After Hours

Dance With Me

February 13, 1971

A night on the town would do them all some good, with their various job and school stresses, a night of drinking, laughing, and listening to music with friends seemed to be the perfect remedy.

A friend of the guys was playing a gig tonight, Denise came over to Jane's so they could get ready together.

"What are you wearing tonight?" Denise sat on the floor in front of Jane's mirror as she did her makeup.

"I haven't decided yet, I haven't been out in a while so I was thinking something with a little bit of an edge to it."

Denise looked away from the mirror to glance at Jane, "And no other reason?"

"Well.. of course, there's the obvious reason."

"To show off your assets to Brian?"

"Maybe.."

That garnered a laugh from Denise, "Well I'll help you pick something out, I'm surprised you've been dressing so.. conservatively lately."

"I think you forget what my day job is sometimes." Jane began to grab a few items of clothing out of her closet to set on her bed.

"That's true, I do forget that you're shaping the future generations. If only they knew what their teacher got up to when she wasn't at school."

Jane laughed, "Hurry up with your makeup and help me pick an outfit."

Denise finished up her mascara before getting up and walked over to Jane, standing beside her as they looked at the articles of clothing on her bed. They started the process of elimination over reasons such as 'too frilly', 'too pretentious', 'it's too cold to wear that', and others.

Then it was like they both finally saw the vision, the vision that would be the perfect outfit for tonight. A black satin button up, the sleeves were puffy and tapered at the wrist. The shirt would be paired with a small vest that was embroidered. She had a new mini skirt that she had been dying to wear, she would layer it over black stockings. The last accessory would be her black platforms that came up to her knees.

After Jane changed, her and Denise admired her outfit and it looked as good as it did in her mind. "Think it'll drive him crazy?" Denise adjusted Jane's hair for her while she continued to observe her outfit, pulling down at the hem of her skirt.

"I'm hoping so, what do you think?"

"Well.. it'll certainly capture the attention of some other man and make Brian jealous."

Jane smiled widely, they both applied the finishing touches to their makeup and picked out their jewelry before grabbing their coats and heading to the tube station.

Their destination was the Dark Horse Tavern, Denise and Jane had been to this bar before, many times. Last summer, they had probably paid for half of the bartender's salaries. It was a bit of a dive and those were their favorite types. Having a few drinks and playing various bar games was their ideal night out. She was a little nervous about seeing Brian, maybe because she wanted to impress him with her look tonight.

As they entered through the doors of the Tavern, they were met with a greeting from behind the bar. Dave was their regular bartender, he was already starting on their usual orders before they even got to the bar.

"What are you beautiful ladies up to tonight?" He asked, shaker in his hand.

"We're here with a few friends, checking out the band." Denise replied, Jane was a little distracted as she was scanning the room, looking for you know who. It was unmistakably him, even with his back turned to her. It looked like him and Roger were talking to the guys who were playing tonight.