6, but sometimes a 5 1/2."
"Hmmmmm. It might work. I wear size 6 1/2. Do you want to see if I have anything that would work for you?"
"Okay, but you have mostly backless shoes. I'm not that crazy about them."
"Oh you'll be okay. Besides, I know Jay likes that style." Trisha had not intended on saying that but she considered it harmless. However, Jeannie now realized that she now 'had' to wear a pair of backless shoes to the dinner. Maybe that would help spark an interest in her.
"Okay Trisha, let's see what you have."
They were soon down on their hands and knees looking through a lot of shoes and then they came upon a pair of Hype taupe mules with a 2-inch heel and a square toe box. "What about these, Jeannie?"
Jeannie tried them on and walked around in her new dress - they were a perfect match. "They look good, I guess I'll have to get used to walking in them."
Trisha was pleased, "They look great on you! You're going to have a good time."
The night of the party Trisha and Jeannie hurried getting dressed, knowing that Tim and Jay would be arriving to get them shortly and drive them to the Holiday Inn where the dinner was being catered for them in one of their banquet rooms.
Trisha wore a pretty red dress and a pair of dressy red slides with a silver buckle on the single strap. Jeannie wore her new dress and the pair of taupe mules she borrowed from Trisha. It being a dressy formal occasion, both Trisha and Jeannie wore nylons, but since they were wearing backless shoes and Trisha was wearing an open-toed style, they chose seamless nude hose.
"Jeannie, your outfit looks great. I don't care if you borrow those shoes anytime."
"Thanks. They are slightly big, but I'll try to manage." Jeannie took a few steps around the room then noted, "You know, they're more slippery when your wearing hose, aren't they?"
"Yeah, that's one reason I don't wear that combination all that often. But we're not going to be walking anywhere fast this evening. Just take your time and concentrate and you'll do fine.
"I guess I'm use to wearing strappy shoes when I'm dancing or acting and I'm not used to thinking about keeping my shoes on."
The girls walked downstairs and ran into Shelley and some other girls on the way down. She was similarly waiting for Beau to pick her up. In the lobby there was soon a good-sized crowd waiting for their dates to pick them up. A few were sharing rides, but most were leaving as couples only.
Soon Beau arrived to get Shelley then Tim came for Trisha. Tim complimented Trisha on how pretty she looked. He took notice of her hair and her outfit but also her pretty red open-toed backless high heels with a silver buckle that showed off her feet and polished nails very well.
After a few minutes, Jeannie worried if Jay would show up. But soon her fears were dissolved as he arrived with a small box in his hand. "Sorry I'm late Jeannie, it took longer than I expected to pick this up." He pinned a small corsage on her dress - something she was not expecting on a first date. She began to really get her hopes up that something might happen between her and Jay.
Soon, everyone arrived at the Holiday Inn and all were seated around large round tables with a lit candle in the middle of each. They were served their meal one course at a time while nice romantic music was piped into the sound system. Overall, the ambiance was very nice and somewhat romantic in the dimly lit room.
Trisha and Jeannie and their dates sat at the same table with Jeannie sitting between Tim and Jay. Shelley and Beau were also at the same table directly across from Jeannie. Trisha purposefully didn't want to sit directly next to Jay since she wanted him to focus his attention on Jeannie. However, throughout the dinner, Jay still made this critical error. He paid too much attention to Trisha and not enough to his date, Jeannie. Since Trisha was sitting a third of the way around the table, he had to actually talk past Jeannie and Tim to communicate with her.
After about 15 minutes of this, Jay excused himself to the restroom and Trisha seeing this, quickly located the slide that had slipped off down to the floor during a dangle and took the opportunity to follow him so they could talk. Reaching him just before he entered the Men's Room, Trisha addressed Jay, "Jay, stop for a minute, please."
"Oh, Trisha, I had no idea you were behind me." Trisha’s normal loud mule slapping was greatly muted by her nylons.
"Do you know what you're doing?"
"No, Trisha, what do you mean?"
"Jeannie is your date, not me."
"I know, and Tim is yours. What's the problem?"
"You're spending way to much time talking with me and not enough with her. Did you know she bought a new dress for tonight? This is a big deal to her"
"Really? I had no idea I was being so rude. Thanks for letting me know. I'll do better."
Trisha and Jay went to their respective restrooms. Jay thought for a minute and got worried. 'What if Jeannie has a thing for me? I just wanted to go as friends. How do I treat her nice and not lead her on?' Jay struggled with this dilemma all during dinner and it caused him to not have a very good time. He failed to see that Trisha had dealt with those exact same feelings about him,
Meanwhile, Jay did start talking to Jeannie more and she felt better than she did at first. As the night went on, Jeannie became more relaxed. After spending most of the night with both feet flat on the floor, after dessert, she dared to cross her legs and noticed that shoe dangling was unavoidable with her backless shoes and nylons. It took some effort to keep her mule from sliding all the way off. After about 15 minutes of dangling, and keeping control of the shoe pretty well, she realized that she had allowed her shoe to hang precariously off of one toe. She was concerned it might fall off and roll somewhere that would be embarrassing to recover. She tried to kick the shoe up so it would fall back down onto her toes. When she did this, it did not behave like she wanted. She ended up kicking the shoe off under the table and hitting Shelley's date, Beau, in the leg.
