"What's this place called?"

"Shagging for Crabs."

"Original. But I'm having a hard time visualizing this as a major tourist attraction."

"It's not-it's strictly for locals. One of my friends from college told me about it, and I've always wanted to go."

"You've never been here?"

"No," she said. "But I've heard it's a lot of fun."

With that, she headed up the creaking walkway. Straight ahead, the river sparkled, as if lit from below. The sound of music from inside grew steadily louder. When they opened the door, the music broke over them like a wave, and the smell of crabs and butter filled the air. Thibault paused to take it all in.

The massive building's interior was crude and unadorned. The front half was jammed with dozens of picnic tables covered with red-and-white plastic tablecloths that appeared stapled to the wood. Tables were packed and rowdy, and Thibault saw waitresses unloading buckets of crabs onto tables everywhere. Small pitchers of melted butter sat in the center, with smaller bowls in front of diners. Everyone wore plastic bibs, cracking crabs from the communal buckets and eating with their fingers. Beer seemed to be the drink of choice.

Directly ahead of them, on the side that bordered the river, was a long bar-if it could be called that. It seemed to be nothing more than discarded driftwood stacked atop wooden barrels. People milled around three deep. On the opposite side of the building was what seemed to be the kitchen. What caught his eye mostly was the stage located at the far end of the building, where Thibault saw a band playing "My Girl" by the Temptations. At least a hundred people were dancing in front of the stage, following the prescribed steps of a dance he wasn't familiar with.

"Wow," he shouted over the din.

A thin, fortyish woman with red hair and an apron approached them. "Hey there," she drawled. "Food or dancing?"

"Both," Elizabeth answered. "First names?"

They glanced at each other. "Elizabeth…" he said. "And Logan," she finished.

The woman jotted down their names on a pad of paper. "Now, last question. Fun or family?" Elizabeth looked lost. "Excuse me?"

The woman snapped her gum. "You haven't been here before, have you?"

"No."

"It's like this. You're going to have to share a table. That's how it works here. Everyone shares. Now, you can either request fun, which means you want a table with a lot of energy, or you can ask for family, which is usually a little quieter. Now, I can't guarantee how your table is, of course. I just ask the question. So, what's it be? Family or fun?"

Elizabeth and Thibault faced each other again and came to the same conclusion. "Fun," they said in unison.

They ended up at a table with six students from UNC Wilmington. The waitress introduced them as Matt, Sarah, Tim, Allison, Megan, and Steve, and the students each raised their bottles in turn and announced in unison: "Hey, Elizabeth! Hey, Logan! We have crabs!"

Thibault stifled a laugh at the play on words-crab was slang for something undescribable picked up during sexual encounters, which was obviously the point-but was flummoxed when he saw them staring at him expectantly.

The waitress whispered, "You're supposed to say, 'We want crabs, especially if we can get them with you.'"

This time he did laugh, along with Elizabeth, before saying the words, playing along with the ritual everyone observed here.

They sat opposite each other. Elizabeth ended up sitting next to Steve, who didn't hide the fact that he found her extremely attractive, while Thibault sat next to Megan, who showed no interest in him whatsoever because she was far more interested in Matt

A plump, harried waitress rushed by, barely pausing to call out, "More crabs?"

"You can give me crabs anytime," the students replied in chorus. All around them, Thibault heard the same response over and over. The alternative response, which he also heard, was, "I can't believe you gave me crabs!" which seemed to signify that no more were needed. It reminded him of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, where regulars knew ail the official responses and newcomers learned them on the fly.

The food was first-rate. The menu featured only a single item, prepared a single way, and every bucket came with extra napkins and bibs. Crab pieces were tossed into the center of the table-a tradition-and every now and then, teenagers in aprons came by to scoop them up.

As promised, the students were boisterous. A running string of jokes, plenty of harmless interest in Elizabeth, and two beers each, which added to the raucous spirit. After dinner, Thibault and Elizabeth went to the restroom to wash up. When she came back out, she looped her arm through his.

"You ready to shag?" she asked suggestively.

"I'm not sure. How do you do it?"

"Learning to shag dance is like learning to be from the South. It's learning to relax while you hear the ocean and feel the music."

