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‘I’m so glad.’
He looked at her then. ‘You’re allowed to leave, Roula.’
She wasn’t sure that she wanted to, though.
‘I’m sorry if I sulked about it,’ he added. ‘You don’t deserve that. And now we’re going to have a great night. We deserve that, yes?’
‘Yes.’
‘So let’s do it.’
‘Arati,’ Roula said, whenever she was asked who had made her gown—just as Leo had told her to do.
‘From his NYC collection?’ they asked.
‘I believe so,’ Galen said, and named the colour on Leo’s behalf. As they walked in, he said, ‘Mist over the Aegean... That’s what you remind me of tonight.’
It was the most beautiful thing anyone had ever said to her.
‘You’re famous here,’ Roula said, as they stepped off the red carpet.
‘In odd ways,’ Galen agreed.
There were game charms on the tables, and Roula collected a few for her nephews and nieces. Even if the adults in the family weren’t talking to her, she would send them with love.
‘Red or white?’ the waiter asked.
Galen declined. ‘Not for me. I have to give a speech.’ He looked at Roula.
‘Nor me,’ Roula said—and not just because of potential mini-Galens, but because really she was having great difficulty holding on to her emotions.
He hated these things, Roula knew—not that even she could tell, for now they were seated and he was laughing.
‘No Kristina?’ asked a guest wandering past.
‘Not tonight,’ Galen said.
‘Oh, is she still on maternity leave?’
‘Roula is my guest tonight,’ Galen said.
No, he was not discussing Kristina and her pumping situation. God, he hated these things...
But then he took a breath and spoke to the man. ‘Roula is from Anapliró...’
‘Where the new game is based!’
‘Loosely based,’ Galen corrected, but he smiled. ‘Do you know,’ he told Roula when the man had drifted on, ‘HR has informed me that I have to provide a room for Kristina?’
‘For what?’
He glanced at her breasts. ‘You know...’
‘Oh.’
‘And a fridge,’ Galen said. Except he had lost his thread a little bit...because had Roula’s breasts doubled in size again?
‘You could put it next to the dogs-on-wheels room,’ Roula said.
