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As I mentioned in Part 1 of this series Salsa Saturdays were something that a former girl friend (girlfriend) and I would attend. It’s also a big part of our story and where we fell in love.

The purpose of this post is different from others I’ve posted. This is probably the most personal blog I’ve written to date on this site. It’s about how bars with the Latin music we both loved, became the back drop for our love story.

Love at the Bar

While this girl and I were undoubtedly very close, going dancing together was a moment for me to distinguish myself from the rest. For well over a year, I found myself on the sidelines while the girl I became increasingly close with had a boyfriend. Interestingly enough, the guy she was dating came from a Latino background but never went dancing with her. Let that be a lesson.

The first time we had ever gone dancing together, she was still dating the said gentleman. He apparently didn’t mind. He probably should have.

Playing El Clavo whenever I had the chance may or may not have become standard for me. Oops.

Not long thereafter, they broke up. We kept going to Salsa Saturdays and spending more and more time together. A week or so after their breakup, we went to Salsa Saturday and after a night filled with tension you could cut with a knife, we had our first kiss.

That affair continued throughout the summer. Things just happened to work out that I would be working in Washington DC, her hometown. I found a fantastic salsa bar (Cafe Citron for those of you in the DC area) and that became our spot.

The next stage of this saga is where things become complicated. When I left DC, her and I actually had both gone to the same state. Things quickly soured because neither of us was ready to take things from “more than friends” to “official”. We eventually ended, or paused, everything and didn’t speak for weeks. Te Bote became the anthem for my summer.

When we came back to school in the fall, things rekindled but the same problems persisted and we ended them again. We didn’t speak for months, but still went to the same bars, making for a very different kind of tension. Eventually, one of us broke the ice and we just ended up talking things out.

She had started dating someone else at this point. I had been seeing some people but there wasn’t anything serious. While she hadn’t gone back to Salsa Saturday, I had a small rotation of people to take. Eventually, she convinced me that we should go. The tension was back. With the hope of getting it right this time, she broke up with her new boyfriend.

We graduated and moved to different places. She moved to my home state and I stayed in the same city we went to school in. We only really saw each other twice after our graduation. The last time we did, we went to Cafe Citron in DC. After that trip, things began to fall apart and the relationship was officially over by the fall.

Songs to Fall In Love To

Now this is the part where I give you some advice on what songs to play to fall in love with someone. There’s no real formula to it. It’s all based on the situation you’re in.

However, I’ll give this tip. It’s all about subtly. Say you’re trying to be with a girl who currently has a boyfriend. It’s a tricky situation but you want to play songs that imply to her that she should dump him. Don’t say it yourself, let others say it for you. In our case, let Romeo Santos tell her.

Now if the girl is single and the two of you are already very good friends then maybe Sanluis and Ricky Martin can help you out.

While bachata is almost definitely the music to fall in love to, there are more than a few slow songs that usually get some playtime at Salsa Saturday. Like a middle school dance, but less awkward, these are the songs to slow the pace down to.

Salsa Saturdays Forever

In a story far too long for this blog, things obviously didn’t work out for me and this girl. To make a very long story short, we were friends, then more, then nothing, then friends, then officially dating, and now nothing.

In the end, she moved far away and I stayed where our memories were born. Of all the songs that could apply, Se Me Olvido Otra Vez originally from Juan Gabriel applies the best.

Now, I’ve obviously moved past this girl in my old age (it’s been 2 years). In the meantime, I’ve taken a couple of other girls to Salsa Saturday. Unfortunately, COVID struck right as I began to come back into my own as a single guy. That meant plenty of nights dancing alone in my apartment to these songs while locked down. I was still drinking though, don’t worry.

With Salsa nights returning to my city this weekend, I figured this would be a good story to tell. To be honest, it was a bit therapeutic to tell it like this. I hope you enjoyed it. We’ll be back with Part 3 soon.

By: JTags: