Ryan slid ungracefully into his desk chair as Hetty leapt backwards.

In walked Ryan's mom. At the threshold stood Linda, the principal's secretary, who had presumably accompanied Lilly to show her the location of Ryan's office.

"Lilly!" Luckily, the shock of seeing Ryan's mom snapped Hetty out of her previous state and shattering the tense heat in the room.

"Come here, gorgeous!" Lilly enveloped her in a huge, warm hug.

"I didn't know you were in town!" Hetty declared, genuinely happy to see her again after so many years. She had always cared a great deal for Ryan's mother.

"You didn't tell me you were coming to my work, mom," Ryan half-heartedly complained.

"I wanted to see Hetty. It's been so long. You're even more beautiful!" Lilly cupped Hetty's cheeks in her hands briefly - not in a grandmotherly way, but in her own elegant expression of love. Hetty blushed as she caught Ryan staring at her from behind his mother's back.

"Are you two off work yet? Hetty, will you join Ryan and me for a drink or some dinner?"

"Uh..." Hetty stammered, uncertain of how to respond. She glanced over at Ryan, whose eyes were lit up with hope.

"Oh, please. It will be so lovely to catch up!" Lilly practically insisted. It was impossible to resist her warmth, even if she had wanted to. Truthfully, Hetty was so damn tired of resisting.

"Okay," she croaked out. "Let me gather my things." She hurried down to her office to grab her purse and text Cooper.

Hey Coop, I'm going to grab a drink/dinner with a friend and their mom who's in town. I'll be home a bit later.

He responded back immediately.

Sounds good. I'll stay late at the office to finish up some work then.

Hetty kept waiting for Cooper to realize that something was off with her. She had been distracted for weeks. Bothered, lost in daydreams, disconnected from him. Had he noticed the chemistry between her and Ryan on Saturday? He hadn't mentioned a thing to her.

* * *

On the way to the restaurant, Ryan felt his mom staring at him as he drove.

"Did I interrupt something, earlier?"

Ryan cleared his throat awkwardly but didn't respond. He didn't know what to say. Inside his chest rushed a ridiculous, childish hope that his mom would be able to convince Hetty to dump her fiancé for him.

At the restaurant, Lilly ordered a bottle of white wine for the table. At the first sip, Hetty felt her body already rushing with thrilling, tingling emotions. One of which was an overwhelming desire to make out with Ryan in the bathroom. She pushed the fantasy aside.

The three chatted easily for an hour, drinking wine and meandering from topic to topic. Hetty learned more about Ryan - some of the experiences he'd had since college, his path to getting a Master in Psychology and his music projects. The more she learned, the more she liked who he had turned out to be.

Lilly also asked Hetty plenty of questions about herself. Eventually, she broached the subject which was the vague, looming elephant in the room.

"Ryan tells me you're engaged."

"Oh... yes. Cooper." Hetty could already feel herself clamming up.

"How did you two meet?"

"We met at this little restaurant-bar place my best friend Stephanie and I used to go to all the time on weekends, when I was starting my master program."

"And what does Cooper do?" Lilly asked evenly.

"He's in the tech industry - he works for AT&T."

Hetty wanted to disappear. Her throat seemed glued shut, and it was all she could do to produce a one-sentence answer to each of Lilly's simple questions. She couldn't help peering across at Ryan in concern. His eyes were downcast and his body was tense.

"Have you two started planning the wedding yet?" asked Lilly neutrally.

"Oh, um... no, not yet. We haven't really talked about that yet."

Suddenly, Lilly's phone started buzzing in her purse.

"I'm so sorry," she mouthed to them upon answering. "Let me take this outside for just a few minutes." Lilly got up from the table, catching the attention of the waiter on her way outside to order a second bottle of wine.

Hetty exhaled the breath she didn't realize she had been holding in, then glanced up at Ryan with hesitation.

"Sorry about that," they both said at the same time. They snorted back their giggles. Hetty felt the tension dissipate completely.

"I love your mom so much," she gushed, staring with relaxed eyes at Ryan. Her cheeks were glowing from the alcohol. She lost herself in the sight of his ridiculously handsome face. Noticing a light fluttering sensation between her legs, she smiled slyly across the table. Hetty supposed he must be just as excitable as she was after two glasses of wine. He was biting his lip unconsciously and wouldn't take his eyes off her.

* * *

Ryan wished to God he was sitting next to Hetty instead of across from her, so he could find some way to create physical contact. Throwing out any shred of good judgment he had left inside of him, Ryan let out an amused chuckle.

"What's so funny, Mr. McAlister?" Hetty demanded playfully.

"My therapist says I should tell you how I feel about you," Ryan revealed, still laughing slightly.

"How do you feel?" Hetty asked, leaning across the table towards him with a devilish smile.

"How do you think?" he returned.

"I think you might love me." Her words were simple and light, a drop of pebbles into the surface of a cool pond. Ryan shook his head in amused exasperation.

"That's the most ridiculous... Jesus, Hetty! Of course I love you."

Their eyes hooked into each other's for several seconds of heavy silence.

"I think you love me, too," Ryan ventured, emboldened by the alcohol. Fireworks of conflicting emotions sparked in her hazel eyes, and Hetty dropped her gaze.

