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Barth walked the plank, the other ghosts sombrely screeching a funeral march off key.

Puppet Barth dove toward a sea infested with ghost sharks and was instantly devoured by them. Harri gave the final monologue, praising Barth’s unending bravery and mourning the loss of one of the great ones. I spotted Harri’s puppet rolling its eyes and knew Barth was the author of this particular tale.

Larri was doing his best sad trumpet impersonation as the curtains closed and the lights around the booth dimmed.

Seth and Benjamin looked shocked, mouths slack as they stared at the booth. I chose to think they were immensely impressed with the entertainment provided for the evening.

Adriana was easier to read.

“BRAVO!!” She stood up, clapping. She stuck her thumb and pointer finger in her mouth and let out a loud, high-pitched whistle. “Oh, that was wonderful! Wasn’t it, Ben?”

“Wonderful.” He nodded, still staring blankly. “Sure.”

“Oh, coming here was the best accident ever,” she said, sitting back down.

“It sure was…something,” Seth said, and while I always tried to give people the benefit of the doubt, I still couldn’t help hearing jabs in everything he said. It was always like that. Thinly veiled insults. Belittlements. Like waves crashing against stone, doing little damage alone, but still eroding it over time.

“Thank you,” I said slowly, aiming it at Adriana because her I truly believed. Her eyes were still shining and her smile was still wide.

“How did you come up with this?” she asked, finally returning to her meal now that the show was over.

“Oh, it wasn’t all me,” I said, smiling at my own plate. “My friends help a lot.”

“Friends?” Seth asked. “Where’d you find those?”

I flinched and Ryan’s hand landed on my knee again, drawing small, gentle circles on the bare skin.

“It’s super easy to make friends when you’re not dating arseholes,” Ryan said before stabbing a potato and popping it into his mouth. He waved his fork like a wand to emphasise the wisdom.

“There is something to that,” Adriana said, and I noticed the looks she kept sending Seth. They weren’t as friendly as they had been initially. “Ryan, you said you were a handyman?”

“Not by trade,” he said. “Power of love, really.”

Adriana laughed and winked my way. “You’ve got a good one there, Owain.”

I beamed at her as my heart rallied for another round around the meadow. Internally, I gripped the bow before it could touch the strings of the violin and smacked the heart over its moony-eyed head with it. I refused to admit to myself that I was fighting a losing battle. I knew deep down that I was letting myself do what I’d said I wouldn’t. I knew Ryan was waking up all the things I’d forcefully put to sleep after being hurt so many times.

But I wasn’t ready to admit that just yet.

“I really have,” I said, keeping the act going for the guests, finding Ryan’s hand on my knee and wrapping my fingers around it.

“He had several good ones before, if I recall correctly,” Seth said, chewing his dinner loudly. I always hated that, and he knew it.

My leg tensed and Ryan clearly felt it because he ran his hand up my thigh and drew a tiny little heart with his finger on my skin. I looked sideways at him and gave him a grateful smile.

“Your memory is clearly nothing to write home about,” Ryan said.

Adriana chuckled into her glass of wine.

“Babe, maybe ease up on the wine?” Benjamin said, clearly uncomfortable with the whole situation. He turned to me. “I love her to death, but four-glass-Adriana is a LOT.”

“Some people are a lot sober,” Seth said.

Adriana lifted her glass and drained it right into his face.

“I’m starting to like you less, Seth,” she said. Her voice had lost any friendly note and she sounded annoyed.

“Which glass was that?” Ryan asked Benjamin.