He reached down to pick up the shoe and as he was pulling it out Shelley saw it and stopped Beau from saying anything.
Leaning over and observing the color and style, she whispered, "That's one of Trisha's shoes. I recognize it. Let's hold onto it for awhile as a joke." Shelley apparently had forgotten what shoes Trisha and Jeannie were wearing that night. Beau agreed and kept the shoe under his chair.
Meanwhile, not knowing that her shoe coming off would actually be something that Jay would like, Jeannie was instead concerned about looking like a klutz in front of Jay and losing a shoe under the table. She tried to stretch out her leg and find her shoe but no shoe was to be found. She made a strong effort to hide her shoeless foot from Jay and she succeeded.
By now some of the couples were leaving and going out to the dance floor. Jeannie just had to find her shoe before Jay asked her to dance, otherwise she’d look silly. At least, she hoped he would ask her to dance - that was something she was very good at, practically a professional. Then Tim pressed everything into action when he asked Trisha to dance and led her to the dance floor as a puzzled Shelley saw her walking out wearing a pair of red slides. She then realized she was pulling a joke on the wrong person. Shelley leaned over to Beau and said, "The joke's over, the shoe's not Trisha's."
Beau replied, "What do you want me to do?"
"I don't know! Stand up to take me to the dance floor and act like you just bumped into it and then hold it up and ask whose shoe it is."
So Beau did as Shelley suggested and innocently said to those at the table and holding up Jeannie's shoe, "Hey I just found this under the table, who does it belong to?"
Jeannie was embarrassed that she had made a fool of herself in front of Jay, whom she was so much trying to impress. She ran out of the room through the nearest exit, one shod and lopsided, and made an immediate right turn. Jay, surprised she took losing a shoe under the table as so terrible, grabbed the shoe from Beau and tried to follow her. He took the same door she did out of the room and looked in both directions and did not see her either way. Back inside, Shelley and Beau continued on their way to the dance floor where Trisha and Tim were totally unaware of what had just happened.
Jay stopped for a moment and tried to decide which way Jeannie might have gone. He was not all that familiar with the hotel so either choice was really a guess. He decided to go left, toward the lobby. Feeling conspicuous about holding a ladies shoe, he stuffed it into the inside pocket of his blazer.
Jeannie saw that the route she had taken led straight to the pool and adjacent courtyard. It being February, she was alone. It was not very cold, maybe 55 degrees, so she went outside and sat down on one of the chairs by the pool. She took off the useless single shoe and held it in her hand while sitting square with both nyloned feet on the cool concrete and started to cry a little - not so much because of the shoe but really just the overall way things had not gone as well with Jay as she had hoped.
Jay wandered around in the lobby and did not see her. He even went outside to see if she might be out there looking for a taxi or something. Soon he returned inside and considered she might have run into the ladies room. After standing outside the ladies room, for a few minutes, one of the AOPi sisters, Candace came out to enter the ladies room so Jay stopped her.
"Excuse me, you’re Candace, right?"
"Yeah, and you're Jay, Trisha's friend."
"Right, and tonight I'm Jeannie's date, and I'm looking for her. You see, she got embarrassed about something and ran out, she might have gone in here. Would you mind checking to see if she's in there and if so, let her know everything’s okay and I wanted to speak with her?"
"Sure, Jay, no problem." Candace soon came out and told him she was not in there.
Jay pondered what to do next. He then decided she might have turned right instead of left out of the Banquet Room so he made his way back and soon found himself at the door to go outside to the pool. Sure enough, he saw her sitting in one of the chairs, twirling her single mule in her left hand very quickly like one of those spinning noisemakers kids often like to play with. He approached her from behind quietly, touched her on the shoulder and whispered, "Jeannie, it's okay."
Jay walked around in front of Jeannie and pulled up a chair next to her. "Here's your other shoe? Is this why you ran out?" He feared that was a stupid question, but he did not know what else to say.
"Thanks." Jeannie said calmly while getting her shoe from Jay and holding it in her right hand.
"I'm guessing you were embarrassed that you lost your shoe under the table; isn't that a fairly common thing that happens to girls? At least it happens to Trisha all the time"
"Maybe so, but I just didn't want you to think I was a klutz or something - wait, I didn't mean to suggest Trisha's a klutz. I just wanted to make a good impression."
"That's sweet, Jeannie, but I thought we were just going to the dinner together as 'friends'."
"I guess I hoped (pause) there might be more if I made a good impression."
Jay was surprised to hear this and he did not really know what to say. "Does Trisha know this? I mean did she try to set us up?"
"No, she doesn't have a clue. In fact you weren't the first suggestion she made - not even the first three or four."
Jay felt really awkward but he wanted to try to get through the night with no more problems. "Are you ready to go back inside?"
"You know what, maybe it would be best if you just went ahead and took me back to the AOPi house." Seeing that she had bared her soul to Jay that she was interested and not had any positive feedback, she felt even more awkward and embarrassed, now.
