“And there are plenty of them,” Andile said quietly, and I knew who he was thinking of. Everyone who’d teased and bullied him over the years for being a Black, gay, ballet dancer.

“Oooh! Oooh! Speaking of Amber . . . twelve o’clock,” Thembi said and we all looked in the direction she was pointing.

Guy flashed her a look. “Seriously. Twelve o’clock. Are we in the army?”

Thembi flapped her hand. “Well, there. By the purple curtain.”

Guy rolled his eyes. “They’re all purple. What’s she wearing?”

Thembi smiled. “Now that, I can do. The one in the cheap knockoff of the burgundy brocade dress that Meghan Markle wore on the red carpet, which really doesn’t go with Amber’s skin tone, since she has a bit of a pink undertone.”

We all looked and there she was. Laughing, head thrown back in the air, gold locks tumbling down her back. And then she moved and a surprised breath escaped my lips.

“What?” Guy asked.

“Oh no,” Thembi moaned. “Look away. Look away.”

I tried to look away but couldn’t.

“What’s going on?” Andile asked.

“That’s Jake,” she whispered. Because it was Jake. Standing there while Amber laughed and flirted and flipped her hair, and when she reached out and touched him on the arm, a long lingering touch, I felt dizzy.

“He . . . he . . did go with her,” I stuttered stupidly.

“Shit!” Guy said, grabbing my arm tightly.

I stood there frozen for a moment or two. I could feel the tension coming off the three next to me, as if they were all holding their breath to see what I was going to do. And then something miraculous happened. Vuyo came over to them, Amber slipped her arm through his, and they walked off together, leaving Jake standing there all alone.

“He didn’t come with her,” I whispered, and as if he’d heard me, his head tilted up to mine and our eyes locked across the room, cerulean explosion. He took a step forward and before I knew what was happening, he was walking across the room toward me. My feet moved, too, without me even consciously giving them permission to do so. We walked, getting closer and closer until we met in the middle of the dance floor.

“You look, you look—” He seemed to be struggling to get the words out as his eyes swept over me. “Beautiful.”

I smiled at him.

“I thought you were coming with Thembi?” he said, looking over my shoulder.

“They’re my friends from Joburg. They came up here to take us.” I put a lot of emphasis on the word friends.

He smiled, as if pleased with my answer. “So . . . I’ve been thinking about—”

“Wait.” I cut him off. “Before you say anything to me, there’s something I need to say to you.”

“You do?” he asked.