Page 17 of Bodied

“Ooh, yes!” Her smile was infectious. He didn’t want to love it as much as he did, but as soon as she smiled, he found it impossible to look away from her. She hypnotized him with her happiness. That had to be what it was.

When their server came she ordered a sampler platter and a flight of beer. “We’re tasting everything,” she said with a hint of childish rebellion. “I haven’t eaten a whole plate of fried food in alongtime! But this is a celebration, right? I’m splurging tonight.”

Wesley leaned back in his seat and grinned at her. “I never expected a little princess like you to be into this sort of thing.”

“Are you kidding?” She laughed. “Compared to the sort of places I used to hang out, this is downright wholesome.”

“Not too tacky for you?” he joked.

“Oh, come on. The tackier the better.”

When their food came, Lauren was positively ravenous. She shared her beer flight with him, and they ordered a couple more drinks. The band arrived, set up, and started playing some lively, folksy music.

An hour later, they were both laughing, tipsy, and Wesley was well beyond thinking straight. It wasn’t the alcohol that intoxicated him now — that he knew for certain, regardless of whether he was prepared to admit it. What intoxicated him was Lauren’s happiness, her smile. Without thinking about whether or not it would be a good idea, he blurted out, “Do you want to dance?” He paused and realized that he needed an explanation. “You know, since we’re in public and all. Seems like the natural thing to do.”

She didn’t seem as worried about it as he was. “Totally!” She jumped up and grabbed his hand. They were on the tiny dance floor in seconds. Her arms were around her neck, and once again, her body was pressed against his.

Wesley was too buzzed to protest or care. She smelled so good. They swayed and he held her waist with both hands, bowing his head over her and appreciating the warmth of her skin.

Some instinctive part of him, a part that refused to listen to reason, wanted to hold and protect her this way forever. It was primal, this feeling. No one would touch her. No one would hurt her if he had anything to say about it. She was fragile and precious, and he didn’t want to admit how much he had grown to like her — to like just being here with her, having a good time, and hearing her laugh for the smallest reasons.

He never wanted it to end, and that worried him more than anything else. Because, no matter what else happened, he knew it would be one of the biggest mistakes he’d ever make to actually fall for her. The problem was that he couldn’t seem to convince his own heart of that fact.

CHAPTER8

LAUREN

Lauren sat across from her mom at a round dinner table at the front of a ballroom full of similar dinner tables. It felt something like a wedding reception, but there was no wedding there. All the tablecloths, napkins, and décor being white didn’t help differentiate the occasion from a deeply uninteresting wedding reception. But it was an important dinner, during which her mom was expected to make political connections and basically sell herself as someone who would reach across the aisle and get things done. Though she was already elected, now was the time to show the country they had made the right choice. Anne Bartlett was always thinking ahead to the next election, which — according to her — was why she so often won.

The whole affair was one Lauren could not possibly care less about. She was miserable, but the fact that Wesley was seated beside her looking every bit as bored made the occasion a bit more bearable. He kept attempting to fold his cloth napkin back into the fancy shape it had been in at the beginning of the meal, and Lauren was enjoying watching him fail. He was the least polished person on the planet, and now he was her fake boyfriend, which was her mom’s own recommendation.

What was it people were calling this sort of thing, these days?Malicious compliance? Whatever it was, it felt great to see her mom repeatedly glancing at Wesley with that same disapproving look she’d given to all Lauren’s past dates. Only this time, her mom had hand-picked the man herself. It was glorious.

“I’m pretty sure I know how to fold it,” Lauren whispered to Wesley. “Watch this.”

He stared down while she pulled the napkin from her lap and carefully folded it into an airplane shape. Once he realized what she was doing, he snorted and immediately covered his mouth to smother the sound.

“Do you think it will fly?” she asked.

“I doubt it,” he said.

“Only one way to find out.” She grinned at him and held the cloth airplane up as though she were about to throw it. She glanced over at her mom, who gave her exactly the sort of look she was hoping to receive. It was a warning, a mild disapproval with the threat of more. It said,I’m not mad — I’m just disappointed.Success. Rather than throw the cloth airplane, Lauren unfolded it and started attempting to make an origami crane instead.

Wesley corrected her several times, but he seemed just as lost as she was. “Your bird looks a little deformed,” he finally said. “Like keep-it-in-the-family deformed.”

Lauren burst out laughing, and her mom gave her an even harsher look. “Let’s see you do better,” she said playfully.

Apparently, Wesley couldn’t resist a challenge because he immediately began folding his napkin into shapes Lauren was certain would not lead to an accurate bird of any kind. Lauren bit her lip to stifle her laughter. Subtle misbehaving was one thing. Blatant misbehavior would get her kicked out of the dinner before she had adequately irritated her mom, who needed to laugh way more often, in Lauren’s opinion.

Wesley held up his newest creation and changed its angle repeatedly until he was satisfied. “There,” he said, thrusting the thing in front of Lauren’s face. “It’s a sword. Sort of.”

“That’s a dagger.” Lauren crossed her arms and cocked her head. “Proportionally.”

He squinted down at his new creation. “Nah, really? It’s a… Maybe it’s a katana.”

Her mom’s looks were getting darker, and Lauren knew she was coming closer to crossing the line. She toned it down just enough, but she didn’t stop prodding Wesley when no one was really paying attention.

Every once in a while, Lauren managed to convince herself that she was only giving so much of her attention to Wesley in order to troll her mom as some kind of revenge for making her come to these of events in the first place. But after a while, she lost track of how her mom was reacting, and she had to admit that she was joking around with her bodyguard simply because he was a lot of fun to joke around with. She liked him. She liked him a lot. He seemed to be having a good time, too, despite the way his coworkers looked at him. They were probably just jealous that he got to sit down to dinner while they had to stand in a line along the wall like extraordinarily realistic statues.

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