You and I (Part 2)

Saturday, 28th of August 2021

Part 1 of this story turned out to be a success and I read many lovely comments. Many of you were excited to read part 2 and I was planning to post it yesterday, but I was busy with other things. Without much more delay, let's part 2 begin.

It was probably way after 9am when we heard Tina shouting ‘It’s YOU!’ It wasn’t to me, it was to him. Apparently these two also met on Friday night and P asked her to also go out for a smoke and she said she would join him later, but later never came, cause soon after P and I met and we were inseparable from then. We had a good laugh about it and then she headed for breakfast and workshops straight after. We decided to take the opportunity and head to a temporarily free room. That's when we bumped into my salsa daddy, Marchant. He was in a rush to get some milk for his newly born daughter and when he saw me, the first thing he said was:

‘Weren’t you wearing these leggings last night?’. 

‘I did.’ - I answered with a smile. 

He looked at me, at him, back to me....

‘Ohh, I SEE!’ - he said.

He introduced himself to P with a huge smile on his face and rushed off to get the milk. Before P I never dated anyone from salsa, so Marchant was just a bit too excited to meet the first one. Of course, I had to hear this story from his mouth many times afterwards. Especially during his body movement classes at Alchemy Dance Academy I was attending on a regular basis. Everyone in the class had to know how I met my love, as he was constantly teasing me about it. P has become a celebrity of his own and everyone was super excited when I finally brought him to Alchemy some months later. In fact, Marchant stopped the class and walked to P to shake his hand when we arrived a little late that time. On our way back home P said he felt like a star of the night and asked how come so many people knew him and his name even though he has never met most of them. I had some explaining to do ;)

Back to the congress though! When we finally got to the room, we laid in bed, hugged and…  I promptly fell asleep. I’m sure I was snoring too! That left P utterly confused, as he was probably hoping for some action ;) Well, I had to attend my shift at 2pm, so sleep was of essence. This time we exchanged phone numbers and as much as I tried to stay away to give him some time for sleep, he was not interested in getting any and we chatted most of the time I was at ‘work’. By work I mean standing at the entrance of the room where salsa workshops were about to take place and checking that everyone has a wristband indicating the full pass to attend the workshops. Once the doors were closed, I could still take part in workshops, so ‘work’ is not really a good description, since I was doing what I love. In exchange for a few hours of checking passes I would get my full pass to workshops and parties for free, which for me was a perfect deal. 

Once my shift was over, I headed straight to P’s room and we went to get some food. It was the last night of the congress and P wasn’t too keen on going to the party, as he wanted to spend more time with me, but after a crazy pre-party in Tina and mine’s room, he became more willing to go. That’s when P also found out that I am Polish and he was over the moon! He told me it has always been a fantasy of his, since he was a teenager to have a Polish girlfriend. Considering that he lives in the Netherlands and I live in England, the girlfriend part wasn’t all that possible in my mind then, but it sure was an exciting fling! Tina also had her own idea about it and didn’t hesitate to question P about his intentions. That was so funny, as I was sitting right next to them and they were having a conversation about me as if I wasn’t there. I guess smoking makes us behave in all kinda weird ways ;)

That night we left the party a bit earlier and headed to P’s room for a change, as his roommate was still partying. I remember him telling us to be quiet once he was back in the room later though ;)

In the morning we woke up late and in a rush I couldn’t find one of my dance shoes, so I left without it, as we were planning to see each other again after we checked out of our rooms. I packed my bags and vacated the room. At that moment I was happy that I drove on my own, as now I could have a little extra time with P before his flight back home. When we met by reception, the area was packed full of people. He approached me with my lost shoe in his hand and a big smile on his face. Cindy, short for Cinderella, has become my nickname for a good few months afterwards. It sure was our very own fairy tale :)

That morning I volunteered to take P to the airport, so we could have a little extra time together. This way we also had time to head to a nearby Indian takeaway place. I’m not a big fan of Indian food, but that korma on a Monday morning sure tasted amazing. I guess a great company and endorphins also had something to do with it. We were taking our time, until I realised it wasn’t long till P’s flight and we rushed back into the hotel’s carpark. Only in the car he clarified that what I thought was boarding time, was in fact the take off time, so it was very unlikely that he would make it on time. We rushed to the airport nonetheless and I said I will be driving home very slowly, so he can call me in case he misses the flight. 

‘What if I don’t miss the flight? Phones still work on the other side of the ocean, you know? Aren’t we going to stay in touch? Am I the only one feeling like we have found something special here?’ he asked. That totally melted my heart. 

‘Of course we’ll stay in touch. If it was up to me I would rather take you to my home and make you stay there, but your flight is already booked’ I said.

To be continued...