1:

"Andy?" Sharon's voice sounded to his left, startling him. He jumped a little and shifted in his seat to compose himself. She said his name so gently, but he was daydreaming – watching his newlywed daughter dancing with her husband – and he really didn't expect to hear his name.

"Are you okay?" she asked, looking at him with concerned eyes.

"Uh…" he was about to give her a hollow 'yes', but something in the way that she looked at him made him feel safe to tell her the truth. "No, not really," he confessed.

"What's wrong?" her tone wasn't of asking a question, but rather of informing him that somehow she already knew what was going on in his head. Many times she made him feel this way – as if she didn't need words to understand – and each time he was surprised by this incredible emotional intelligence.

"I just… really feel like…" the words came out slowly from his mouth, fighting to stay in the dark.

"Having a drink?" her voice was so soft now and he knew she wasn't judging him.

"Yeah. Let's just get out of here," he was about to get up but she put her warm palm on the back of his left hand, which was resting on the festive-white tablecloth.

"No. Don't justify your family's anger toward you."

"So what am I supposed to do? Stay here at this table and keep receiving those hateful looks from my ex-wife and kids all night?" he hated himself for sounding like such a loser in front of his boss.

"You came here to celebrate with your daughter, right? So… let's show her you're happy for her."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that when I'm miserable?" he asked, although it really didn't feel bad at all, sitting like that with her hand on his.

"Dancing might be a good idea."

"I don't dance."

"I figured that much. But your daughter might see it as a gesture if you do."

Andy looked away from Sharon and scanned the crowed on the dance floor, searching for Nicole. She was right in the middle of the floor, moving gently to a quiet song, her head resting on her husband's shoulder.

"Okay, let's dance," he looked back in Sharon's direction, "but I don't really know –"

"It's not that hard," she was already on her feet, and when his eyes returned to her they landed right on her chest. He got up quickly, trying to disguise the fact that he just stared at his boss' breasts, but he had no doubt that she saw it. Well, it wasn't his fault, he thought to himself, he didn't make her wear that tight red dress – which looked really good on her in his opinion.

As they walked toward the dance floor, Andy remembered the moment he first saw her with that dress when he picked her up from her apartment. He forgot for a second that apart from being his friend tonight, she was also still his boss, and said: "wow… you look really good." She didn't look embarrassed at all as his eyes examined her body, but she never really let her emotions show on her face anyway, so he couldn't be sure of how she felt about it.

They reached the dance floor and he faced her. "Okay… now what?"

Sharon smiled calmly. She took a step toward him and grabbed his right hand, placing it on her lower back without hesitation but in a graceful manner. Andy wished he could feel that comfortable too, but it all still felt weird. When she offered to be his buffer and he happily accepted, he didn't consider all the things that people do in weddings, like dancing very close to each other.

She put one hand on his shoulder, and with her other she grabbed his free hand and held it in the air, at her shoulder height. Their chests were almost touching now and they started to move slowly to the music. Sharon looked away from him, and Andy couldn't help but let his eyes wander down her cleavage. It was like a magnet. Removing his eyes from there required strength that he didn't possess at that precise moment. A wave of warm, tingling sensation suddenly flooded his body.

'Oh, crap,' he thought, 'this can't be happening. She's my boss.' He kept repeating that same line in his mind, but it didn't seem to be able to convince his body. Is she attracted to him too? He wondered. She still wasn't looking at him. Maybe this means she does feel it too. Her bright, green eyes moved from one dancing guest to another, as she apparently was looking anywhere she could in order to avoid looking at him.

Her perfume infiltrated his lungs, intoxicating his brain. The desire to kiss her right there and then felt so natural to him. Without thinking much, his mouth started the journey toward her lips. He felt like he was moving in slow motion, as if this was a movie and not real life, but then she spoke and he was brought back to life.

"Nicole just looked at you and smiled," she finally looked him in the eyes. It was really strange, standing so close to this person he's known for years, whom he knew was usually his Captain, but right now his mind decided to deny that fact. Right now she was a woman first.

"Really? That's great. So… I guess we can leave now," he had no idea why he said that. For a moment, his brain was completely shut down and his body was operating on autopilot, seeing nothing but his goal in front of his eyes. He knew that sensation oh-too-well. It happened to him every time he was determined to pick up a woman. Nothing else mattered in the world during those moments, and now it was almost the exact same thing… but not quite. This time he fought hard to keep his brain in control, knowing who his body was aiming for.