Page 60 of Up All Night

I took her hand in mine again, not wanting to break whatever spell we had been under while we were dancing. I may need to talk to the Andersons, but I wanted Halle by my side. I wasn’t sure what that meant, if anything, but I wasn’t going to dissect it now.

I parked my Porsche in the parking lot of our apartment building, tired from the night’s events.

I let my head fall back against the headrest and looked over at Halle. “We did it.”

“I’m exhausted,” she said. “Networking is not for the weak.”

I chuckled. “You were amazing tonight. Thank you for helping me make it through the night.”

Her lips turned up into a smirk. “I’m sure you are already aware, but I won our game tonight by a landslide.”

That made me laugh. “I’m beginning to think it’s pointless to compete with you.”

She gave me a flirty glance, placing her hand on the door handle. “Maybe next time you’ll get lucky.” She opened the door and stepped out of the car.

I doubted it, but it wouldn’t keep me from continuing to play these games with her. Losing to her was more fun than not playing at all.

We started walking up the stairs, and when I continued past my door, she stopped.

“You don’t have to walk me to my door. This wasn’t a real date, remember?”

I did remember. Except there were definitely moments when it had felt like a real date. Or maybe I had just wanted it to be a real date. Which was crazy. I couldn’t date Halle. As I’d previously pointed out to myself, I wasn’t in a place to date anyone, let alone my neighbor. Wasn’t that Dating 101? Don’t date your neighbor or someone you work with? It made things complicated and could be extremely awkward.

“I know it’s not a date, but I’m still a gentleman,” I said.

We continued up the last flight of stairs until we were standing in front of her door.

Okay, so I apparently hadn’t thought this all the way through. How was one supposed to end a date that wasn’t a date? Did I just say good night and walk away? Or was that not enough for her willingness to help me out? And we had had a really good time together. Or at least I had. Was a handshake more appropriate? No, that seemed too cold. But a hug seemed like too much. We definitely weren’t in a place to even think about going in for a kiss.

Great—now I was thinking about kissing Halle.

My eyes dipped down to her full lips. What would it feel like to kiss her? If I pulled her towards me, would she lean into me? Or would she push me away?

I tried to tell my mind to not go any farther down that path, but it didn’t seem to get the memo. Looking at her features, I continued to get lost in the thought of kissing her. I wanted to know if she was the kind of girl who wanted me to come ninety percent of the way, so she could come the remaining ten, or if she preferred it when a guy fully committed.

“I had fun tonight,” she said, pulling me from my runaway thoughts.

I cleared my throat. “Yeah, me, too.”

It was like it was my first date again, not knowing how to act in this situation. What did I do with my hands? It felt odd holding them down at my sides like limp noodles. Shoving them in my pockets, I tried to look calm and relaxed.

She looked like she was trying to hold in her laughter. “What has your mind going a million miles a minute? I can almost hear you thinking.”

“What? I’m not thinking about anything.”

Like I was going to tell her what I was thinking.Oh, yeah, I’ve just been wondering how to end this night with you. Handshake, hug, kiss. Then I got hung up on the kissing idea, and now I don’t know what to do with my hands.

Yeah, that would make me out to be quite the Casanova.

She didn’t look like she believed me at all. “So you’re not over analyzing things and figuring out how to end our not-date to make sure I don’t misinterpret anything?”

She was close, I’d give her that.

“No, not at all.”

I was lying, of course, but it was obvious she assumed I was, so I didn’t feel too bad about it.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I know tonight was a friend helping out another friend and nothing more.”

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