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hands. I couldn’t do this; I had to tell him about Charlie. Daniel moved his hand from my thigh and rubbed my back.
    “Hey, what’s the matter ? Are you OK?”
    This was it—this was my opening. I had to tell him. “Daniel, I— I need ...”
    “Take a deep breath, Leah . Look at me. What is it?” He continued to rub my back.
    “Daniel, I’m in a relationship.”
    “I know. You’re engaged.” He hadn’t taken his eyes from mine.
    “What? My parents don’t even know I’m engaged! How do you know , and if you know, what are we doing here?”
    “Leah, I want you to take a breath and then have a sip of champagne.” I sat back and I did as I was told.
    “Look at me, Leah.” I turned my head. “I don’t have any kind of meeting, business or pleasure, without knowing exactly who I’m meeting. I’m thorough, Leah. I have to be. I don’t like surprises. I require complete transparency in my life. I’ve been caught out before and it will never happen again.”
    “How long have you known?”
    “Since before I emailed you from JFK.”
    Oh, he’d known all along.
    “Are you married?” I blurted out.
    He smiled. “No, Leah, I’m not married. I was married; we divorced.”
    “I’m sorry. When? What happened?”
    “I’m happy to tell you everything about my marriage and my divorce, but not now, not tonight. I want tonight to be about us.”
    “But Daniel, I’m engaged. You said it yourself.”
    “Yes, but as you said, you’ve not even told your parents ... Why is that, Leah?” It was a question I’d been asking myself a lot lately. “And as you also said, this is intense.”
    “So, what is this tonight?”
    “I have no master plan. Let’s just take a time-out, put everything else out of our heads, and enjoy this evening together. We are, after all, old school friends.” he added and grinned wickedly.
    I didn’t respond for a few minutes .
    “ OK, time-out, just for tonight.”
    I relaxed a bit; the intensity was still there but with less discomfort than I felt before. We talked properly and we didn’t stop talking: about the band on stage, about our jobs, the music we liked listening to, what we had been doing since we last saw each other, what we enjoyed about our lives. We both skirted around our romantic relationships—we were on a time-out, after all. We talked and laughed, sat in comfortable silence as we listened to the band play some amazing music. It was like we had known each other our whole lives.
    Some hours later , I dragged my eyes away from Daniel and scanned the room. We were the last ones left. Holy hell, it was past 1 a.m.
    “I need to go.”
    Daniel’s smile faltered almost imperceptibly and I saw that sadness again in his eyes. He nodded and he asked for the bill.
    “I’m sorry; I’m having a lovely time.” I reached over and grabbed his hand and he interlaced his fingers with mine. The driver was waiting for us when we got into the street.
    “I really want to see you home , but given the circumstances, I’ve asked my driver to take you from here and I’ll get a cab.” I was a bit shocked. I thought we would have the car journey back together.
    “Oh, thank you, but I can take a cab ,” I said, trying to cover my disappointment.
    “My driver will take you , Leah. I don’t want you in a cab at this time of night.”
    “Thank you for everything tonight. It’s been a wonderful evening.”
    H e trailed his fingers up my spine and cupped my face, then placed a chaste kiss on my lips that set a fire racing through my body. My legs collapsed a little and I stumbled. Daniel steadied me and helped me into the car without saying another word.
    I went to say goodbye and he raised his index finger to his lips , as if he were willing me not to end the evening. The car pulled away and left him on the sidewalk, staring at the sky.
    The tears came from nowhere. I’d had such an amazing evening, but quite suddenly I felt that something inside me had died. I knew our