What became of us

And I know it sounds really poncey, but I’m a bit too famous now to go for lessons. What I mean is that someone would recognize me and take a photo when I got my legs tangled up.’
    ‘It’s never too late to learn something new.’
    ‘You’re beginning to sound like a brochure for an active over-sixties holiday. I think I’d rather not learn at all than end up an old biddy waltzing the afternoon away with another old biddy in Blackpool. Sadly, I haven’t got a pubescent partner of the opposite sex to call upon.’
    ‘Come on!’ He got up. ‘I’ll teach you.’
    Now he was trying to pull her off the stone steps.
    ‘I can’t,’ she protested.
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Wrong shoes and look, there are cobblestones, I’ll break my ankle.’
    ‘Kick your shoes off. I’ll try not to tread on your toes. We’ll dance on the grass.’
    Having exhausted all the sensible excuses, she was obliged to follow him down the steps.
    ‘Now,’ he began to hum, then took both her hands and pulled her this way and that, ‘very good,’ he said, ‘one two three four five six seven eight, that’s it? Terrific!’
    She felt herself relaxing with his encouragement.
    ‘Wonderful,’ he said, ‘now, one two three four five six de dum de dadada two three four five six de dum de dadada... Oom, cha cha cha!’ he tried a spin and almost dislocated her arm. ‘Other way! Good. Try again. Oom, cha cha cha! Great! You’re not at all bad at being led!’
    ‘Don’t sound so surprised!’ she cried, exhilarated by the achievement of following his steps.
    ‘Much better than Zoe, as a matter of fact. Now, let’s try another spin. There! Magnificent! What a shame you changed out of that red dress.’
    ‘I’ll wear it next time there’s a Latin American ball in Radcliffe Square!’ she joked, touched that the dress had made such an impression on him. She began to sway her hips exaggeratedly and clap her hands at her shoulders.
    ‘It’s even better with music,’ Ian said, breathlessly, as he twirled her one final time and they both fell down on the grass laughing.
    ‘That was fun,’ she said. ‘If Zoe ever decides you’re too old for her, you know who to call,’ she said, adding quickly, ‘if Chloe wouldn’t mind.’
    ‘I’m sure Chloe wouldn’t mind,’ he said.
    ‘Good, well,’ she sat up rather primly with her back to him.
    ‘You have a great body for dancing,’ he remarked.
    ‘Thank you.’
    ‘A great body for anything, actually,’ he said, leaning across and letting his forefinger run down her spine.
    ‘You’d be surprised,’ she said, shifting out of his reach. ‘It’s a hopeless body for getting into a size 10 dress, for instance, and hopeless for wearing cardigans.’
    ‘Well, you can probably live without cardigans,’ he said.
    ‘Maybe next winter. It was pretty tricky last season,’ she said. ‘Tell you what, that dance has woken me up. Shall we go for a walk?’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Perhaps we could even see the dawn come up over Magdalen Bridge?’
    ‘I thought you were supposed to do that on May the 1st?’ he said.
    ‘Well, better a couple of months late than never.’
    ‘Didn’t you ever do it while you were here? Maidens were meant to look in the mirror on May morning and see a vision of the man they were going to marry.’
    ‘Well, (a) I hadn’t been able to call myself a maiden for quite some time when I arrived in this city, and (b) if I had looked in the mirror on May morning I would have seen double vision of a man leaving my room saying, “That was great, I’ll be in touch.” I always ended up drinking too much or getting too stoned to go down to Magdalen Bridge. How about you?’
    ‘In the third year I managed, but only because we had an early night beforehand, and Chloe set her alarm clock!’
    ‘That’s cheating!’ Annie protested.
    ‘OK, so it’ll be the first time for both of us tonight,’ he said, suggestively.
    ‘How long have we got till dawn?’ Annie asked him quickly.
    ‘About three hours, do you think we’ll manage?’
    ‘Of course we will!’
    She thought for a minute and then announced: ‘I know, we’ll take it in turns to choose a typically Oxford thing to do.’
    ‘You first,’ he said.
    ‘OK,’ Annie pondered for a moment, ‘got it. We’ll get into Christ Church and put ourselves in Mercury.’
    ‘Mercury?’ he asked warily.
    ‘It’s a pond with a statue of the winged Mercury in it. Oh, for heaven’s sake, you philistine,