Just surprise, then warmth.
Adrien said something else, but I barely heard it. Laya was looking at me like I had handed her something she didn’t know she was allowed to want.
When he finally drifted away, she exhaled hard.
“Too much?” I asked.
“No.” She swallowed. “Exactly enough.”
The speeches began. Then the toasts. Then music, soft and jazzy, filled the restaurant. Couples started moving in the small open space between tables. Laya watched them with a wistfulness she tried to hide.
I set down my glass.
“Dance with me.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Do you dance?”
“Badly, but with conviction.”
“That’s my favorite style.”
I led her out before I could overthink it.
Her hand settled on my shoulder, mine at her waist, careful at first. Then the song slowed and she stepped closer until her body aligned with mine.
“I’m sorry about Adrien,” she murmured.
“Don’t be.”
“He makes everything feel like a test.”
“You passed before you walked in.”
She looked up at me.
“You say things like that on purpose.”
“Sometimes they escape.”
Her smile faded into something tender.
“I almost canceled tonight.”
“Why didn’t you?”
She hesitated.
“Because you looked happy when I called it a first date. And I wanted to see that look again.”
That hit me square in the chest.
I pulled her a little closer.
“Laya.”
“Yes?”
“I’m not here because of him.”
Her fingers tightened at my shoulder.
“I know this started strangely,” I said. “And I know we were supposed to be proving something to other people, but that’s not why I put on the suit.”
“No. I came because you asked. And because I wanted to be the man standing next to you.”
The song moved around us.
Her eyes shone, but her smile was real.
“Caleb Morris,” she whispered. “That was dangerously close to romantic.”
“I’m a hazard tonight.”
“Good.”
Then she kissed me.
Not on the cheek this time.
Her mouth met mine softly in the middle of the restaurant, with her family nearby and her ex somewhere behind us and absolutely none of them mattering.
For one stunned second, I forgot how to breathe.
Then I kissed her back, my hand firm at her waist, hers sliding to the back of my neck.
It was not a performance.
It was quiet and deliberate and a little trembling.
A first kiss with witnesses, maybe, but it belonged only to us.
When she pulled away, her forehead rested against mine.
“I wanted to do that before we arrived,” she said.
“You showed remarkable restraint.”
“I’m done with restraint.”
I laughed softly. “Should I be worried?”
“Probably.”
We stayed like that until the song ended.
Later, outside on the restaurant patio, she slipped away from the noise, and I followed only after she looked back for me.
The city air was cool, smelling of rain and traffic. Laya leaned against the brick wall, still holding my hand.
“You okay?” I asked.
“I am.” She glanced through the window at the party. “For the first time at one of these things, I don’t want to disappear.”
“I’m glad.”
“With you,” she said. “I mean with you, I don’t.”
My phone buzzed.
So did hers.
Inside, Celeste’s voice rose in startled protest.
Through the glass, I saw Adrien standing too close to Tessa’s fiancé, Miles, smiling like a match dropped near gasoline.
Laya closed her eyes.
“Of course.”
I squeezed her hand once, then lifted it and kissed her knuckles.
“Hey,” I said. “Whatever that is, we’ll deal with it after this.”
“After what?”
I drew her close and kissed her again because I had learned one thing already.
With Laya, the emergency could wait ten seconds for the truth.
When we parted, her breath shook.
“Now,” I said, “we can go back in.”
She nodded, still looking at my mouth.
“Okay,” she said. “But stay near me.”
I smiled.
“Try getting rid of me.”
We went back inside still holding hands.
That mattered.
Not because Adrien glanced down and noticed. Not because Celeste’s eyebrows climbed half an inch. It mattered because Laya did not loosen her grip when the room turned toward us.
Near the bar, Adrien stood with Miles, one hand lifted in that polished, reasonable way men used when they were being insulting but wanted credit for staying calm.
“I’m only saying,” Adrien said, “some people rush into commitments because they like the idea of being chosen.”
Tessa’s face had gone pale.
Miles looked like he was deciding whether punching a guest would ruin the deposit.
Laya stepped forward.
“Adrien.”
He turned, all innocence.
“Laya, I didn’t see you.”
“Yes, you did.”
A small silence fell.
I stayed beside her, close enough that our shoulders touched, but I did not speak.
She had not asked me to rescue her.
She had asked me not to let go.
So I didn’t.
“This is my sister’s engagement party,” Laya said.
Her voice shook once.
Then steadied.
“You don’t get to bring your little theories about love into it because you’re angry I stopped listening to them.”