BeChicMag.com

They say beauty is pain. But does it also have to be embarrassing?

I don’t know what I was thinking when I walked into an Aldo earlier this month and purchased a pair of black, patent leather platforms/pumps that I could hardly walk in at the store let alone on the street. After spending a hundred bucks on the shoes, I made myself wear them to my parish’s annual celebration of the Dominican patron, Our Lady of Grace a.k.a. La Virgen de Altagracia. Thirty-seconds within my first merengue with a cocky dancer, my right foot jumped out of the pumps almost making me fall and forcing our first dance to come to a full stop. “Be right back,” I told my shocked partner who had no choice but to take his phone out of his pocket and pretend to text someone as I went back to my seat.

Being an avid merengue dancer - and not the type of merengue you learn with an instructor but rather how the natives get down- before I left my apartment I knew I needed a plan B in the case my god-knows-how-high-inch heels don’t come through. I pulled out a black bag from under my seat and within seconds changed into my not-so-chic, but very comfortable flats which made my night! As for my embarrassed merenguero, surprisingly he didn’t run away and we continued where he had left off: on the dance floor.

I should’ve known these patent pumps would be trouble. After all, Aldo calls them its “Atlantic City” dress shoe. *mercedes sanchez