“This is ridiculous!” Eleanor’s whiny voice cut through the cold winter night. “Just go back in there and make her come home with us.”

“And what do you propose I do? Club her over the head and throw her over my shoulder like a caveman?”

“She’s your girlfriend!” Eleanor wailed. “You shouldn’t leave her here with all these drunken idiots frolicking around like they’re at some bacchanal in ancient Greece!”

“Just get in the car. I want to go home.” Alexander opened the passenger door of his hunter-green Range Rover for Eleanor, but she didn’t get in.

“I’m going back in to get her,” she said, and her half-brother grabbed her by the arm.

“No, you’re not,” Alexander said sternly.

Still listening breathlessly up in the tree, Vronsky and Murf both looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

“Let go of my arm,” Eleanor said, her nostrils flaring.

Alexander released his grip and Eleanor got into the front seat, slamming the door behind her. He walked around the back of the Range Rover and grabbed both sides of his head before composing himself and getting in on the driver’s side.

“Damn.” Murf finally breathed as the SUV trundled away down the long driveway. “At least that white girl showed some fight, which is more than I can say for his sorry ass. You know what I say, he’s canceled. Anna deserves better.”

Vronsky remained silent, his head spinning as much from the new development as the pot. “She’s still here…”

“Looks like it’s your lucky night … hopefully both our lucky nights. Those two model chicks your cousin’s friends with been clockin’ me since dinner.” Murf hopped down out of the tree and looked up at Vronsky. “You wanna go hit the dance floor, let old Murf show you how to tear it up?”

“I have to find Anna,” Vronsky said.

“Hells yeah y’are,” said Murf. “Time to go out-gangsta the OG.” Murf danced around in the frozen grass like a prizefighter warming up for the ring.

Vronsky hit the ground beneath the tree with a soft catlike plunk. The first snowflakes of the night began to drift in the frigid night air. “Hey, Murf.”

“Whatup, bruh?”

“What if she doesn’t feel the same way about me?”

His friend stopped jumping about and thought for a moment. He walked over to Vronsky and put a hand on his shoulder and looked him square in the eyes. “Then at least you’ll know…”

Vronsky exhaled deeply, the high from the marijuana enveloping him and shielding him from all thoughts of his feelings for Anna going unrequited. In his mind, that was an impossibility. “Yeah,” he said. “I guess.”

“Come on, Romeo. Last one to the tent is a no-ass-gettin’ chump,” Murf said and took off running.

Vronsky broke into a sprint.

XXVIII