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He smiles kindly, when I see something flash across his eyes. I swallow hard as we look at one another. No words come out.
“You look beautiful,” he says. “Glad you dressed warmly. It’s freezing out there.”
“And we’re choosing to go out in this?”
“It’ll be worth it.”
I narrow my eyes. “So you’re in on the surprise, too?”
“Not really, just along for the ride.”
In my peripheral, I see Darko and Rayne approaching, and Dante steps away, removing his hands from me without even turning around.
“Ready?” Rayne says with a smile.
Our eyes meet and I nod, feeling more enthusiastic now than before. Tonight may not be a bust, after all. Maybe now that I’ve turned twenty-five, things will start looking up.
We make our way down in the elevator, my friends greeting us in the foyer with an armful of presents. “You didn’t have to go all out for me!” I say, feeling truly blessed.
“You guys already brought me presents earlier and paid for my food.”
“It’s the least we could do,” Caroline says, giving me a long hug.
“You guys are too sweet.”
When we get outside, Ashley does a little happy dance when a limo arrives and Dante, very dutifully, opens the back door for us. “Ladies.”
I turn to Rayne, “You organized a limo too?”
She shakes her head. “Nothing to do with me.”
I turn to look at Dante, but he doesn’t meet my eye. The girls climb in the back of the limo happily. Champagne is waiting for us and a tray of canapés.
“Dante,” I say, once Rayne has also disappeared inside. “You didn’t have to do this.”
His gaze lands on me, and it’s soft and warm. Everything about him screams at me.
I will never get sick of him looking at me like that.
“I want you to enjoy yourself,little bird.”
I squeeze his forearm. “Thank you.”
He nods once, and I climb inside. I’ve only ever been in a limo once, and that was with seven other people when we went to Prom.
The boys don’t climb in with us. So we’re left to drink champagne, eat, and talk excitedly about my cryptic surprise, that nobody will give me any clues about.
I open my presents; perfume, new flannel pajamas, slippers, and fuzzy socks. These girls know me only too well.
“You guys are the best!”
“We don’t want you freezing to death in that fancy new apartment,” Ashley says. “And we know how much you can’t get enough of fuzzy socks.”
“A girl can never have too many pairs,” I agree.
I still have no idea what they’ve planned, but when the limo journeys through the city, I stare out of the window in pure delight. I see the giant Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, and the limo pulls up in the parking area.
“Oh my God,” I say when Rayne grins. “What are we doing here? We couldn’t get tickets…Are we skating?”
