Page 27 of Fauxmance

The security guard shook his head. "The elevator didn't break, kid. There was a power outage, took out half the town for a while."

"Oh," I said.

"No worries, though. It's all up and running again now."

Hayden let out a sigh. Was that relief? Or did I detect a hint of disappointment over the end of our kiss? I gave a mental eyeroll.Yeah, right, Magnolia. Stop projecting."Does that mean you can get us out?"

"Yeah," he said, "I should have you two free in no time."

Everything seemed to speed up after that. Light flooded our little cocoon as the elevator came back to life. We'd apparently been stuck between two floors. Once we were even with one, the doors opened, and I wasn't two steps out before Mom swept me into her arms. I hugged her back just as fiercely. As we walked down the stairs to the lobby, she told me how worried she'd been, how she'd left me a hundred messages, how she'd called the police, but it had taken them a while to get back to her because they'd had to respond to so many calls during the outage. The dress rehearsal was also canceled as a result which she said stressed my sister out. As we exited the building, Hayden walked by and gave me a grin.

"Mom," I said, "I'll be right back."

"Okay," she said. "No problem. I'll be right here, watching like a hawk as you talk to the cute boy who I have so many questions about."

"And I'll answer them all, I promise. I love you, Mom."

"I love you, too. Now go before he gets away."

I hugged her again then ran to catch up with Hayden.

"Were you just going to leave without saying goodbye?" I asked, slightly breathless as I stopped next to him.

He turned to face me, wearing a small smile. "Looked like you were busy."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. You could've said something."

"Parents don't usually like me much," he said. "I didn't want you to get into any trouble."

"Or were you just trying to make a clean getaway?"

"Why would I want to do that?"

"Because of the kiss."

Hayden's eyes flared, making me weak in the knees. "I seem to remember you enjoying it."

"I did," I said, looking up into his eyes. "But…did you?"

"Couldn't you tell?" he said.

I gave a shrug. Yeah, it seemed like he liked the kiss, but I was no expert. Unlike Hayden. I was convinced he could've given a master class on kissing.

"I liked kissing you, Maggie. A lot more than I should have."

My breath suddenly felt short.

Hayden smiled. "That's no surprise, though. I love kissing. I told you that already."

I felt my heart drop at that, but what had I expected? Hayden had more experience in his pinky finger than I had in my whole being. The kiss that had meant so much to me would be simply another set of lips to him. Ah well, it was a beautiful moment. I'd carry that with me always. Hayden had given me that.

I forced a smile. "Well, thank you."

"For what? Giving you the best kiss of your life?" he said. "Proving that it wasn't you but your stupid ex who made you dislike kissing? You're welcome."

"Yesthat," I said. "But also for everything on the elevator. It could've been terrible. I really thought I might die in there. But you made it better, Hayden. Thank you for that."

He nodded. "Same to you, Maggie."

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