“I can wait with you.”
She just shook her head with a smile, feeling silly.
“Okay. But, Jane, if you need anything, and I’m inside, just come to me,” he said, gesturing with his head toward the interior of the club.
She summoned her courage and said, “Thanks. I go by Anne now, by the way. My middle name.”
“What?” he asked, tilting his head, almost leaning it against hers. He was suddenly so close. “I didn’t catch that.”
“Yeah, it’s loud in here.”
“Maybe we should tell them to skip to a light Fandango,” he said with a smirk.
They looked at each other and started laughing in synch. Her heart skipped a beat. He remembered. The song.
“What were you saying before?” His forehead nearly rested against her temple, and this closeness became a new, unexpected torture. She felt her body softening, and hardening, and liquidating all at once in different places. They were so close that she could inhale his breath. It made her wonder what he’d taste like.
“I’m going by my middle name now—Anne.”
“You mean, instead of Jane?” He perused her face with those blue eyes of his, suddenly all serious.
“Well, yes, kind of. My parents and some people … forget sometimes, but everyone in college knows me as Anne.”
“Is it because of …?” He didn’t have to finish the sentence.
“No. Well, it was a catalyst. But I’ve always liked Anne.”
“I like Anne, too, but I love Jane, because that’s how I think of you. Can I still call you Jane?”
Think of her?
“Um … Sure.” She was certain she’d never see him again after tonight anyway and thought it was cute of him, especially since he had faced off with Eric over it.
“You will always be Jane to me, even when you’re Anne,” he said, his voice dropping a decibel. She had to lean closer. “Jane. It’s plain and simple, and I love it,” he mumbled, almost to himself.
She bit her lower lip. Just then, the girl who he had his arm around pulled him to whisper into his ear again. Finn tilted his head down toward her, his upper body slanting away from Anne.
Anne stared at the random people and groups that passed before them when a group of three men approached them. They looked much older.
Finn was suddenly pushed against Anne, and the girl who had been whispering to him quickly got up from her seat and hurried in her tiny sequin dress toward one of the approaching men and threw herself into his arms.
The short-haired friend, who sat farther down from Finn with a new space between them said in a loud enough voice for Anne to hear, “Shit, that’s her boyfriend. It worked, Finn. He came looking for her.”
Anne’s gaze was glued to the scene in front of her, so she noticed the surprise on Finn’s face only when he said, “This is him? She didn’t say he was … that.”
“Oh, it is. And he saw you.”
The guy was eyeing them while whispering something to the sequin dress who was now kissing his neck. He glared at Finn.
“Quick, pretend like you’re with that girl,” the friend said, shoving her hand against Finn’s shoulder and pushing him further into Anne.
Instinctively, he wrapped his right arm around Anne.
Anne looked at Finn’s nape, holding back from leaning closer to inhale his skin while he spoke to the short-haired friend. She was thinking how much like a college movie his life was in comparison to hers, just when he turned to her, and she found herself face to face with him, with less than an inch between them. Her gaze dropped to his lips, then back up to his eyes, where she caught his gaze doing the same—dropping to her lips then back up to meet her eyes.
Before she knew why he said, “Jane, sorry, can we …?” his breath intermixed with hers, the non-existent distance between them closed, and he crashed his lips against hers.
The sudden impact found them both with their lips parted. He brushed his tongue along her lips, and she exhaled a surprised breath against his mouth. It was confused and hurried. But, a second later, their lips closed around each other in synch, and their tongues met. She tasted him, and her entire body hummed when Finn slipped his tongue into her mouth. She found herself devouring him with a passion she didn’t know she had in her.