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“I saw you from the kitchen window and didn’t want you to wait too long.” Noel sits down in the passenger seat, taking a deep breath. “Do I look okay?”

He looks dashing. Obviously, he is a very handsome man and would probably look good in anything, but that aside, he also dressed well for the night. “Let me take a closer look,” I say earnestly.

Noel nods, looking slightly confused when I lean forward. I grin, catching him completely by surprise when I pull him into a kiss. Noel recovers quickly, his hand moves to my neck, his fingers playing with my hair, while he opens his lips slightly, allowing my tongue to slip past them. He tastes like mint, so refreshing. He must have brushed his teeth right before he came down.

Something about this makes my chest tighten. I like this guy. I don’t even understand why, I just know, I do.

Unfortunately, we are on the clock, or I would have prolonged this a little. When I draw back, Noel just stares at me wide-eyed. “I did not expect that greeting!” His cheeks flush, and he grins.

“Good to see I am able to surprise you.”

Noel clasps his cheeks, smacking them slightly.

“What are you doing?”

“Obviously, I am still asleep,” he deadpans. “You are too good to be true.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I am just a normal guy.”

“Yeah, totally.” Noel rolls his eyes at me with his usual attitude. I should be annoyed, but I find it endearing. Maybe because his reactions are always so honest, he is being himself without being hurtful. It’s cute. “Anything I should be prepared for?” he suddenly asks.

“No, don’t worry. This exhibition is mostly for patrons. I won’t drag you in front of the press with me.”

“Thank god,” he mutters. “If you ever do that, you need to tell me days in advance. I’d need to prepare myself properly.”

“I’d need to be prepared for such an occasion, too,” I chuckle.

Noel casts me a gaze I don’t quite understand, but I don’t feel it’s the right time to enquire about what he is thinking. We almost reached our destination after all. If I hadn’t been on this business trip until earlier today, I would have invited Noel to dinner first so that we could spend some time with each other. But as things are, we’ll have to catch up on everything during the event.

It’s still mind-boggling to me that I am taking him with me as my official plus one. That’s much bolder than I ever was. When I was with Emil, he didn’t like the spotlight, so I never took him along. And all my other hookups, well, they weren’t important enough to me.

And now, here I am with this young man, whom I barely know. And it was me, who made the first step to kiss him.

Thinking about it now, it’s no surprise that Lynn squealed. This is absolutely unusual for me.

“Now if you had chocolate, you would be truly perfect,” Noel mutters more to himself than to me.

“Just open the glove compartment,” I say. “Cedric keeps a stash there.”

Noel stares at me. “Wait… you have chocolate…” he pauses, furrowing his brows. “Who is Cedric?”

He sounds a little off, but maybe I am just imagining things. “My assistant,” I say. “You must have met him during the last exhibit.”

“Oh,” Noel nods. “The blond guy, right? Mateo introduced him to me. I completely forgot.” He blinks. “Are you really working together with him? How does that work out?”

“Why is everyone asking that?” I mutter.

“I don’t know.” Noel grins, suddenly sounding more like himself again. “Maybe because one of you is a picture-perfect, neat businessman and the other is like an overexcited mascot?”

“And again, everyone keeps saying that,” I sigh.

“Yeah, I wonder why,” Noel chuckles. “But hey, if it works, it’s great.”

“I am said to be a perfectionist at my work,” I explain. “The words demanding and strict fall a lot…”

Noel looks at me curiously. “Really? You don’t come off like that to me. I mean,perfectionist,I get that, after all, you own a gallery and love what you do. I can see you trying to do everything as perfectly as possible. But you don’t come off as demanding or strict to me. Maybe a bit serious, but that’s not the same.”

Again, with his honesty. Something about the blunt way he just said what he did, alsowhathe said, makes me happy. “To be honest, I don’t think I am easy to work with,” I admit. “But I don’t demand my assistants work themselves to the bone, or even to keep up with me. I just want to get a sense of passion for the line of work from them.”