Preston passed her a glass of wine, and he took a beer from the bartender. Then, they milled around the room, talking to people she had worked for earlier this year. It was easy to move back into the swing of things with these people, even with Preston at her side. She had never thought it would be this seamless, but Preston fit right in.
By the end of the night, her girlfriends were enamored with him, the guys were asking him about his workout regimen and promising to get together for gym dates—which she assured him was not entirely what he was thinking—and Trihn found herself completely in thrall with him.
He took her by the hand and pulled her out onto the mostly empty balcony. He twirled her around in place. She laughed and rose onto her tiptoes, spinning in place like a perfect ballerina, before being drawn into his arms.
“This was fun. You seemed worried at first,” he told her.
“I’ve never brought anyone to a model event with me besides my sister and my best friend,” she confessed.
“I’m honored,” he said, leaning his head against her forehead.
A spark ignited in her stomach as she swam in the sea of blue before her.
Everything narrowed down to this one moment—the look in his eyes, the feel of his hands sneaking under her shirt and grasping her skin, the energy igniting between them, their breaths intermingling in the small distance separating their bodies.
She felt herself freeze.
This wasn’t some fling that she would cast aside for the next hottie at a different shoot. This wasn’t some guy she’d make out with in a club after a good drink. This wasn’t a mistake.
This felt right, inexplicably right, in a way she had never felt before.
Their noses touched. She slid her hands up around his neck, drawing him closer. She wanted this. It wasn’t because she was listening to everyone around her, telling her to have a good time, to let herself get lost in something, not to be serious. It was because he made her serious nature seem normal. He made her feel…
That was enough for now. It didn’t have to be more. Just the promise of a beginning.
Their lips slid together, and the entire world disappeared completely, utterly falling away into some other universe. Her heart rushed into her throat, and her whole body contracted at the feel of him pressing against her. His tongue slipped invitingly against her bottom lip, and she opened the invitation with zeal, meeting him halfway. They moved against each other with practiced ease. Her whole body trembled with the heat and desire coursing through her.
Right then, she had never wanted anything more than this kiss. It was both tempting and terrifying because she felt as if she would give up everything to have this again.
As he leaned her against the railing, promising her the world with this kiss, the biggest cost she worried about was her heart.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, you don’t like peanut butter?” Preston asked a week and a half later.
They both stared into the glass counter filled with an array of gorgeous pastries of every variety—cupcakes, cake, macarons, tarts, cheesecake, cookies. The list was endless.
“I don’t like it,” she told him. “I never have.”
“I can’t comprehend this.”
She laughed and shrugged her shoulders. “It’s gross. I don’t even like the smell. So, if you think that I’m going to kiss you after you eat that, you’re crazy.”
He took the peanut butter–chocolate chip cupcake on a small paper plate from the woman and gave Trihn puppy-dog eyes. “I bet I could convince you otherwise.”
“No way.” Trihn wrinkled her nose.
“I have my ways.”
She laughed lightly and then spoke to the employee, “I’ll take a mocha fudge cupcake, please.”
She was handed her cupcake as well, and then they went to the register. Preston insisted on paying for the treats. He grabbed two plastic forks, and then they walked outside to find a bench to indulge themselves.
“Even though you hate my choice in dessert,” he said, pretending to be wounded, “this is for you. Congrats on your dance performance last night. I only wish that I could have been there to see it.”
Preston toasted Trihn with his cupcake, and they both dug in.
Following the model party, she had invited Preston to her Senior Showcase. She hadn’t expected him to be interested in seeing her dance, and she hated admitting that she had been disappointed that he couldn’t come last weekend. But it was just as unexpected that he was doing something like this for her when he hadn’t been able to make it.
“I would have liked for you to have been there, too,” she told him after she finished off her cupcake.
“If only I wasn’t such an overachiever, then I could have made it.”
She held her hand up. “Overachieving, I am very familiar with.”
“The model ballerina?” he asked skeptically.
“Hey now! Modeling and ballet, dance in general, are very strenuous. Anyway, I’m quitting both to pursue a degree in fashion design at one of the best schools in the country.” She didn’t mention how much it pained her to give them up, but it was the right thing to do. She needed to focus on her education to get the kind of job she had always dreamed bout.
“While I’m glad you’re coming to NYU, why does it sound like that’s not what you want?”
She sighed heavily and avoided his knowing blue gaze. He was seeing right through her bravado.
“It’s not that. I guess I just always thought that dance would be a part of my life. I’ve only been modeling for three years, but it also kind of seemed like something I wouldn’t stop until I was too old for the market,” she said with a sad smile.
“Then, why stop?” he asked, his cupcake forgotten.
“I don’t want to stop, but I’ll need to take my studies seriously. I need to place at the top of the fashion design program. I want to design for Bergdorf Goodman and open my own boutique on Fifth Avenue. I can’t do those things and—”
“Have a life?” he ventured.
“Exactly.”
“You sound like you put way too much pressure on yourself.”
She shrugged. “Maybe, but it was how I was raised. Plus, my sister is a mega genius, one of those people who doesn’t have to try at anything. Hard to live up to that.”
Preston bridged the distance between them and laced their fingers together. “You don’t have to live up to anyone. Just look at you. You’re gorgeous and smart and driven, and you seem pretty awesome to me.”
Her cheeks heated. “You’ve only known me for a week.”
“And I’ve seen all of that in a week,” he said confidently.
“Well, thank you.”
“My father works in investing,” he said after a silent minute. “He always expected me to do something like that. One day, I just decided that it wasn’t for me. I don’t ever want to do something for expectations. I want to earn my place in life because it’s what I want, not what someone else wants. He wasn’t exactly happy that I’d started working for a fashion magazine. But I think he’s going to come around and realize that I go after what I want.” He purposefully looked up at her. “And when I have my mind set on something, I’ll do anything to keep it.”
Trihn bit her lip. “Why do I feel like we’re not talking about work anymore?”
“Because we’re not.”
Then, he kissed her.
It didn’t matter that they were seated on the side of a crowded street in New York City, making a spectacle of themselves. All that was there in that moment was the feel of his lips on hers, the way her heart stuttered to life, and the dizzy feeling clouding her mind.