He smiled to himself and kept his hand in place, using the other to wield his fork, pick up his glass, and so forth. Arousal buzz or no, he very much liked the subtle contact. In general, he really liked being seated next to Hermann versus across the table, and wondered why they hadn't thought to do that before, why all the waitstaff everywhere ever always seated couples across from each other. With music or general crowd noise in some of these places, it was way too loud. It was much more conducive to talking and conspiring and being couplish to sit next to each other or at connected sides of one corner. So what if movies and pictures preferred the across-the-table romantic setup?

"I don't know. Dinner's pretty exciting. 'Later' has a lot to measure up to."