FROM HERE TO ARGENTINA: A TANGO LOVE STORY
“Tango is a dance of passion, but not that kind of passion, or, at least not on the dance floor.”
Esteban’s tango students––exquisite Rosalie, flamboyant Juniper, arrogant Mikhail, and deceptively mild-mannered Dan––each carry heavy secrets from their pasts when they meet in Absolute Beginners class. Everyone is in search of happy endings, but one person’s dream is another’s catastrophe. They can’t all come true. Esteban (well, Jason, actually) is broke and stuck sleeping in his car. He’s desperate to persuade the whole class to sign on for his tango tour to Buenos Aires. He’s sure there his online love for tango maestra Aurelia will bloom face-to-face. He has no idea what his students are up to outside class.
Note to all my tango friends: I promise you’re not in this novella. Though the outline for the story was born at a Saturday night milonga, the initial inspiration came to me in a dream––the song Mikhail sings to Juniper. My five protagonists emerged from my imagination. I put them together in a fictional Argentine Social Tango class in a fictional small town, and watched their stories unreel like a movie, more noir than romance.