It was nice.

The lights went down, indicating a commercial break. Noah sat, and I realized my mistake. I should have squeezed past him immediately, because now I’d have to climb over him to get out. But was I supposed to leave? Shelby had told me to stay put until the original seat owner returned. And the original owner was Noah’s date. Maybe she’d made a break for it after she found out what an egomaniac he was.

I sat down, ignoring him, still wiping at my skin and hoping I hadn’t been on camera with melted chocolate all over my throat.

But it wasn’t like before, when I’d just sat here minding my own business. Now I felt this weird, awkward energy between us. I’d read once that he had social anxiety and hated making small talk. Although what we’d just been doing wouldn’t exactly qualify as small talk. More like “you suck” talk.

He cleared his throat. “So . . .” His voice trailed off, and I found that I was desperately curious to find out what he was about to say, but he got to his feet.

There was a gorgeous woman standing next to him. She had on one of those body-contouring dresses that had been made out of thin strips of white fabric. Almost like bandages. It showed off her perfect figure but also had me wondering if the national museum in Egypt knew she had escaped their exhibit.

I’d bet anything she didn’t have an emergency Snickers bar in her clutch.

“Excuse me, but you are in my seat.” She said the words through her clenched, perfect white teeth.

“I’m the seat filler. Just keeping it warm for you,” I joked, but she glared at me. I stood up and was suddenly at a loss as to what to do. If Noah had moved over into the aisle, it would have been very easy for me to get out and head backstage.

But he stayed put, standing there.

Which meant that I would be forced to brush past him to escape, and honestly? I didn’t think my shot nerves could take the sensation of full-frontal touching.

Then Barbie Mummy made the decision for me by coming into the row. I backed up as much as I could into the poor woman who had been seated on my other side, apologizing to her as I did so.

Noah’s date took her seat, shooting me a look of triumph. I could go out the other way. But then I’d have to climb over, like, twenty people, and that did not sound appealing to me.

Time to swallow my pride and just get out of here. “Sorry,” I said to his date, “I just need to . . .”