She’d been especially surprised by his heartfelt outburst about his job on their way here. She’d wanted to ask him more questions about that, but he seemed a little embarrassed, so she decided to hold off. But everything he said about his job made her respect him more.

She shook her head at herself. What was she doing? She didn’t need to like and respect this guy! Sure, yes, it was nice, since she’d likely be voting for him for reelection in about four years, but this movie was just a preamble to sex later that night, and then they’d never see each other again. Liking him too much was a waste of time!

Max scanned the tickets from his phone, and they found their seats inside the movie theater. This was one of those new theaters with reserved seats and big comfortable chairs, and when they sat down, they grinned at each other.

“Can you believe we put up with those old, narrow movie theater chairs for so long?” Max said to her.

“You read my mind,” she said as she reclined her chair. “These are great.”

He reclined his chair to meet hers, and handed her the popcorn.

“Don’t let me eat so much popcorn I ruin my dinner,” he said.

She laughed.

“If you were that hungry, we could have stopped on the way here. Or gotten you your own popcorn.”

He shook his head.

“I’m actually not that hungry—I ate so many of those cookies they give you on the plane, but it’s easy to eat an enormous amount of popcorn without even thinking about it.”

When the trailers started, Olivia relaxed into her chair. She barely cared what was on the screen; it was just nice to be out, in this comfortable chair, with Max next to her. Their arms touched as they lay on the armrests, and it felt soothing. Comforting. For just a moment, she could believe that someday her career and life would be in order again. She moved her hand just a tiny bit closer to his, and he immediately wove his fingers together with hers. She had a sudden instinct to pull her hand away—this felt too … boyfriend-like. She didn’t want a boyfriend, and she especially didn’t want someone like Max Powell for a boyfriend. He was too high profile, too full of himself, too high maintenance for her. And she was sure he didn’t want someone like her for a girlfriend. But she couldn’t bring herself to let go of his hand. So they watched the rest of the movie like that, hand in hand.

She forced herself to let go of his hand when the credits started.

“What did you think?” he asked her as they walked to the car.