"I take it you've done it before."

"Once or twice," she said with false modesty. "And you're going to teach me?"

"I'll be your partner. But the lesson starts at nine."

"The lesson?"

"Every Saturday night. That's why it's so crowded. They offer a lesson for beginners while the regulars take a break, and we'll do what they tell us. It starts at nine."

"What time is it?"

She glanced at her watch. "It's time for you to learn to shag."

Elizabeth was a much better dancer than she'd suggested, which thankfully made him better on the dance floor, too. But the best part of dancing with her was the almost electrical charge he felt whenever they touched and the smell of her when he twirled her out of his arms, a mixture of heat and perfume. Her hair grew wild in the humid air, and her skin glowed with perspiration, making her seem natural and untamed. Every now and then, she'd gaze at him as she spun away, her lips parted in a knowing smile, as if she knew exactly the effect she was having on him.

When the band decided to take a break, his first instinct was to leave the floor with the rest of the crowd, but Elizabeth stopped him when the recorded strains of "Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole began to waft through the speakers. She looked up at him then, and he knew what he had to do.

Without speaking, he slipped one arm behind her back and reached for her hand, then tucked it into position. He held her gaze as he pulled her close, and ever so slowly, they began to move to the music, turning in slow circles.

Thibault was barely conscious of other couples joining the dance floor around them. As the music played in the background, Elizabeth leaned into him so close that he could feel each of her slow, languid breaths. He closed his eyes as she put her head on his shoulder, and in that instant, nothing else mattered. Not the song, not the place, not the other couples around him. Only this, only her. He gave himself over to the feel of her body as it pressed against him, and they moved slowly in small circles on the sawdust-strewn floor, lost in a world that felt as though it had been created for just the two of them.

As they drove home on darkened roads, Thibault held her hand and felt her thumb tracking slowly over his skin in the quiet of the car.

When he pulled into his driveway a little before eleven, Zeus was still lying on the porch and raised his head as Thibault turned off the ignition. He turned to face her.

"I had a wonderful time tonight," he murmured. He expected her to say the same, but she surprised him with her response.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" she suggested.

"Yes," he said simply.

Zeus sat up as Thibault opened Elizabeth's door and stood as Elizabeth got out. His tail started to wag. "Hey, Zeus," Elizabeth called out.

"Come," Thibault commanded, and the dog bounded from the porch and ran toward them. He circled them both, his cries sounding like squeaks. His mouth hung half-open in a grin as he preened for their attention.

"He missed us," she said, bending lower. "Didn't you, big boy?" As she bent lower, Zeus licked her face. Straightening up, she wrinkled her nose before wiping her face. "That was gross."

"Not for him," Thibault said. He motioned toward the house. "You ready? I have to warn you not to expect too much."

"Do you have a beer in the fridge?"

"Yes."

"Then don't worry about it."

They made their way up the steps of the house. Thibault opened the door and flipped the switch: A single floor lamp cast a dim glow over an easy chair near the window. In the center of the room stood a coffee table decorated only with a pair of candles; a medium-size couch faced it. Both the couch and the easy chair were covered in matching navy blue slipcovers, and behind them, a bookshelf housed a small collection of books. An empty magazine rack along with another floor lamp completed the minimalist furnishings.

Still, it was clean. Thibault had made sure of that earlier in the day. The pine floors had been mopped, the windows washed, the room dusted. He disliked clutter and despised dirt. The endless dust in Iraq had only reinforced his neatnik tendencies.

Elizabeth took in the scene before walking into the living room.

"I like it," she said. "Where did you get the furniture?"

"It came with the place," he said.

"Which explains the slipcovers."

"Exactly."

"No television?"

"No."

"No radio?"

"No."

'what do you do when you're here?"

"Sleep."

"And?"

"Read."

"Novels?"

"No," he said, then changed his mind. "Actually, a couple. But mostly biographies and histories."

"No anthropology texts?"

"I have a book by Richard Leakey," he said. "But I don't like a lot of the heavy postmodernist anthropology books that seem to dominate the field these days, and in any case those kinds of books aren't easy to come by in Hampton."