Don’t let Vincenzo eat them all.
Vincenzo
Well, that’s rude.
Fleur
He’s literally got one in his mouth while he’s typing.
Divya
Alex, come back. Everyone is driving me crazy.
Evie
We’re hungry.
Mia
Mabel is four sherrys deep. She wants to know if there is a karaoke machine.
Alex
If there was a karaoke machine, Ophelia would flee her own party.
Vincenzo
Because I’m such a great singer?
Jack
If Vinnie was on the mic, I’d be fleeing right beside her.
Belladonna
If Vinnie was on the mic, we’d all bleed out of our ears and die.
I bite down my smile, shutting my phone off on the onslaught of messages in the group chat. “Do you want to head off?”
She turns to face me where she sits, the hair at her nape glowing, lit from behind by the sun. The most unruly strands are set alight, a warm glow catching her dress. I wish I had my paints with me, but I settle for a quick photo of her on my phone instead.
She slips her hand into mine when we stand, brushing the leaves from the skirt of her dress. “We’d better. I’m hungry.”
THE CLOCK INthe kitchen seems to tick so loud in the silent house, the hands some way past two in the morning.
Everyone is asleep but us, haphazardly crammed into the guest rooms and on the sofas in the sitting rooms. This house is so full of love and laughter that I’m surprised the walls aren’t sagging, bending under the sheer weight of it all.
I do miss the little ones, though.
She sighs wistfully. “Is it sad that I miss Jo, Élé, and Charlotte?”
I laugh, setting a cup of tea in front of her. “I was thinking the same.”
Ophelia gives me a sleepy, tipsy smile from where she’s sitting at the kitchen table. Her mascara is smudged, and there’s pizza sauce on the strap of her dress, somehow.
Falling in love isn’t the right description. I’ve been plummeting since I met her, haven’t stopped since. Each day when I think I might find the bottom, that my feelings for her couldn’t intensifyany more, she does something else that sends the ground flying away from me again.
“That was one of the best evenings of my life,” she says, voice so soft that it hardly breaks the silence.
