I hand her another champagne flute anyway.
The dance floor is more of a loose concept than an actual floor. It is a cleared-out patch of polished concrete near the DJ table, but the music is good and loud enough to make overthinking difficult. It is exactly what I need.
I drag Tess first because she complains the most, but also looks like she’ll secretly be fun once she gives in. I’m right. It takes her maybe forty seconds to stop resisting.
Gwen takes longer. She starts with that stiff little sway. The move people do when they want credit for participating without actually dancing. I grab her shoulders and shake them loose, making her laugh.
“See?” I yell over the music.“This is not that bad.”
“It’s still bad,” Tess yells back, but she’s smiling.
Leo drifts in and out of our orbit like a hyper golden retriever. He dances terribly on purpose until Tess shoves him away, laughing. Jake appears once with another tray of drinks, like he’s summoned by my attitude alone.
And through all of it, I remain extremely aware of Blake. I don’t mean to. I really don’t.
But every time I glance up, there he is somewhere nearby. Talking to teammates. Laughing with a brunette in a white dress. Standing by the DJ booth. Leaning against the bar. Looking like he belongs in rooms like this in a way I probably never will.
And yet. Now and then, I catch him looking at me.
Not in a passing way. Not in the casual social sweep people do in crowded rooms. Directly. Like he’s checking if I’m still here. It should annoy me. Instead, it makes my skin feel too warm.
At one point, Tess throws an arm around me and sings along to a chorus she clearly knows by heart. She is finally relaxed and is having a good time. I step back toward the drinks table to cool off.
“Having fun?”
Blake’s voice is low and familiar beside me.
I turn, and there he is, holding a beer, sleeves pushed up, tattoos visible, looking unfairly good in black.
“Maybe,” I say.
“High praise.”
“You’re lucky I came at all.”
He grins.“I know.”
I reach for a fresh champagne glass, mostly, so I have something to do with my hands.
“You look nice,” he says.
The words are simple. Easy. No joke attached. And that, annoyingly, lands harder than any of the teasing ever does.
“Thank you,” I say, then recover quickly.“You clean up ok too, I guess.”
“Just ok?”
“Don’t push it.”
He laughs softly.
For a second, it feels like the room pulls back around us. Like the music dulls and the lights blur, and I’m standing in a little pocket of quiet I didn’t ask for.
Then Jake appears again. Of course he does.
“Hey,” he says to me, then glances at Blake.“You need anything?”
I blink. Blake goes very still beside me.
