Amanda Ashby - You Had Me at Halo

For a moment Simon looked like he was going to say something smart. Perhaps with his fists? But as Vince’s steady cool gaze continued to stare at him, he seemed to change his mind and his hands dropped back to his side and without another word he spun around and he and the other account managers staggered towards the door.

Good riddance.

“Hey, Murphy, that was pretty cool,” Tina MacDonald purred. “Do you want a drink?”

Pulease. Had Rochelle been giving her lessons?

“No thanks. I just wanted to see if Holly’s okay.”

“She’s fine.” Gemma put a protective arm around Holly’s shoulder and started to drag her to one side. “Thanks for your help.”

“Actually, Gem.”—Holly wriggled free—“I sort of wanted to say thank you to Vince myself. That was a close call.”

Gemma was about to open her mouth in protest when Holly saw a familiar looking guy walking towards them. “Hey, isn’t that Andrew, one of the technicians? I think he’s coming to ask you to dance.”

“I can’t dance with him,” Gemma protested.

“I think he’s kind of cute.” Tina fluffed her hair and hitched up her skirt some more. “Maybe he’s coming to ask me to dance?”

Holly’s lip twitched. “No, I think it’s definitely Gemma he wants. You should go for it.”

“No, I couldn’t. Could I? Is he really looking at me?” Gemma suddenly started to fiddle with the ring on her finger. “The thing is, I never told you this before, but I’ve actually talked to him a couple times when’s come into the department for…well…actually I’m not sure what it was for, but he was quite nice. Bad taste in ties though.”

“You definitely shouldn’t judge a man by his tie,” Holly assured her. “I think nice is often underrated in a guy. You should definitely go for it.”

“Okay,” squeaked Gemma as she nervously started to walk towards him. “I just might.”

“So, are you alright?” Vince’s blue eyes caught hers. “That was a pretty close call.”

Holly felt her stomach do a series of flip-flops as she returned his gaze. And could she just say how much nicer it was to be able to look at him properly rather than just through a mirror.

“I’m fine,” she croaked. “And thanks. I think I would’ve missed the rest of the ball if you hadn’t pushed me out of the way.”

“I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.” He gave her a familiar shrug and Holly longed to touch him.

“You have a habit of doing that,” she said without thinking and then blushed. Gosh, already the weight of a double life was sitting on her shoulders. Definitely time for a subject change. “S-so I didn’t think you normally came to this sort of thing.”

“I don’t,” Vince said in a wonderfully familiar gruff voice. “In fact I’m not sure why I changed my mind? I guess the guys I worked with finally managed to wear me down into saying yes.”

“R-right, so you’re not here with anyone else then?” Holly tried to sound casual but was sure she was failing miserable. Still, if she didn’t ask she would go mad. “I-I heard you and Amy Jenkins were…”

Vince gave an adamant shake of his head. “Definitely nothing between us. Didn’t you know?”

Holly looked at him in surprise. “Know what?” That Amy had been sent away to an institution as punishment for an unhealthy habit of trying to poison people with motion sickness tablets?

“She got seconded for a year. To the Outer Mongolian office.”

Holly giggled. Well, it wasn’t criminal justice at its best, but there was a certain amount of satisfaction to be had from it. To think she had doubted that heaven didn’t know what they were doing when it came to divine retribution.

“So how about you?” Vince’s voice sounded deeper than ever. “Are you here alone? I saw Todd dancing with Rochelle Jackson and then someone said you guys—”

“Are over.” Holly wondered if it would be too forward to stop all of this chit-chat and just kiss him. After all, she’d lived in his body for two days and now knew him better than she knew her best friend. Surely certain formalities could be wavered in such circumstances? Just a pity Vince was showing no signs of remembering any of it.

She’d already tried to test Gemma and her stepmother on this but it had been no dice. Trust Dr. Hill to finally get something right.

“Really?” Vince sounded pleased and Holly’s heart did an absurd little leap. “Because I was wondering if you’d like to—”

“Yes, please,” Holly said before he could even finish and she winced. She’d become so used to knowing what he was going to say, she’d forgotten he didn’t have any knowledge of it.

As he reached out for her hand to lead her towards the dance floor, he didn’t look too unhappy about the situation.

It wasn’t exactly a slow song. In fact, over the sound system Green Day was belting out the words at a hundred miles an hour, but Holly didn’t care. Vince Murphy had asked her to dance with him and dance she would.

She slipped her hands around his waist and after a moment of surprise she felt his arms wrap tightly around her shoulders. Ah, this was better. Ever since she’d been back in her body, she’d had a niggling sense something was missing. Now she knew what. Vince.

She pressed herself tighter. He was probably going to think she was the biggest harlot in the whole world—well apart from Rochelle Jackson, obviously. But Holly didn’t care. She had been dead for two weeks. She needed a hug.

The song finally finished and as a 50 Cent tune pumped through the air, Vince started to say something to her.

“What?” she called out over the music but once again he was drowned out and so he shook his head before grabbing her hand and leading her to the darkened side of the room.

“Couldn’t hear a thing,” he explained as he leaned against the wall. “There was something I wanted to ask you.”

“Yes?” Holly gulped, reverently hoping it would involve the words kissing and now.

Vince fidgeted with his hand and Holly noticed the swollen knuckles were no longer there. Pity, since it meant Todd never got punched in the face after all. But still a girl couldn’t have everything.

Then he shook his head. “Actually, don’t worry. It would just sound stupid.”

“What would sound stupid?” If you’re going to ask me out it wouldn’t sound stupid at all. Or if you wanted to kiss me—definitely not so stupid…

He thrust his hands into his pockets and Holly’s heart went into overdrive. Was he just the hottest guy who had ever lived?

“I never should’ve opened my mouth,” he said.

“Yes, well you did and you can’t not tell me now. It wouldn’t be fair. I’m a woman. We are a curious by nature. It’s part of the job description.”

He blew out a column of air and rolled his eyes. “Fine, but can you at least keep your laughing to a minimum when I say it?”

“How do you know I’ll laugh?” she protested.

“Because in my dreams you seemed to laugh at me a lot.”

Holly felt her heart start to thump. “Your dreams?”

“See, I told you it was going to sound crazy.” He shook his head and looked off into the distance. “Okay, I think I’m just going to go…”

“No.” Holly grabbed his arm. Well, that was a mistake and she shivered as all sorts of nice tingly feelings went whizzing around her body. “Please don’t go. I want to hear more about these dreams.”

He dropped his head so he was now looking directly at her. “You just seemed to be in them. A lot. Which is stupid right, since we hardly know each other.”

“We did used to play together as kids,” she croaked, unable to drag herself away from Vince’s gaze.