“I didn’t run out,” Conor said. “I sprinted.”

“Come on.” I pushed him a little bit. “Don’t tell me you’re the kind of person who’d abandon the person they brought, okay? Because you’re not.”

“No, I guess not,” Conor said with a shrug. He was fighting a smile, but I couldn’t figure out why.

“So. Okay. Who is your…uh…who is she?” I asked.

“The love of my life,” Conor said. “What do you think?”

I just stared at him. “Seriously?”

“No, of course not!” Now he playfully shoved me, for a change. “I mean, I do like her. But that’s Janie. We’re pals.”

“But…you came together. Didn’t you?”

“What? Oh, no. We ran into each other when we got here. Bumped into her in the entryway.”

“Oh.” I tried not to smile so much that it hurt, but it was difficult. My mouth kept making this happy shape. It was straining the smile muscles. “Really?” I almost snickered, but I held it back.

“Did you think…wow. You thought we were a couple?” Conor asked.

“Well, I asked Sean if you had a date and he said yes,” I said.

“Like he knows anything about anyone except himself?” Conor said. “The fact he could remember that he was supposed to pick you up is amazing.”

“Come on, give him a break,” I said. “He’s maybe not the best guy…but he’s not the worst.”

“Yeah. Okay. Anyway, do you think that I would ask you out, and then, like, go with someone else?” Conor said.

“I don’t know. I mean…I was going with Sean, when I really wanted to go with you.”

“Aha! I knew it,” Conor said.

“And I came to tell you that, and I saw you walk in together, and you were in the corner of that den, talking to her, and I just assumed…”

“That we were…together together?” Conor laughed. “If you only knew.”

I folded my arms in front of me, which wasn’t a bad idea anyway because I was getting chilly. “Enlighten me.”

“She was upset because she liked someone else there. She was trying to convince me to go talk to him for her.”

“You. A matchmaker? Ha. I thought you said you and Janie were good friends. I mean, doesn’t she know you better than that?”

“Hey. No fair. I did tell her that asking me to ask someone to dance with her was a little, uh, strange.”

“So that’s why you were whispering,” I said.

“Exactly.”

“Hmm.” I tapped my shoe against the slushy pavement—a layer of ice had built up underneath the sole so that I couldn’t really make contact.

“So. Now what?” Conor asked. He reached over and pulled some snow out of my hair. “If you don’t want a ride home, do you want to go somewhere else?”

I nodded, biting my lip. “Yeah. But where?”

We stood there for a minute, not moving, the snow falling lightly. “I have an idea,” Conor said. “Come on.” He reached out for my hand. I took it and we headed for the truck.

“See, Gretchen said I was silly to wear this jacket with this dress. But I think you have to admit that it goes very nicely.” I smoothed my dress and looked at the way it fanned out over the top of my blue rental skates. “I don’t know if I would go with blue, but…”

Conor finished tying his hockey skate laces and stood up. “It works,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said, knowing that I probably looked sort of ridiculous. “How did you know this skating rink was open late?”

We stepped through the opening in the boards onto the ice. A few other people were out, enjoying the evening on skates. Romantic music was playing over a loudspeaker in the corner. The snow had stopped, and the air felt almost warm, with no wind.

“I read about it in the paper,” he said. “I knew it was open ‘til midnight on the weekends, through February.”

“You mean, we can come back?” I asked, looking around at the bright lights of downtown St. Paul, the cathedral up on the hill and the Capitol building.

“That depends,” Conor said.

“On what?” I asked.

“Whether you’re staying or not.” He reached for my hand as we circled the far end of the rink. “And don’t shove me when I say this, but I want you to.”

“Really?” I asked. “Because I want to, too.” I blushed as I heard myself say, “tutu.”

Conor’s hand was warm and strong. I stuck my right hand into my pocket to keep it warm—I hadn’t brought any mittens. In my jacket pocket, though, I felt something woolly. “Ooh! My hat!” I cried.

Conor and I glided to a stop. (Okay, he glided to a stop. Then he stopped me.) “Wait. I’ll put it on for you,” he offered. “I wouldn’t want to mess up your hair. It looks really pretty tonight.”

“That’s the, uh, glitter,” I said as Conor took the hat from me. He gently stretched it so that it fit over my head, and he pulled it down to my ears. We stared into each other’s eyes for a second. I’m going to kiss him, I thought. I’m totally about to kiss him.

But then he slid backward a little bit, out of my reach, and took off his scarf. “Here. This will keep you warmer.” He came closer again, and looped it around my neck. He pulled both ends into a knot at my neck, and just before he finished I put my hands over his.

He made one final, little tug to pull the scarf tightly, and as he did, my skates slid toward him—and we ended up nose to nose.

“Sorry, I—I’m all out of wool items,” Conor stammered as he caught me.

Before he could say anything else, I kissed him. I didn’t care that we were in the center of the rink, that we were probably the only people left, that the spotlight might be on us, that the music had stopped and they were about to close. Conor put his hand on my cheek, and gently moved a strand of my hair off to the side as he leaned into the kiss.

Kissing Conor wasn’t like anyone else I’d ever kissed before. I could easily have gone weak in the knees, except that I didn’t want to fall on the ice in my party dress—not now, anyway. I might miss something.

The spotlights flashed a couple of times, and we broke apart, laughing. “Does that mean they don’t approve?” I said, as Conor leaned over and gave me a kiss on the neck.

“Five minutes, people, five minutes,” the skate rental person announced over the loudspeaker. “Closing in five minutes.”

“Wow. Is it midnight already?” I asked. “We should go. But first…what are you doing on Thursday?” I asked as we started skating over to the benches.

“I don’t know,” Conor said. “I think I have to work.”

“Well, too bad, because you’re coming away with me.”

“Oh, really?”

“Really,” I said. “Please?”

“Oh, okay. If I have to. But wait. Am I just going to show up some old boyfriend or something?”

“No. Of course not.”

“Too bad, because I could really get into that.”

“Well, whatever suits you,” I said. As I was stepping off the ice, I stopped for a second and leaned back against him. He kissed the back of my neck, but surprisingly, it didn’t freeze on contact.

“You know what? You’re shivering,” he said as he wrapped his arms more tightly around me, trying to keep me warm.

I wasn’t sure whether it was from the cold, or from what had just happened. “I think my toes got a little frozen, that’s all,” I said.

“I know a place we can go where it’s really warm,” Conor said. “The bakery.”

I couldn’t get those silly blue rental skates off fast enough. Besides, they really did kill my outfit.