Yor found herself pacing outside the society meeting room at 7:03. Today she would have a date with Loid in front of the entire society. It was one of Henderson's brilliant ideas to show an example of an elegant date. 'Why did it have to be in front of everyone? I can hardly think about having a date with Loid without becoming overwhelmed, and now I have to do it for real in front of the whole society. I'm never going to get through this.'

Loid opened the door of the society room. "There you are. I was looking for you. What are you doing?"

"Thinking."

Loid smiled. 'She's picking up some of my mannerisms.' "Do you want to elaborate?'

She looked at him while continuing to pace. "It's just a lot of people to be doing this in front of."

He stepped out into the hallway with her. "It is a lot of pressure, especially for our first date."

She halted mid-step. She certainly wasn't going to bring that up, but what did it mean that he brought it up first?

He put a hand on her upper arm. "But that doesn't mean we can't do it. We're going to show them how kind we are to each other, and any mistakes we can blame as nerves from being watched by so many people."

Her other foot fell to the ground. "Right, of course." She smiled at him.

He looked away feeling suddenly nervous. "What are you doing in two weeks after school?"

"I'm not sure yet. Why?"

"I would like to take you out for our anniversary."

"Oh. You don't have to do that. It's not even a real anniversary."

"I want to. If you would let me."

'Should I? It's going to be hard not to take everything the wrong way. He's only doing this for appearances.' "I think I would like that."

He smiled looking right into her eyes. "Thank you, Yor."

She blushed and was the first to look away. "Um, where are we going?"

"I'm afraid that's top secret."

"You can't do that! How am I supposed to know what to wear?"

He laughed. "That's not going to be a problem."

"Yes, it is, Loid. What if we're going to a nice restaurant and I wear jeans or we go to play paintball and I'm in a fancy dress? I could embarrass you."

He carefully brought a hand to hold her jaw. "You could never embarrass me, dear."

His closeness and touch reminded her of the night at his apartment and the gravitational pull he had on her which of course made her blush more than before.

Loid realized how close they had gotten as well and let go before this could become whatever happened that night she came to his apartment. He cleared his throat. "Camilla will pick you up and take care of the rest." He turned and walked back into the society room.

"Wait a minute! What do you mean the rest? Loid?" She followed and called after him, but he found himself suddenly busy with society preparations.

True to Loid's word, the example date wasn't that bad. The way Loid kept Yor's hand in his on top of the table and rubbed his thumb along the space between Yor's thumb and index finger kept Yor pacified and distracted from the forty-nine other couples and Henderson watching them. (It should have been fifty, but with Camilla out of school and her relationship with Dominic still firmly over, Dominic was ineligible to attend.) It was remarkably easy for Loid to forget that everyone else was here because Yor was looking at him with her big, warm eyes.

"You have the loveliest eyes of anyone I've met, dearest."

Yor blushed. "Thank you, darling."

"Did you do something different with your hair? It looks nice."

She had swapped her usual updo for a side braid. "Yes, I did. That's really sweet of you to notice. How did your physics exam go? I know you were nervous about the motion section."

"I appreciate you remembering. It went well, better than expected. I did miss one question in that section, but otherwise it was a perfect exam."

"Congratulations, darling! That's wonderful. Perhaps I can quiz you on that section before the next exam."

"That would be helpful. How thoughtful of you."

"I don't mind. Anything to help my brilliant boyfriend. Oh, I meant to tell you, my mother wants to have you over for dinner in a few weeks. Would you mind terribly?"

Loid blinked. "Of course not! I'd be honored to meet your family."

"Really?"

"Really. It would be quite ungallant of me to say no especially when you've met my mother."

"Right." For the second time that day, she found her mind drifting back to that night with his body backing hers against the counter and both bodies leaning in toward each other to do what exactly? She said the first thing that came to mind to distract from how red she was, "Now you'll get the chance to hear my family embarrass me. It seems only fair after your mother told me that you had a crush on me for three years."

Loid had not planned on her bringing that up today, or ever really. He felt the heat up to the tip of his ears and found himself speechless.

She smiled reassuringly. "It's all right, darling. It's sweet that you were thinking about me back then. If it makes you feel better, I fancied you for some time before we started dating, too." 'Why did I just admit that? To him? In front of everyone? Oh god, I'm not ready to have that conversation.'

"Yeah, for like forever!" Someone yelled from the back of the society's seating area.

Other students laughed. Henderson shushed them all.

Yor looked down at their joined hands.

"I guess we were made for each other then. What day did your mother have in mind?"

"October 7th after our last day at the hospital."

"I'll have to make something ahead of time for my mother, but I can't imagine she would disapprove of the idea. She likes you a lot. With how much she talks about you and asks about you, you'd think you were her daughter."

Yor met his eyes and laughed with him. That did sound like something his mother would do. "I suppose we'll have to make time for her as well. After all, I haven't seen any baby pictures yet."

He laughed again. "No, no baby pictures. Didn't anyone tell you you ought to wait for marriage for that?"

She laughed. "I think you've gotten yourself confused, darling."

"Luckily, I have you to set me right."

"Yes, you do."

"Kiss!" Someone called out from the crowd. Others joined in expressing the same sentiment. Henderson tried to quiet them, but this had gotten out of his control.

Loid watched Yor become hyperaware of the eyes and demands of the crowd. She looked like she regretted coming to school this morning. Loid stood and glared down at the crowd.

All the shouts stopped.

"It's extremely indecorous of you to demand physical affection from us in public. How can we call ourselves the Elegant Love Society when we're yelling at our fellows like it's a spectator sport?"

"Someone's afraid to kiss his girlfriend!" Someone yelled. Others laughed.

"Funny. It's truly none of your business, but kissing in public is a boundary that we have set because neither of us are comfortable doing so. I won't speak for Yor, but I am extremely reluctant to share that intensely personal moment with any of you especially when you're going to heckle me."

Henderson picked out the heckler and informed them that they would be staying for detention.

Loid turned back to Yor. "I'm so sorry. Are you all right, dearest?"

Yor felt her eyes starting to water, but she couldn't pinpoint why.

Loid helped her out of the room while Henderson reminded the rest of the society about the field trip.