Page 34 of Smoke and Glitter

He is warm and attentive, exactly the same man who notices when everyone else needs something.

And still four chairs away.

Summer keeps me entertained through most of dinner, and the school treasurer becomes increasingly funny as the night goes on. Lucia appears often enough that I eventually stop pretending she's visiting the whole table and start accepting that she considers my chair her base of operations.

I'm having a good time.

There are stretches when I forget about the empty chair Sam chose not to take.

Then the music starts.

A teacher near the stage announces that the floor is open, and people begin pushing their chairs back. Summer gets pulled into a conversation with another woman before she can move, while Colt disappears toward the bar with Dom.

I look down the table.

Sam is leaning toward Bex while she tells him something.

His eyes find mine anyway.

I hold them and tip my chin toward the growing crowd on the dance floor.

Nothing elaborate. Nothing he could misunderstand.

Come with me.

Bex is still speaking beside him, but Sam isn't looking at her anymore. His hand closes around the edge of the table, and I think he's about to stand.

Then he lets go.

The familiar smile comes back across his face, warm and easy, the one I've watched him give dozens of people at Vibes when he wants them to know he's listening.

Bex touches his arm to pull his attention back to whatever she's saying.

Sam turns toward her.

I take a drink of my wine.

Nobody notices. Summer is still talking beside me. Farther down, Colt has returned and is trying to tell Marisol a story while Dom keeps correcting him.

The night moves right over it.

Lucia appears in front of me before I can spend much time doing the same thing. She plants both hands in mine.

"Dance with me."

I look down at her. "You know, I was just thinking I needed a better offer."

Lucia pulls until my chair shifts. "Come on."

Her offer is considerably more decisive than Sam's.

"Okay."

She drags me onto the floor.

Lucia dances with her entire body and very little regard for the music. She jumps when everyone else steps and keeps trying to spin fast enough to make her skirt flare, which ends with me catching her before she falls and her immediately demanding another turn.

Marisol takes over during the next song, but she catches my hand before I can escape and pulls me farther into the crowd. Summer joins us a few minutes later, then Bex, and somewhere in the middle of all of it I stop thinking about the table.