She smiled and looked down, and I could feel her hand on my knee as she finished that sentence.  My entire family eats with their left hand under the table because it’s the "proper" thing to do, and we have a table cloth, so no one noticed her hand.  I liked it there, and Ashley didn’t move it for the rest of the meal.  I saw a look of relief on her face when the conversation turned to Clay and Chelsea and off of her potential love-life.  Dinner ended, and I tried to help my mom clean up the dishes, but she insisted that I go ahead with Ashley to Grey.

"If you’re coming back here tonight, be back by midnight.  But let us know if you’re going to stay over anywhere else."

I nodded and Ashley and I walked out the front door towards her Porsche.  She walked with me to the passenger side and opened my door.  I gave her a sideways glance with a goofy smile.  "Ash, I can open my own car door!"

"I know, but I don’t want you to lift a finger tonight."  She winked at me and closed the door.  When she got in the car I instantly took her hand in mine and interlocked our fingers.

"I’ve been wanting to do that since we first sat at the table."

She smiled a full smile at me and leaned over, brushing her lips on my chin giving me a lingering kiss on the cheek.  When she pulled away she looked me in the eyes and softly said, "And I’ve been wanting to do that since you called me ‘baby’ again tonight.  That pretty much makes me crazy."

She leaned back into her seat and started her car, and we drove to Grey listening to the radio and doing our best to sing along.  We got to the club and made our way to the same table from the previous week.  Madison came over, and after a battle of wits with Ashley for a moment, went to fetch our first round of drinks.  Ashley moved her chair closer to mine and put her arm over the back of my chair.  I was suddenly aware of the fact that there are a lot of eyes on us.

"Ashley, people are staring."

She looked at me, confused.  "Of course they’re staring.  The two hottest girls in the bar are here together.  They’re jealous," she said with a smirk.

"We’re not together, Ashley."

I realized that I said that with a very cold inflection in my voice.  She retracted her arm from my shoulder and crossed it with the other one across her chest.  "Sorry," she mumbled.  Madison walked up with our drinks, and before she even had the chance to walk to the next table, we both signaled to go ahead and bring another round.

I looked at her, and could see hurt in her eyes.  "Ash, I didn’t mean…"

"No, Spencer, look it’s okay.  You’re right; we’re not together.  I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable.  This is all so new to both of us.  You’ve never been on a date with a girl, and I’ve never been on a date with a girl who hasn’t been with other girls.  You know my past, Spence.  You know that I used to sleep around a lot.  You’re not the kind of girl I normally go after.  You’re sweet, you’re intelligent, you’re humble, you’re gentle, you’re beautiful in absolutely every way, and… and I just don’t know how to treat a girl like you.  I don’t want to rush you into anything you aren’t ready for.  I want everything to be perfect, because you’re perfect.  So you just have to promise me that if I do something, or say something that you can’t handle that you’ll just tell me so we can get this right."

I was completely floored by her honesty, and wasn’t sure how to respond at first.  But then I just laughed.  When I looked up, she was just staring at me with her jaw dropped.

"Everything is fine, Ashley.  You’ll know how I feel about things as we’re together.  I don’t care about those other girls.  I’m here with you because I want to be," I took her hand in mine and placed our hands on my lap before pulling her to her feet. 

"Now," I breathed into her ear, "come dance with me, baby."