“Hey!” I slapped at his hand.
Rather than pull back, he deftly slipped his hand down between my legs, snatching my box of M&Ms. He didn’tactuallytouch me, but the cardboard scraped against my inner thigh as he pulled the box away and dumped some candy in his huge palm.
A tingle of naughty excitement went up my spine.
It’s been a long time since I felt anything like that, as innocent as it was.Sometimes the smallest gestures meant a lot.
“Please?” I said, referring to his lack of manners.
He chewed the candy and glanced at me. “Please what?”
I mimicked what he should have asked: “Please, may I have some M&Ms?”
“Sure, but there’s not many left.” He tipped the box over and allowed a single piece to slide into my palm. He gave me a silly grin.
I tried to snatch the box out of his hand, but he quickly pulled it back.
“Gimme!” I climbed over him to reach for the candy, which he held back like Michael Jordan keeping a basketball away from a defender. I grabbed his arm and tried pulling it toward me, but it was like grasping onto a chiseled statue. Awarmstatue.
Realizing I had climbed over his thigh and was half in his lap, I slowly sat back down in my own seat. “I didn’t want any more candy anyway.”
Jordan looked sheepish as he handed the box to me. “Fine. You win. But save a few for me.”
This time he let me snatch the box out of his hand. Feeling silly, I tilted the box at my head and dumped the remainder into my mouth. It waswaymore than I expected, but at that point I was committed to the scene. By the time the box was empty, I looked like a chipmunk who had collected enough acorns to last the entire winter.
“Having trouble there?” he asked casually.
I turned toward the screen and pretended like I was fine. “No trouble at all,” I tried to say, but it came out all muffled.
“What’s that? All I heard wasmo gruffle ah ahh.”
Unable to speak, I flashed him a thumbs-up. He roared with laughter that had nothing to do with the movie.
It was really nice having the theater to ourselves. I generally didn’t like people who talked during movies, but it was different on a date with a guy I barely knew. We were having so much fun teasing and joking with each other.
I can’t remember ever having such a good time on a first date.
The theater was chilly, and Jordan must have known I was cold, because he put his arm around me. I tensed as his fingers rested against my back, touching my bra strap through my shirt. I didn’t think he meant to do that.
I like the way he holds me,I thought.
I chanced a glance over at him, and he immediately looked at me. Electricity passed between our gazes for a moment, his eyes illuminated by the glow of the theater screen. I found myself pulled into his stare, hypnotized by his easy charm. Did he want to kiss me? I knew what I wantedhimto do to me.
Here?I thought. We were alone in the theater. Nobody would know if we made out. I had never done anything like that, and the thrill of being naughty with someone—a first date, at that!—filled me with excitement.
But then he returned to watching the movie, although his arm remained around me. I sighed and spent the last twenty minutes of the movie snuggled up against him, savoring his warmth.
“That was pretty good,” Jordan said as we walked out of the theater.
“I had a good time,” I said. “But the ending was dumb. It was a convoluted problem, and then they got back together anyway.”
“Duh,” Jordan replied. “Rule number one of rom-coms: there has to be a happy ending.”
“I know. But they could have done it better,” I said.
He glanced sideways at me. “You mean you didn’t enjoy staring at Timmy Chalamet for an hour and a half?”
“He’s pretty to look at,” I admitted, “but he’s kind of scrawny. I like my men to be a little more, I don’t know,manly.”