Eileen had yet to escape the kitchen and join the chaos. Refilling chip bowls, laying out the vegetable tray, monitoring the last pie in the oven so it didn’t cook too long and burn. Their wide kitchen windows overlooked the backyard and were pushed open to help with airflow. Outside, many of the guests were standing and drinking; others were seated around the patio table, talking, laughing. Cameron had managed to wrangle the music flowing through the outdoor speakers onto a country music channel; only Paige seemed to notice and complain.

Eric and Lauren sat in chairs next to each other around the outdoor table, crammed closer than usual to fit more people. When she first noticed them, Eileen had only wondered if Lauren might prefer a glass of wine. She was about to open a bottle for herself and anyone else that didn’t want beer. But then what happened? Eileen got busy again, she supposed. She did manage to open the wine but never made it over to the table to offer Lauren any.

Someone handed her a paper plate with a burger. “You’re working too hard, Eileen,” Cara from down the street said with a smile. “Go sit down and enjoy your party.”

Eileen shrugged. “I enjoy it,” she said, but managed to slow down playing hostess long enough to doctor her burger with ketchup and add a handful of rippled, greasy potato chips to the side of her plate. She stood at the kitchen counter with Cara and took a bite.

The sun had moved, casting her east-facing backyard into the relief of the shade.

Eric and Lauren hadn’t moved.

That was all she had thought at the time. The natural flow of the party had shifted. People had finished eating, some had picked new cold cans of beer from the cooler, some stood in the far reaches of her yard smoking cigarettes, others had abandoned their crowded collection of chairs around the table to go play cornhole on the side of the house.

Eric and Lauren had been sitting together under the shade of the patio umbrella hours ago. And they were still there.

…but as I think back, I realize there have been plenty of clues and red flags I’ve obviously ignored. I suspect it’s been years.

That was it, and Dave was right. Eric and Lauren sitting together, pushed close by necessity but remaining there by choice, taking advantage of the obvious excuse to be so near to each other. They enjoyed the physical proximity to one another, neither one wanting to jeopardize their spot.

Once they were at cruise altitude and the captain’s pleasant and competent voice let them know it was “now safe to move about the cabin,” and she heard the auditory cue, ding, of the seat belt sign going dark, Eileen folded Dave’s note and put it away.