"It's really good."
"I'll take your word for it."
Alex has turned around by now. She is looking at me with an expression I have seen before — anger mixed with curiosity. She is wearing a red scarf that I have not seen before, and her hair is down. I note the way that the cold has put color in her cheeks, and realize I could truly look at her for a long time and not get tired of looking.
"You're not here by accident," she accuses, “are you?”
"I'm here," I say, avoiding the question. "Does the reason matter?"
She looks at me for a long moment. Behind her, the lake is gray and cold and enormous, and the pier is busy with people who have decided the November cold is not a reason to stay home, and Evie is eating her chocolate thing and watching us with the patient attention of a scientist observing an experiment she has a hypothesis about.
"Evie," Alex says, without taking her eyes off me. "Go look at the thing you wanted to look at."
"The lights display," Evie says.
"The lights display."
"You'll come find me?"
"In ten minutes," Alex says.
Before she can take more than two steps, Alex’s hand closes lightly around the back of her coat.
“Wait.”
Evie stops, turning back to look at her. “Alex, I’ll be fine.”
“I know,” Alex says. “Humor me.”
Her eyes move past Evie, scanning the pier and our surroundings with the reflexive precision of a woman who doesn’t trust open spaces easily. I follow her gaze and find Maksim exactly where I anticipated he would be, leaning near one of the closed kiosks with his hands in his pockets, watching the crowd, looking as casual as possible.
I lift my hand and make a small circle motion with two fingers. Maksim responds to the signal instantly, pushing away from the kiosk before wandering through the crowd toward us.
Alex notices, following my gaze, her eyes narrowing. “Has he been there the whole time?”
I nod.
A series of emotions shifts across her face. Irritation, relief, then irritation again. Evie, however, looks delighted.
“Is he going to be weird about going with me?” she asks.
“I think Maksim is professionally incapable of being weird,” I tell her with a small smile.
Maksim reaches us, his expression neutral, attention moving between the three of us. Then, looking at me inquisitively, “Boss?”
“Evie wants to see the lights display,” I tell him. “Stay with her.”
Alex looks up at him with a slight grimace, looking him up and down. “Don’t loiter like a terrifying shadow, though. Try to — blend in.”
He blinks once.
“You know, walk beside her,” Alex clarifies. “Where I can see you both, and other people won’t assume you're following her.”
He nods. “Understood.”
Evie gives Alex a look. “I was going to be where you could see me anyways.”
“And now I’ll be able to see you, with a large adult nearby. Even better.”
