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“We must celebrate, and soon!” She squeezed my hand.

“I’d like that.”

She squeezed my hand one last time before heading toward her office, leaving me smiling all over again as I continued toward the laboratory.

* * *

Aurora received the news with rather less restraint than Blackwood had. Charlotte, however, still had Aurora beat.

Mateo had spent every available moment constructing an entire theory of events and was waiting to deliver it. He met me at the laboratory door looking like a man who had been holding it in all morning.

“I have questions.”

“I’m sure you do.”

He looked at me with complete seriousness. “There are dozens.”

“Then we’d better start!”

Over the next several minutes, I answered as many of them as I could. The first was whether the orchestra had known in advance. The second was whether Alexander had planned the entire evening himself. By the fourth, Priya abandoned all pretense of working and drifted over to join the conversation.

They both listened intently as I told them about the rehearsal, the view from the box, and the moment the music began. When I reached the proposal itself, neither of them interrupted. The laboratory was unusually quiet. Mateo was the first to recover. He let out a long breath and shook his head.

“Emilia, that is the most romantic thing I have ever heard.”

I laughed, my face feeling warm.

Priya smiled at me. “I’m so happy for you.”

“Thank you.”

Mateo stepped forward first and wrapped me in a hug so quickly I barely had time to react.

“You deserve every bit of it,” he said quietly.

I hugged him back just as tightly. “Thank you.”

When he stepped away, Priya crossed the remaining distance between us without a word. She hugged me, and I found myself holding on for just a little bit longer.

“Congratulations, Emilia.”

“Thank you.”

She took my hand and looked at the ring before meeting my eyes again. “It’s beautiful. I’ve never seen you this happy.”

I smiled. “I’ve never been this happy.”

Eventually, we all returned to work. Aurora was beginning to look like itself again. The damaged equipment had been replaced, the third cohort was underway, and only a few remaining repairs kept me from considering the laboratory fully restored. The interviews with patients from the earlier trials were still pending. The collaboration with Julian remained suspended.

Priya went back to her desk to continue working on her presentation for the Vienna conference. The hypoxia slides were spread across three of her monitors, already revised enough times that I had learned to wait until she was ready to show them to me.

“How close are you?” I asked.

“To being finished?”

“Yes.”

“Ask me again in February.”