I couldn't resist watching his face while I did it to her.

She'd apparently been having a tougher time than you'd guess possible for her, and she couldn't quite see yet how her latest change would work, whether it would bring her whatever she'd been seeking. I forget how it even came up, but she more or less insisted I help her with that one trick for which she's so justly famous.

Now, I knew how that was going to go down, or want to. She misses the fact that she's center stage whenever she does that trick, and not necessarily in the way she'd want. Self-conscious in so many little-girl ways, she simply seems unaware of eyes. She didn't even seem to realize he was there, much less think through how he'd see her.

Of course, I did realize, I did think through, but I didn't see reason enough to refuse. I'd inadvertently withheld approval from her earlier, and I didn't want her to think I'd only ever played with her because of the hairstyle she'd just abandoned. And maybe she'd learn something...

As I held both her arms just above the elbows and behind her back, with my one hand that wears the ring, I couldn't avoid a small smile at his face as he tried to control his expression. I was behind her, looking over her shoulder at him seated incidentally three feet from her - he had no choice but to notice the way her body flexed as I stretched it.

Yes, the effect is amazing, isn't it. She does this with me sometimes, I'm not really sure why.

My free hand twitched toward her, in a way that was almost involuntary. My grip tightened slightly on her as I spun her to face him less directly, and not incidentally towards me. I wanted to pull her ear to my mouth and whisper cautions and explanations. I wanted to tell her that if I kept handling her like that, she would either hate me for doing it to her, or love getting it done by anyone. Most probably both, the way the world works. I thought that outcome would be undesirable.

Being me, I thought before I spoke, and then I held my horses. I let her go, and faced another direction for a moment, as she spoke to the gathered crowd enthusiastically about how she'd almost touched her elbows together this time.

Sadly, that was not the strangest thing that happened to me that day.