Smile

Her smile made him grateful all over again that she was there with him. He wished the two of them could stay here in this stairwell all night. Actually, even better: instead of going to this dinner, they could go back to their elevator and eat cheese and crackers and drink wine and laugh together. And also maybe . . .

She pulled back and took a step down the stairs. There went his fantasy.

"Okay, then, are we ready?" she asked.

He reached for her hand and sighed.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

Boy, was it nice when this guy touched her. The hand-holding was particularly great. She felt like she was back in high school, except instead of the nerdy girl that everyone liked in that generic way, she was the girl holding hands with the hot guy at the party. She'd always wondered how that had felt.

News flash: it felt awesome.

She fought back her smile before she remembered that she was supposed to be besotted with Mike, so she let it beam as they walked through the party and up to the bar.