I lifted my plastic champagne flute into the air along with the three dozen other people assembled on the roof of Priya’s apartment complex. She’d rented the entire space, complete with a wet bar, fire pits, and an unobstructed view of the Capitol, for the party, and decorated it with gold balloons spelling out Jessa’s and Lamar’s names. Priya was streaming some pop music I didn’t recognize through unseen speakers, and everyone was toasting and refilling their champagne and hugging and laughing.

I shouldn’t have come, I thought.

I almost hadn’t. I was happy for Jessa and Lamar, of course, but I had already congratulated them, had heard the story of their engagement at least twice, and would send the appropriate gifts at the appropriate intervals. Was it really necessary for me to also make small talk with friends of friends instead of tackling the mountain of work I had at home? Since joining Bill’s team, I’d been even more buried under work than usual, and I knew that taking tonight off would mean I had to work all weekend. I had been formulating an excuse for Priya when Audrey texted me See you tonight at Priya’s! I’d paused. If Audrey was going, so should I. After all, these weren’t her friends. I didn’t want her to feel alone.

But the party had been in full swing for more than an hour and Audrey had yet to make an appearance. I pulled out my phone and started composing a message reprimanding her for being so inconsiderate to my friends, but then I stopped and sighed. It wasn’t like it mattered. Audrey could blow off the party completely and my friends would forgive her. People like Audrey were always forgiven.

“GORGEOUS NIGHT, HUH?” Connor said, materializing at my side. “Thank God we’re not trapped in the office.”

A shiver ran through my body and I nodded, not telling him I’d just been planning my exit so I could get back to work.

“Priya always has known how to throw a party. Remember that wild come-as-you-are party first year?” He chuckled. “Nice toast, too. That bit about destiny … What did you think?”

I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. Was he asking me whether I liked Priya’s toast or whether I believed in destiny? And, if it was the latter, was it some sort of sign? I thought back to a night earlier in the week when Connor and I had been reviewing a stack of potential exhibits in a conference room at two in the morning. He leaned over me, putting his hand on my shoulder, and … squeezed, sort of. In the moment, I had frozen, and then I’d spent the intervening days wondering whether it was a pass of some sort. And now this question about destiny? My heart fluttered.

I swallowed and then answered honestly. “Nothing in life is preordained. Destiny and fate are just excuses people use when they’re too lazy to put in real work.”