His hand was warm on her skin, and she looked down automatically to the touch. She didn’t pull away. Or move. Or breathe, barely. It was so casual, just a touch to keep her from leaving. It didn’t actually mean anything, but Dora wanted it to, so she didn’t dare do anything that would break it. In fact, she could have used it to make that first move, to draw close to him, kiss him maybe. Later, she would recognize this as the perfect opportunity to test the waters and see if there really was anything between them, but in the moment, all she could think about was the anxiety in her chest, the smell of his cologne, the warmth of his fingers. There were no clever flirty little lines in her head at all.
“Okay, I’ll stay.” Her tone was a little more breathy than she’d have liked, but at least she wasn’t like, weak at the knees or anything stupid like that. She was starting to get her wits back about her anyway.
“And I do have to get you something, because I like buying gifts for the people I care about.” There, that was obvious without being obvious, right?