Page 44 of Yours, Finally

I laughed again. "The lyrics for the songs we chose? No meaning behind them. At all."

She shook her head, enjoying the absurdity of our charade with me. But we stretched the moment too long, until the tension broke the elastic fibers keeping it in place.

Our smiles disappeared slowly as we gazed at each other. We stood face-to-face near the karaoke place's door; the night was warm, and she held a light jacket over her interlocked fingers.

This time, the tilt of her lips aimed for a smile, but there was wistfulness to it.

"I'm glad you enjoyed singing," she said. "You really have a wonderful voice."

"Thank you. It really was fun. Singing like that with no worries… and spending time with you like we simply enjoy each other's company."

"I did— I enjoyed your company." She pushed her lips to the side, and this time the humor in her gesture seemed genuine. "It's good to know that underneath everything that's been going on the past few weeks, we still can just… have a good time."

"We did it, Vi." I put my hands in my pockets and smiled at her. "We can be friends."

"It would look that way, yes." She raised an eyebrow. "To anyone looking, we're friends."

I gazed up and down the street. No familiar company vehicles had shown up yet.

"I'm sure that some people out there wondered if it was a date." I cocked my head. "But we know the truth."

She gave me a slow nod. "Not a date."

I quirked the corner of my lips. "Not a date."

She opened her hands in a tremulous invitation for a hug. "And this is a friendly hug goodnight, after a platonic, not-a-date evening together."

"Yep." I stepped closer and enveloped her in my arms. "Nothing romantic about it."

She splayed her hands on my back and pulled; I did the same, until our bodies aligned and the hills of our torsos melded together. I pressed my cheek to her temple, and she seemed to melt into the embrace. I brought her closer, hoping she would lean on me, put her weight on me, so I could be her pillar for the few seconds we could steal in this hug.

She took a deep breath I could feel against my chest. "I'm not going to kiss you goodnight. Not even on the cheek like we do in Chile."

"You shouldn't." I gulped. "We won't."

But I lowered my head and she brought hers up, until we were cheek to cheek.

"We're not starting anything," she whispered. "We're still not romantically involved."

I wet my bottom lip. "We're still just Vi and Jake, and we're… something."

She pulled back slowly, so our noses touched for a brief instant. Her breath hitched, and I felt it on my lips.

She lifted her face to me, still clutching to me the way I held her close.

"I don't know a language that has a word for what we are," she said. "But we're staying here for a little while."

"At the letter of the law… if not in its spirit."

"One week until you're a VP, Jake." She took a deep breath, let it out in a long sigh, and stepped back. "Technicalities are all we have left."

My arms felt empty, my chest cold, without her close.

"Thank you for staying here and having fun with me, Vi."

We both glanced at the car parking by us on the street. I checked my watch; this would be her driver.

"Goodnight, Jake." Her lips curled at the corners. "I can't wait to hear you sing one of your songs one day."