4

All in all, the evening was oceans more fun than she expected. She danced with Mark most of the time, and when he was called away by someone else, she danced with one of his friends. He had nice friends. They were good looking, young, successful, and didn’t have wandering hands when they danced with her. The food was excellent and Mark was a good date. He was clearly popular both in his profession and with his friends, because he introduced her to at least fifty people, if not more. He had a good sense of fun and knew how to dance. He told her about his interests in a way that none of her other dates had bothered to. It was almost like he wasn’t sure how to date an escort and so he was dating her in the same way he would date her if he was really interested in her. By the end of the night, she thought more than once that it was a pity her date with Mark was just for her job; otherwise, she would have loved to find herself in a more long-term relationship with him.

At around eleven-thirty, he gave up leaving her even for a moment. He took hold of her hand tightly while they danced and turned people down if they tried to take her from him by cutting in.

“What happened last year that makes you so nervous about midnight?” she asked while pressed close to him in a dance.

He rolled his eyes. “I’d rather not talk about it. It was… unpleasant.”

“You keep using that word!”

“Yeah, well, it was. Fine, I’ll tell you. I ended up getting passed down a long line of women and it was… unpleasant,” he said, looking like he still needed to wash his mouth out.

“I thought most guys would like that." She laughed.

“Are you kidding? It was so fast I didn’t even get a chance to recognize all of them. No, it wasn’t fun.”

“Yeah, I know it was… unpleasant. And this year, I’m supposed to protect you from it?”

“Well, don’t tell me you don’t think I look great in my dinner jacket, so…” he paused. Then he leaned in, put his forehead against Helen’s, and looked into her eyes. “Please take care of me.”

Helen wasn’t sure, but she thought knowing she was going to get to kiss him at midnight was making it even more exciting. She looked at the giant clock at the end of the hall. Sometimes it seemed to be moving faster and sometimes it seemed to be moving slower. In a minute the countdown would start.

“Ten!”

“Nine!”

“Eight!”

“Seven!”

Mark turned Helen toward him and put his arms around her waist. She was looking into his eyes. She couldn’t even hear the noise of the crowd filling the ballroom. There was just her and him.

And then their kiss.

The room was stifling, and so his lips were hot as he pressed them down on hers. Helen had told herself over and over again she had been kissed plenty of times, and so it wasn’t a big deal, but kissing Mark was different. She had never felt her blood like it was scorching through her veins. It was like she was being kissed by someone who knew how to kiss, by someone who really meant business, and by someone who was not going to let up. It wasn’t the kiss of a passing stranger who just wanted to avoid being passed around. Instead, it seemed like the kiss of someone who wanted something badly but was not allowed to have it. Helen broke away and took a quick breath. He pulled her back roughly. Her brain was shutting down, but she had one more thought before she completely shut down. She thought that to him, she must seem like the type of woman who wasn’t attainable. Since kissing her was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he wouldn’t stop.

And she didn’t really want him to.

At some point, Helen somehow became aware the singing had stopped and the band had stopped playing. Helen put her hand to Mark’s face and pulled off. Then she looked into his eyes and smiled like their kiss had been part of the act. “Did I do a good job guarding your honor?” she asked with a wicked smile.

His expression went blank like he just realized what was going on. Maybe, his expression was of disappointment, because he just remembered she really wasn’t attainable.

“Of course,” he said. “You did a great job. Do you want something to drink?”

She nodded and he strode toward the bar.

Helen went back to their table and sat down. Why did she have to ruin everything by reminding him she was only an escort? They could have enjoyed the fantasy for another couple of hours, couldn’t they?

Mark returned and gave her a glass of soda water—the only thing she had been drinking all night. He sat down next to her, his expression black when suddenly he was grabbed from behind and given a kiss on the mouth by a woman. It wasn’t Laura, but someone else. Helen put a hand to her forehead and wanted to groan. There was no way she could have stopped someone that fast.

Afterward, the woman winked at Helen and said, “It’s just not New Year’s without kissing Mark!”

Mark didn’t smile, and Helen was worried he might be mad at her. Instead, he ran a hand through his hair and leaned forward to ask pleasantly, “Could I please have a piece of your grape bubblegum?”

Helen smiled. “Sorry, I only have raisin.”

“Please,” he persisted. “I gotta get that taste out of my mouth, and I already used your token kiss for the evening. Please?”

She clicked open her purse and pulled out a piece of gum. After unwrapping it for him, she popped it into his mouth.

“It’s too bad this is just for tonight,” she said, “because if it was just you and me with no strings attached… I know I’d fall for you." She reflected later she never could have said those words if she didn’t have the cover of her identity as Vera. Because she was playing Vera, she was able to say something that daring. Helen never played coy.

“I’ll bet you say that to everyone,” he said, before biting down hard on the gum.

She smiled. “Didn’t you enjoy hearing it?”

Then he pulled her to her feet and made her dance with him.