Mal sat at the head of the table. The word, he told himself, was nonchalant. You can be nonchalant. You will be nonchalant, even if she's only a few feet away and glowing like candlelight. Smiling. She just looked at me again . Hair waving down her back. Soft as he'd always imagined. And she'd changed her dress. Nonchalant, he reminded himself. You could be more nonchalant engulfed in flames. Which you are, after a fashion.

Mal looked away for a moment to admire the tree and to pass a bowl of dip from Zoë to Kaylee. After this interval he judged it was not improper to look at Inara again. In a nonchalant manner. Her red dress shimmered where the soft-looking fabric caught the light. She looked - well, like Christmas come early. Her neck and throat were bare, he could see that much under the little jacket, and he smiled at that. When the little jacket came off, there'd be lacy straps and no sleeves. Bare skin for him to touch. Kiss. She'd worn it for him, maybe. What she'd said...after...it was a lot for him to wrap his head around, the shock of actually kissing her, never mind that they'd made plans to spend the night together. In his bed.

A piece of paper was thrust into his line of vision. “Here is our party schedule.”

“There’s a schedule?” Mal looked up to see everyone had received a similar piece of paper.

“We can’t mingle and eat?” Jayne frowned at his paper. “We have to mingle then eat then mingle again? Why so much mingling?”

River rolled her eyes. “It’s a party.”

“This don’t look like a party. Looks like a gorramn ---“

“Jayne,” Zoë said, folding her schedule and putting it in her pocket. ”River went to a lot of trouble to plan out this shindig. Least we can do is mingle as scheduled.”

“Does mingling involve dancing?” Jayne looked suspiciously at Simon.

“Talking is sufficient.” Zoë grinned at Simon’s appalled expression. “So, River, when is the mingling to begin?”

“How about now?” Mal asked in his demanding way. River had the party pl