a fan favorite

The crowd cheered and laughed. Wyatt noted something odd about the laughter. It was like there was an inside joke going on that he didn't understand.

"Oh, you all know who it is!" said the auctioneer. "Friends, returning to The Auction House once again, please welcome everyone's favorite First Dance partner ... Mister!"

The announcement was met with wild applause. Kat leapt up and said to her friends, "Okay, whoever 'Mister' is seems super popular!"

Janette giggled. "This is kind of funny." She was also curious about what was so special about Mister.

"Mister is kind of ... hot." Kayla's voice was a little breathless. She pointed to a man walking toward the podium. He was about very tall, almost unrealistically handsome.

"Mister What, is what I'd like to know," said Terrence. "Who's name is just 'Mister'?"

"Mister Fucking Delicious, if you ask me," moaned Kat. "He's like a fucking Roman god."

Terrence glared at Janette. "You could stop drooling for a minute, it would be okay."

Janette didn't look back. "Sorry, Ter, but my mind needs to wander for a minute." She leaned over toward Kat. "Is he really as sexy as I think he is?"

"Uh-huh," answered Kat. "I want to take a fucking bite out of him!"

Mister smiled at the redhead woman, and extended his hand. She took it, and he led her to the center of the room. The bandleader got the musicians' attention, and led into their rendition of "Unforgettable." It was silky, sexy, and appropriate to the title, unforgettable.

Mister and the redhead began dancing, slowly, sweetly, and simply. In basic dance position, he had one hand on her waist, and she put hers on his shoulder. The two of them looked into each others eyes, as if the room wasn't even there, as if they weren't being watched by a crowd of strangers.

"What's in the air here?" asked Wyatt. "I've been watching them for like twenty seconds, and I'm completely entranced by this woman. Who is she?"

Damien shrugged. "I don't know. But it's not the woman, it's the adventure."

"Adventure?" said Kayla dubiously.

"Sure!" continued Damien. "Don't you have any sense of adventure? You have no idea what's going here tonight. And it's thrilling!"

"It is!" shouted Kat. "Come on, let's toast to adventure." She raised her glass.

Kayla glared at her, a little embarrassed. Kat was always being a little too loud for Kayla's taste.

Janette hadn't stopped staring at Mister. "You want the woman," she said to Wyatt. "That guy is like, whoa."

Terrence tried to give Janette a somewhat judgmental glare, but she was too focused on watching the dancing couple. So he turned to Damien instead. "So what is this, they auction off dances?"

Damien grinned. "Sure. We can call it that."

"Come on, what the hell?" Terrence wanted more information, and was getting a little frustrated at Damien's resistance.

"Listen," Damien said. "If you just let your mind and soul stay open, you'll have a good time. Most people here have done this before, and they keep coming back."

Terrence sighed. He looked to Wyatt. "What do you think?"

Wyatt shook his head. "I don't get it. It just looks like dancing. But --" He stopped short as he noticed a slight change in the action on the dance floor.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," said Kat. She noticed it too. "That's, um ..." She laughed and then leaned toward Janette and Kayla. "That's a bit more than a first dance, isn't it?"