The Chemistry of Love(81)

He put his hand on top of mine, his warmth and strength enveloping me. “You are one of the kindest, most considerate—” He cut himself off just as things were starting to get interesting. “I shouldn’t be saying that.”

“Why?” He was allowed to say nice things to me.

But he just shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me. You matter to me.”

His gaze slid down my face to settle on my lips. I wondered whether I’d gotten sauce on my mouth, but that wasn’t the expression he was wearing. My breath caught. “Dance with me,” he said softly.

My stomach tried to protest that I was still eating, but the rest of me wanted to give in to his intoxicating invitation.

We walked onto the dance floor, a bit set apart from the rest of the crowd, and he took me in his arms.

I had a moment where I thought that I could happily stay this way for the rest of my life. Being held by Marco.

I really did have to get over this crush.

The problem was that I didn’t want to.

Then, in an apparent attempt to conspire against me, the universe and the DJ put on the worst possible song.

“When I Fall in Love” started playing, and I said, “Oh no.”

“What is it?”

“This was my parents’ favorite song. Sometimes my memories come and go. There are days when I forget my mother’s laugh or the color of my father’s eyes. But then there are these memories that are so vivid, so light, that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. My parents would dance together, every night, to this song. I used to go out and sit on the stairs to watch them.”

His grip tightened on me. “That’s beautiful.”

Craig and Leighton came around on my right side. He twirled her, like the song was fast instead of a slow one. She nearly smacked into me.

“Oh, sorry about that,” she said, sounding out of breath.

“Are you okay, Anna Banana?” Marco asked, and it was like all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room.

“That’s what my dad used to call me,” I said in an almost-whisper.

“I know,” he said while kissing the bridge of my nose.

Craig and Leighton danced away, but I was still in shock. He didn’t know; he couldn’t have. I hadn’t even told Catalina about it. It was a reasonable guess considering the words rhymed, but it still was a jolt to my system.

Marco stopped moving, and we stood there, holding each other, gazing into each other’s eyes.

I knew he’d said it for his brother’s benefit, to imply a close connection, that he was pretending. The problem was . . . I believed him. I believed in that connection, even though I logically knew it wasn’t real.

“I have a theory,” he said in a low, deep voice that sent shivers racing across my skin. “Do you want to hear it?”

More than anything. “Uh-huh” was what I actually managed.

“When your lips turn that shade of red . . . I think you want to be kissed.”

Another slam to my nervous system. “Say you’re right.”

“Let’s. Since I am.”

“Then . . . what do we do about it?” My head told me to stop. That I couldn’t do this, but my ovaries were making a very convincing counterargument to keep going.

“We should test my theory, don’t you think?”

“Here?”

“Not here,” he said, and I wondered why when the universe was giving Marco brains, charm, handsomeness, and abs, it also felt like he needed the world’s sexiest voice.

This was my chance. To tell him no, that we couldn’t do this. That it was a mistake.

Because I was scared. Scared that these feelings I had for him were only going to get bigger, and then he really would push Craig entirely out of the way.

And Marco didn’t like me that way. He was my friend. He’d told me that so many times. I was smart enough to know better. I couldn’t be in love with him and have him sympathetically tell me he was sorry, but he just didn’t feel like that about me.

Part of me was afraid that if Marco broke my heart, it might not ever heal.

I thought I’d hit rock bottom when I’d asked for that hickey, but I was about to take out the explosives and start fracking.

“Where?” I asked, feeling out of breath.

His eyes lit up. “Follow me.”

He took me by the hand and led me off the dance floor, through the ballroom, and out into a hallway. I had the presence of mind to toss my gum in a nearby trash can. He tugged on a couple of doors until he found one that opened. It was a darkened conference room, with long tables and office chairs. He closed the door shut behind us and stood too close to me.

Obviously, not too close if we were going to kiss, but too close for my current peace of mind. This had to be meaningless. He couldn’t know how desperately I wanted him to kiss me. All the times I’d daydreamed about it.

I tried to push those thoughts out of my head. This was about satisfying my curiosity. I would kiss him, and then I would know what it was like so I could stop wondering and move on.

That’s what I would focus on. “This is a good idea. You never know when a well-meaning grandmother or surprise mistletoe would have forced us into a situation where we had to kiss. Better to get it out of the way.”