Things Like This Never Happen to Me

Ever since I was in college I've read those local newspapers that advertise cool nightspots with live music and/or dancing and regretted that I neither had friends, money, nor time to go to them. Houston, where I'm from, is packed with funky, off-the-wall places to hang out and people-watch. Rome, where I also spent significant years as a young, but not so hip, single gal also has an eclectic collection of hot spots. Places that I never seemed to get to.

Well, guess what? Tonight I stumbled upon one of those places quite by accident, and I feel as though all those years of wishing was somehow satisfied, if only for the pure serendipity of it. I need never look longingly through one of those papers again.

My husband and I called up an old friend of ours from college whom we hadn't seen in about five years. He suggested that we meet at a coffee/dessert/wine bar place near his house. We got there early and liked the place. There was dim lighting, candles on the tables, a well-stocked counter with coffee, cakes and wines and even a not-so-complicated food menu. The atmosphere wasn't intimidating, as it just seemed like a night-time Starbucks, with loud music. As we waited for our friends, the place started to fill up. Then when our friends arrived and we set about arranging some tables for us, we were told by a couple that was dancing (??) in the middle of the floor that we couldn't do that because they were dancing (??). Ok, whatever.

Then little by little the place really filled up and suddenly we were in the midst of a Tango party. There were people who looked like they had been dancing for years who came with their own special dancing shoes, then there were people who were beginners. Most of the people seemed to know each other, and they flowed around the little coffee shop, elegantly, old-fashionedly. I felt like I had landed in the hippest, coolest, off-the-wall spot in town. Even our friends were surprised. My only regret is that we didn't join the dancing.