“Hey, Blake. The bride wants it less seizure-like.”
The lighting tech made some adjustments and added it to his notes. “Okay, attempt number eighty-five. See if this works for her.”
Like anyone who worked on weddings, Blake was not fazed by impossible-to-please brides. He looked up at Jay who was still standing there. “Was there something else?”
Jay shook his head. “Nope. Just stalling.”
Blake grinned. “Imagine how worked up she’ll be the day of the wedding.”
Jay didn’t want to explain it wasn’t the bride he was avoiding, so he let Blake keep his assumption and returned to the dance floor. He did not want to dance again with the aggressive dark-haired girl, and he definitely did not want to dance with the blonde he’d briefly dated, so he immediately approached Rebecca and took her hand.
“Ready to salsa?”
She looked at him with a bit of panic, but put her hand on his shoulder and began to move forward and back with him. The salsa was like an elaborate give and take flirting session, especially when the chemistry between partners was just right. And that’s how he knew this was the biggest mistake of all. He couldn’t pull his eyes away from her and she raised an eyebrow.
“You okay?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Is Elena watching us?”
“Who?”
“The blonde dancer. You went on four dates with her.”
“Yeah, she mentioned that.” He loved the way Rebecca’s honey brown hair swayed along with her.
“You broke her heart, you know.”
“After four dates?”
Rebecca cocked her head. “That’s long enough to develop feelings for someone.”
He spun her out and back. “Or decide they’re not right. What, are you wanting me to ask her out again?”
She looked away from him so he couldn’t gauge her reaction. “Obviously not. We’re working. That would be unprofessional.”
There were a lot of things about this situation that were unprofessional. He wished he wasn’t her boss. He wished he’d fallen for someone who could dance like this with him and actually feel something. Instead, Rebecca was worried about another girl’s feelings. No matter what he did, he’d always be just a friend to her. Why couldn’t he get that through his head?
The song ended, and he dropped her hand. “I better check and see where the other band is.”
***
Rebecca slipped her heels off as soon as she reached her desk. That had been a lot of dancing, something she hadn’t done in a while. She pictured Jay’s intense eyes on her, the pressure of his hand on her hip. Nope. She wouldn’t let her mind drift there, read things into it that were most likely wishful thinking. Yeah, he may have crushed on her in college, but she’d definitely crushed that out of him. He’d moved on, with girls like the blonde dancer.
She pulled up the calendar, matching up appointment times with locations so if something new came up, they could make it work without having to crisscross through traffic tomorrow.
“I think we should reschedule with the gourmet cookie place, Jay. If we can get them to move the appointment to Thursday afternoon, it will put us right over by The Yellow Rose for our four-thirty appointment.”
“Yeah, sure. Call and see.”
He didn’t even look up. Her shoulders dropped. She shouldn’t care, but she hated how he was totally comfortable around her one moment, and staid and professional the next. But she’d just have to accept it as part of the job. Salsa dancing and scheduling. All in a day’s work for a wedding planner.
“Knock, knock.” Clarissa poked her head around their door. “Hey, you two. I wanted to introduce you to my new assistant, Felicity.”
Jay’s head popped up and his eyes narrowed when he locked on Clarissa’s expression. She looked a little too triumphant for the situation.
“Felicity, come here and say hello to Jay and Rebecca.”
