This is quite a short chapter because we're gradually starting to depart from the poorly rehashed autobiography of me and moving towards what I wish would actually happen (potential massive overshare there, but who cares, it's Christmas) and I need to process it in my head. Thank you for tolerating me and my oddness.

Joseph obviously had more influence with the DJ than she'd given him credit for. By the time he had come back with two vodka and cokes, "Running up that Hill" could be heard booming away in the background.

"I'm impressed," she told him, smiling, as he sat back down beside him.

"It turns out I know the DJ," he told her, "It's Gwen, who used to work on our floor."

"Is that Gwen who left a few years back?"

"Yes, that's her!"

"Elsie told me about her," she replied, taking a drink- she was suddenly feeling the warmth of the crowded club very acutely.

"She's a nice girl-…," Joseph told her.

Phyllis, though, was less interested in hearing about Gwen, and more interested in the man who was talking, and he obviously sensed it.

"Give me a second," she told him, finishing off her drink in one swift motion, "We should dance to this."

He looked at her with a mixture of admiration and alarm, his own drink still in hand. She gave it a glance.

"Are you going to drink that?" she asked him.

"Yes, of course," he replied.

He downed it and took her outstretched hand. Pulling him onto the dance floor, she turned back towards him, still holding his hand, pulling him into her arms as they began to mix amongst other people. They were pushed closer together by the crowd. Everything was converging on her at once- the alcohol that was newly filling her system, the reams of other people, the sound of the song- but it was not overwhelming her, it was making her feel elated, his arms around her keeping her anchored and stable. As she had done before, she leant forwards, pressing a kiss to his cheek, smiling madly against his jaw. He was holding on to her tightly, his arms well around her back.

"Kiss me," she murmured.

No one else was paying them any attention, they formed an island in the centre of introspective dancers and their friends. No one heard what she asked of him, except him. He leant his head back a touch, and looked at her for a second in the darkness and the flashing lights. She tried to tell him, as best she could in the confusing space, that she was in earnest, this was what she wanted, this was what she'd been wanting for a while now.

His hands cupped her cheeks and he leant forwards gently, kissing her softly on the lips.

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