You Had Me at Halo(74)

“Holly, watch out,” Gemma shrieked, but before Holly could even work out what was going on, she felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around her and push her to the floor just as a large glass bowl went skimming past her head, landing with a thud on one of the chairs piled along the wall.

“Are you all right?” A familiar voice asked and Holly peered up to see Vince Murphy almost lying on top of her, his blue eyes full of concern. Look how gorgeous he was in a dinner suit. Had he rented it? It must have cost him a fortune. But it was sooooo worth it.

“Hey, Murphy. I think you can get off her now,” Gemma snapped as she thrust out a hand to help Holly up. Vince quickly scrambled into a standing position and Holly thought how much nicer it had been when he was touching her. She let Gemma help her up.

“Holly,” Simon slurred as he appeared from the crowd. “Sorry about that. Was aiming for the banner.” Holly looked over to where a large Baker Colwell banner was hanging from the wall. On the other side of the room.

“Well maybe you should get out of here and practice your aim then?” Vince said in a cool voice.

“Are you speaking to me?” Simon blinked in bemusement before lurching slightly to the left.

“Yes and you’d do well to listen. I heard that the Regional director is still around here somewhere, so I suggest you and your drunken friends get out of here before you end up demoted to the mailroom.”

For a moment Simon looked like he was going to say something smart. Perhaps with his fists? But as Vince’s steady cool gaze continued to stare at him, he seemed to change his mind and his hands dropped back to his side and without another word he spun around and he and the other account managers staggered towards the door.

Good riddance.

“Hey, Murphy, that was pretty cool,” Tina MacDonald purred. “Do you want a drink?”

Pulease. Had Rochelle been giving her lessons?

“No thanks. I just wanted to see if Holly’s okay.”

“She’s fine.” Gemma put a protective arm around Holly’s shoulder and started to drag her to one side. “Thanks for your help.”

“Actually, Gem.”—Holly wriggled free—“I sort of wanted to say thank you to Vince myself. That was a close call.”

Gemma was about to open her mouth in protest when Holly saw a familiar looking guy walking towards them. “Hey, isn’t that Andrew, one of the technicians? I think he’s coming to ask you to dance.”

“I can’t dance with him,” Gemma protested.

“I think he’s kind of cute.” Tina fluffed her hair and hitched up her skirt some more. “Maybe he’s coming to ask me to dance?”

Holly’s lip twitched. “No, I think it’s definitely Gemma he wants. You should go for it.”

“No, I couldn’t. Could I? Is he really looking at me?” Gemma suddenly started to fiddle with the ring on her finger. “The thing is, I never told you this before, but I’ve actually talked to him a couple times when’s come into the department for...well...actually I’m not sure what it was for, but he was quite nice. Bad taste in ties though.”

“You definitely shouldn’t judge a man by his tie,” Holly assured her. “I think nice is often underrated in a guy. You should definitely go for it.”

“Okay,” squeaked Gemma as she nervously started to walk towards him. “I just might.”

“So, are you alright?” Vince’s blue eyes caught hers. “That was a pretty close call.”

Holly felt her stomach do a series of flip-flops as she returned his gaze. And could she just say how much nicer it was to be able to look at him properly rather than just through a mirror.

“I’m fine,” she croaked. “And thanks. I think I would’ve missed the rest of the ball if you hadn’t pushed me out of the way.”

“I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.” He gave her a familiar shrug and Holly longed to touch him.

“You have a habit of doing that,” she said without thinking and then blushed. Gosh, already the weight of a double life was sitting on her shoulders. Definitely time for a subject change. “S-so I didn’t think you normally came to this sort of thing.”

“I don’t,” Vince said in a wonderfully familiar gruff voice. “In fact I’m not sure why I changed my mind? I guess the guys I worked with finally managed to wear me down into saying yes.”

“R-right, so you’re not here with anyone else then?” Holly tried to sound casual but was sure she was failing miserable. Still, if she didn’t ask she would go mad. “I-I heard you and Amy Jenkins were...”

Vince gave an adamant shake of his head. “Definitely nothing between us. Didn’t you know?”

Holly looked at him in surprise. “Know what?” That Amy had been sent away to an institution as punishment for an unhealthy habit of trying to poison people with motion sickness tablets?

“She got seconded for a year. To the Outer Mongolian office.”

Holly giggled. Well, it wasn’t criminal justice at its best, but there was a certain amount of satisfaction to be had from it. To think she had doubted that heaven didn’t know what they were doing when it came to divine retribution.

“So how about you?” Vince’s voice sounded deeper than ever. “Are you here alone? I saw Todd dancing with Rochelle Jackson and then someone said you guys—”