The lull in the conversation was nearing awkwardness when she looked up and caught him staring at her. Somehow this look was different from all the others he'd given her in the week or so since they'd met.

There was something fundamentally different in his eyes as they focused so intensely on her. He was still smiling softly, but with a seriousness that seemed out of place in a casual friendship. She tried glancing down at her plate and then back up at him again, but he was still looking at her. And then suddenly she couldn't look away either.