Paolo glanced over to see Sandover escorting May to the dance floor from the table reserved for the six of them. May seemed to mold into Sandover as they began to waltz with one another and Paolo looked away from them, noticing Silver on the second level landing next to one of the many columns surrounding the ballroom. Silver seemed alert for anything and Paolo knew nothing had come up yet, which was an all around good thing. Silver looked at him encouragingly, and knew he was nervous. As if he knew exactly what Paolo was thinking, Silver held up his hand and signed a message to him, saying, ‘three minutes.’ Paolo nodded and Silver smiled lightly, moving on. Cora was on her way.
He could recall perfectly the conversation with Lady Vanderbilt when he rejected the offer to be auctioned off for this function. She’d seemed to think he needed the corporate social responsibility points. He hadn’t been interested though; couldn’t take the risk of ending up the night with someone other than Cora Lafitte. She hadn’t reacted exactly as he assumed, noting the smile and the phrase that made him reassert himself.
“It’s about time, Pablo.”
He often wondered how his contemporaries viewed him; typical playboy? Overgrown child? She must have been thinking he’d decided to ‘settle down’ or some shit like that. He’d taken Cora shopping for her dress the day before, showing off his knowledge of what flattered the female form. It was her one half-day off until the event and, considering he was her date, she wanted him to pick out what she would wear. He recalled their conversation about one of the dresses he selected, relishing how she’d tried to find out in a very roundabout way if he might be good with clothes because he was gay. It had almost been funny if so much wasn’t at stake. He couldn’t blame her though; with that Rihanna meets Alek Wek thing she had going on, he had to bet there was literally no end to the offers she was getting. And here he was, hanging back, letting her make all the moves; seemingly uninterested in taking things further than they had already gone…it must be driving her up the wall. Paolo couldn’t help the smile that spread across his lips.
Suddenly, he saw her appear at the top of the staircase; his breath caught momentarily. Even though she had him approve her gown, he had never expected his reaction would be different than what he had felt earlier. This would be in the sense that she was in sweats earlier and he hadn’t really paid any mind to the thought of seeing her in her formal wear. Cora was wearing a long, midnight blue gown which brought out her umber complexion to perfection – Paolo had known it would still – it was breathtaking in person; it was halter style as well, but was more full than May’s gown. She adorned her hands with a lovely yet simple silver bracelet and a silver hairclip that held back just enough hair to make it look relaxed compared to the usual business style she adorned. Paolo shook himself, perturbed by how hard his heart was beating. That was definitely not in the plan.
He could tell that she was nervous about her upcoming place in the spotlight; and then she saw him. She was being swept past him by the Principal, whose name he couldn’t quite recall – she was new and eager to make a name for herself – and then she’d disappeared again into the crowds. He stood where he was, waiting for her to come find him.
Sandover and May, were just taking their seats after the first waltz; they had been put at the same table as the rest of their close friends and were waiting patiently for the MC to jump start the gala. At this point many of the patrons had gone somewhat silent, some of them continuing their dances and lost in their own moments of happiness, which was what the school had been hoping to accomplish through the event he supposed.
As Cora appeared in front of him, Paolo held his hand up to hold hers, and kissed it gently; he threaded her arm through his and led her gracefully towards the dance floor, not saying anything to disturb the seemingly quiet moment. Her eyes, pools of caramel with honey in their midst, made it hard for him to breathe, a feeling he both welcomed and rejected; welcomed because she could see the effect she had on him. Rejected because he did not want her to have an effect on him, quite the opposite in fact. This was a search and destroy mission, not search and rescue. He needed to keep that forefront in his mind at all times.
They glided onto the dance floor and stopped slowly, facing one another before taking their position for a waltz. His hand found its way around her waist while hers rested with a feather-like weight on his shoulder; their hands found one another with such an ease; her eyes watched the motion as he watched her. Eyes that weren’t focused on them had made their way over to their solid yet graceful movements and watched as the two began to dance with fluid movements to the soft and charming waltz which churned through the air.
This night would be perfect after all.
*****
Of course Paolo won the bid for her; of course he could afford it. His Armani suit alone said he could afford it. Still, Cora was relieved. Going to dinner with him would propel this, whatever they were doing, forward. He would have to state once and for all whether he was interested or not. Although the fact that he’d dropped a ten thousand dollar bid on her without batting an eyelash might strongly suggest he was interested. On the other hand, maybe he just cared really deeply about those abducted Nigerian girls. Most likely he was using company funds of whatever corporation he worked for to pay for the bid. It was a public relations gambit and it wouldn’t be the first time a corporate entity used it. Of course that would mean he was pretty high up. Maybe a VP even. He was on the young side to already have achieved that but that just spoke to his ambitious nature. She had nothing against ambition – as long as he didn’t want to use her in his climb like-
She cut off that thought before it had the chance to mature. She wasn’t going to assume that every guy was a Travis. She just wasn’t. Life was too short to be so suspicious. Sure she would look for signs – she didn’t want to be a naïve idiot either – but she wasn’t gonna assume the worst on no evidence. He had barely shown interest as it was; she wasn’t even sure he knew who she was. And if he didn’t, she wasn’t gonna be the one to tell him. The question was, how to find out for sure what he knew or didn’t know…