"Okay, if that's what you want. But I'd love to go back and enjoy the rest of the evening with you myself."
“That’s alright, you don’t have to fake it. I know you’re not interested. It will be better if we go ahead and end things for tonight.”
Jeannie put her shoes back on and Jay walked her out to his car to drive her home. On the way out, Jay popped back inside the Banquet Room and told Trisha that Jeannie was not feeling well and that he was taking her home.
Trisha being the good friend asked, "Oh no, do you think I ought to leave also and help her?"
"No, I think she just needs some aspirin and a good night's sleep." Few words were exchanged on the short drive home, but both were deep in thought.
Jeannie was embarrassed that she had worn her heart on her sleeve and created an awkward relationship between her and Jay, now. She knew now that she needed to go ahead and tell Trisha the whole story so she would understand what had really happened.
Jay was wondering if Jeannie would stay interested in him and try to change his mind - to win him over, so to speak. He then remembered himself being in the exact opposite situation back in September, when he opened up to Trisha, and shared his feelings about her. He wondered if he'd be able to handle things as smoothly with Jeannie as Trisha had done with him. Regardless, he figured that some time would need to pass to heal the wound.
He also pondered his reasons for not returning an interest in Jeannie. She was nice and pretty and talented - some traits that a lot of guys would go for. He was just uncomfortable with the possibility of dating someone so close to the girl of his dreams. Jay hoped that eventually they could be friends.
Back at the party, Tim and Trisha were having a good time together. Tim thought that Trisha's outfit was very nice and she looked pretty wearing it. He was not a very good dancer - even the box step - but he tried. Two or three times he had accidentally knocked Trisha off balance, causing her to partially or totally slip out of a shoe. While dancing, Tim found himself at times, looking down at her feet. Trisha assumed he was trying not to step on them and this was partially true. But more so, he liked the way her pretty feet glided around in her red slides.
Shelley and Beau were dancing near Tim and Trisha and Shelley excused herself to the ladies room. About the same time, Tim excused himself to the men's room. Trisha was about to walk back to their table when Beau came over and tapped her on the shoulder. "How 'bout it Trisha. It'd be a shame to let this good song to go to waste.
After a brief pause and consideration that Tim was not normally the jealous type, agreed. "Sure, why not." And Trisha found herself in the arms of Shelley's boyfriend who proved to be a pretty good dancer, much better than Jay. Beau was impressed that Trisha was a better dancer than Shelley, too.
"Hey Trisha, do you know the Foxtrot?"
"Yeah, I learned how back in my second social dance class, but I've rarely had the chance to use it. I'm not exactly wearing the best shoes for a dance like that, though."
"Great, Shelley hasn't learned that one and I've been wanting to dance with someone who knows it."
Soon, Beau and Trisha were demonstrating their Foxtrot skills in front of the group. After what Trisha said about her shoes, he took notice. Even though Trisha had to make some quick direction changes and walk backwards a lot, she was staying in her mules pretty well - one did come part of the way off a couple of times, though, and Trisha quickly recovered. The other dancers stopped and gathered around to watch Beau and Trisha, partially because they were dancing so well but also to see the statement on Shelley's face when she returned.
Tim returned before Shelley and he saw what was going on at the dance floor and was not jealous at all. In fact, he went over to watch and cheer them on. A couple of more minutes later, Shelley returned to find that her boyfriend and Trisha were getting the attention of the whole group on the dance floor. She was highly jealous that Beau was getting so much attention dancing with Trisha instead of with her. In retaliation, she asked Tim if he wanted to dance with her and he replied, "No thanks, I think I'll just enjoy Trisha and Beau." It was not for a few days later that he realized that he had turned down a chance to dance with the head cheerleader at the university and put her in her place all at the same time.
After Beau and Trisha finished their second song dancing the Foxtrot together, everyone seemed ready to take a rest from dancing and returned to their seats. The AOPi social chairman, Brittany took the opportunity to make an important announcement:
"I'm glad you've been enjoying yourself on the dance floor. I wanted to announce that next month's major social is March 16th and it will be a St Patrick's Day Swing Dance Contest. So you've got a month to find your partners and practice."
Shelley whispered into Beau's ear, "We're there!"
Beau whispered back, "Maybe; my coach said something about us not participating in stuff like that during spring football practice."
"Oh come on, what can happen. It's just a dance routine. There won't be anyone there to tackle you. What are you afraid of?"
Beau backed down, 'I guess you're right. What harm could it be?"
Soon after Brittany's announcement, the group began to disband from the party. Trisha was particularly anxious to check on Jeannie so she and Tim left soon after the group began to leave the hotel. She was pleased with how well the night went with Tim and how much fun it was dancing together for the first time. She wanted to ask him to be her partner for the Swing Dance contest in March, but she realized that a dance contest for a difficult dance was a far cry from simple slow dancing that requires really no training.
Back at the AOPi house, Trisha stayed up with Jeannie until 2AM talking and afterwards, Jeannie felt much better about things than she did before.