Ryan continued. "I'm all-consumed by you. Just to be clear, I'd marry you tomorrow, have kids together, all of that. I want to be with you - forever. Just in case there's any doubt. I'm dead serious."

"Ryan," she whispered, with intense longing.

Their feelings were so out in the open. Yet, he still had no idea what sorts of thoughts or plans were going on in her head. He couldn't bring himself to ask if she was thinking of leaving Cooper, if she was close to deciding. If that was even a possibility in her mind. She had hinted at it a couple of times, but beyond that he was completely in the dark. He had told her on Saturday that he couldn't wait any longer in this limbo. She had sent him a heart emoji.

Lilly returned to the table. Ryan excused himself to go to the restroom. He needed a respite, a moment to let the cramping knots of emotion in his throat soften so he could breathe again.

Clasping her soft hand around Hetty's forearm, Lilly leaned forward in a gesture of genuine care. Hetty didn't realize just how much she had missed having this woman in her life.

"You both look like ticking time bombs." She squeezed Hetty's arm, letting her know it was okay to share her truth.

"I'm... I don't know what to do. I know what I want, but I'm afraid."

"What do you want?"

Hetty didn't say anything for a while. She fidgeted, twisting her cloth napkin in her fingers with a sort of nervous despair.

"I want Ryan."

There was a long pause. Lilly allowed Hetty's truth to hang in the air.

"But it's not so simple. Six weeks ago, I was completely happy with Cooper - or at least I though I was. I do love him. It's not so easy to throw aside two years. I'm not sure I'm thinking with a clear head."

She spotted Ryan returning from the restroom. His hair looked damp, as if he had splashed cold water on it. The thought of him needing to physically cool himself down due to sitting across from her gave her a thrilling rush. She loved that she got him so worked up.

They ordered pastas and salads and drank up the second bottle of wine. The eye contact between Hetty and Ryan scorched hotter with each passing minute.

Hetty got up to use the restroom as dinner wound down, realizing how tipsy she was as she stood up.

"I might need help walking to the bathroom," she laughed, making fun of herself as she steadied her balance against the table.

Ryan stood up next to her, his hands immediately on her to steady her. Hetty squinted at him in a playfully mocking expression.

"I was joking," she scolded him.

"Well, I have to go to the bathroom also, so I'll walk with you just in case," he teased back. He saw his mother give him a warning stare-down so piercing he would have been frightened if his brain weren't floating in alcohol. Instead, he scrunched up his face and threw his hand spastically in the air in what he somehow imagined, in his drunken stupor, to be a reassuring gesture.

Ryan kept his hand on Hetty's lower back all the way to the restroom, causing electric sparks to pass between them. As soon as they turned the corner out of sight, he had his body draped around hers, his mouth breathing practically right into hers. He imagined pushing her inside the restroom and fingering her between the legs until she was panting and whimpering and trembling with pleasure.

His mind was exploding as the fantasy played out, and he no longer believed he could resist the temptation of actually following through on it. Ryan honestly didn't think Hetty would stop him, though he wasn't sure. As his hands went to her waist, fingers trailing lightly towards her bottom, he finally blurted out what he needed to say.

"I can't resist you anymore. Are you going to leave him? Tell me you're at least considering it. I know you want me, too." His face was dangerously close to hers, blowing his electrified breath all over her as he whispered his pleas.

Ryan's body, pressed practically right up against her now, pulsated with anticipation.

"I do want you," she affirmed, in a strangled whisper.

Ryan nearly lost his mind. He was so hard it hurt, and there was no opportunity for release. Mirroring his physical agony was his emotional desperation. His heart, on the verge of exploding, ached for her to finally give into him.

They stared at each other for the longest time, breathing together. They searched each other's eyes, every speck of color in their pupils longingly explored and exploring.

"Hetty..." he implored in an imperceptible whisper. "What are you thinking?"

* * *

When she heard his question, an inexplicable lightness suddenly overtook Hetty's head, as if heavy grey clouds were being swept away by a swift wind. The feathery feeling expanded into her chest, the fluttering of a thousand butterflies. She could choose. She could choose Ryan.

A bursting, inward smile overtook her, causing her lips to upturn in joyful twitches. She flashed her green sea glass eyes at Ryan, bright and clear and unencumbered.

"I have to get home." The words gushed out of her mouth. Ryan appeared taken aback by the mismatched glow of her beaming eyes and the contradictory words. Hetty brushed her hand across his entire body in one expert motion, managing to make contact with his chest, stomach and very near someplace else. She pressed her body ever so briefly into his and brushed her lips across his cheek as she maneuvered around him. He let out a wheeze of wild desire that sent Hetty reeling.

"I have to take care of things at home. Can your mom drive me home? I think she's still sober," she asked on her way towards the restroom door.

Ryan hooked his hand in hers, caught her and brought himself back into her, plunging his lips into her neck in one feverish act of recklessness. Hetty gasped loudly, then ripped herself away from him, rushing into the bathroom, mouth half-open in a shocked smile.

* * *

Alone in the restaurant hallway, Ryan ran his hands through his sweaty, messy hair in a spastic gesture of exasperation and exhilaration.