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“How’s everybody doing tonight?” the DJ asks over the speaker, and the crowd on the dance floor screams. I look toward the sound and catch sight of Nadia with her head thrown back as she joins in, a smiling Shane standing close by.
“I said how’s everybody doing tonight?” the DJ asks again, his voice booming through the sound system, and the crowd screams even louder. “That’s what I like to hear. We’re going to do something a little different tonight at Elevate,” he says. “I heard we’ve got a celebration going on tonight. Someone told me that Nadia and Shane are getting married next week.”
Now Nadia is jumping up and down, and the rest of the bachelor/bachelorette party have thrown their hands up in the air.
“And so, to celebrate them, we’re going to slow it down and play a little love song,” the DJ says, his voice going extra low when he says the last part. The crowd whoops and hollers. “This one’s for you, Nadia and Shane.”
The acoustic guitar intro to the song “Fall Into Me” by Forest Blakk begins to play, and I’d bet everything I own that Shane was thesomeonewho asked—okay, bribed—the DJ to play the song, because it’s the one he and Nadia plan to dance to at their wedding. I know because Nadia made me listen to it twice last week. It’s a catchy song about love at first sight, which wasn’t exactly how her first meeting went with Shane, but it’s also a much better story to tell the grandkids.
I watch as Nadia puts her arms around Shane’s neck, and he pulls her toward him. They’re looking at each other with so much love, it practically oozes from them. Other couples join in, wrapping their arms around one another as they sway together to the slow, rhythmic song.
I feel Grayson lean in toward me so his lips are near my ear. “Do you at least slow dance?” he asks, his warm breath sending little pinpricks of electricity down my spine.
“I … I haven’t in a long time,” I tell him. I actually can’t remember the last time I slow danced. It surely wasn’t at the last wedding I attended. We never got to that part.
“How about giving it a try right now?” he says.
I look over at him. “With you?”
“Well, yeah. Or I could find you someone else out there.” He gives a chin lift toward the dance floor.
“No, that’s okay.”
“No, you won’t dance with someone else, or you won’t dance at all?”
I take a breath. I really, really want to dance with Grayson. But I shouldn’t, should I? He’s my boss. And also … my boss. Yes, I know that’s the same excuse, but it’s a very important one that I need to keep reminding myself of. I am attracted to bosses. It’s a thing I do. And also, I’ve dated a boss, and it didn’t go well. So, the fact that he’s my boss is doubly important here. Trust me on this.
He stands up and holds out his hand. “What do you say?”
I chew on the inside of my cheek for just a second before setting my wineglass down on a little side table next to the couch, standing up, and putting my hand in his. Clearly, I’ve decided to go against my better judgment, which has become my mission statement as of late. Mila Banks: she’s got a remarkable knack for zigging when logic says zag.
My hand feels dainty in his as he wraps his fingers around my palm, and I reciprocate. I’ve never held hands with Grayson like this. I know because I’ve never felt this bolt of electricity move up my arm at the firmness of his grasp. Not overly tight, but just enough to make me feel safe and taken care of. I knew I was attracted to the man, because I’m a breathing human being and also because he’s my boss and that’s what I do. But this feels like a whole other level of magnetism.
He guides me over to the dance floor, and for a moment, I wonder what to do with my hands. Do I wrap them around his neck, like Nadia did with Shane? Stare into his eyes? That feels a little too intimate.
So, when Grayson takes my hand that he’s holding and sets it on his shoulder and then sets his hand lightly on my waist, I let him. He then grabs my other hand and holds it up with his. We’re in a more formal dance pose, like we’re getting ready to do a waltz or a rumba. But he slowly rocks back and forth on his feet and I follow along.
He gives me a soft smile, and I’m quick to give him one back, realizing I’ve had a very serious look on my face since we got here. Because it feels serious. There’s a tension between us that feels like it’s growing tauter by the second, and at any moment it could break and then … Well, I don’t know what happens after that. Maybe spontaneous combustion? It seems like a possibility; the feeling is almost too strong.
The hand that was at my waist moves to my back, and he pulls me closer so we’re touching torso to torso now, and he leans his head in so we’re now dancing cheek to cheek.
“You can totally dance,” he says into my ear.
“That’s because I haven’t stepped on your feet yet,” I tell him, my voice coming out breathy.
I can hear the chuckle in my ear and feel his body move with the gesture.
This is so … nice. No,niceisn’t the word. Good. This is good. It feels like the right place to be, dancing with Grayson. And despite all the thoughts running through my head right now, all the back and forth fighting I’m doing in my brain about how he’s my boss, and I shouldn’t be doing this, and how it’s a recipe for disaster, and how I know that firsthand, I can’t seem to bring myself to care. Instead, I lean into it—I lean intohim, and my body sighs with pleasure as he reciprocates.
One thing’s for sure: I don’t want this to end.
Grayson
“I WARNED YOU,” MILA SAYS into my ear as we’re dancing cheek to cheek, her warm body pressed up against mine.
“Couldn’t even feel it,” I lie. As far as stepping on toes goes, I could definitely feel it. Not like it hurt, though. I’d let her step on my toes all night if it meant we could stay like this. My hand is on her lower back, her soft cheek on mine. I hadn’t planned to dance this close to her. It just happened.
“Liar,” she says, and I chuckle.
