It was strange: she could almost hear herself from outside her own body, and understood that she was being inappropriate—but she didn’t care. She only felt the base instincts of her own bitterness and desire, untempered by the usual anxiety that kept them hidden. At her words, he smiled again and looked down at his feet, so she did, too. She recognized his shoes as the nicest pair he owned, the ones whose brown leather he kept impeccably conditioned.

“Oh.” He turned, opening his arm to the beautiful blonde math genius quickly arranging herself next to him. “You know Daphne, right?”

“Of course,” Alex turned to her, pushing her curls somewhat unsteadily behind her shoulder. “It’s been a minute.”

In her altered state, she could sense that there was a deeper despair waiting for her at the base of her stomach, but that she had at least a few more hours to float on top of it, unencumbered. The enamel bangles on her wrist made a delicate tinkling noise as she brought her hand down to her side, playing with a loose thread on her dress.

“Hi, Alex.” Daphne smiled, creating a perfect little dimple in her porcelain cheek. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been good,” she mused, feeling far from her words even as she said them. “My internship starts soon so, you know, just gearing up for that.” She could hear how delayed she sounded, could feel her eyes closing into insincere half-moons as she spoke.

“Oh, yes!” Daphne’s smile deepened, and Alex marveled at her understated beauty, the perfect white teeth of early orthodontic intervention. “Danny told me all about it! NPR, that’s so exciting!”

It was, when she thought about it. In truth, it had mostly served as an ironclad guarantee that she would get to stay near Danial, but it was impressive on its own terms.

“She’s modest.” He smiled, nudging Alex’s shoulder with his fist in an almost brotherly way. He was usually never this polite around her—but then, she had never seen him with a girlfriend. “It’s really impressive.”

Even through the haze of her intoxication, his kindness toward her sent a jolt through her muffled heart. The true emotions waiting on the other side of her brain pushed forward for a split second, insisting she take the lowest possible road.

“And you’re going to be interning for Daphne’s dad, right?” Alex replied, raising her glass in sarcastic cheers. “Talk about sleeping your way to the middle.”

The two of them seemed to recoil, finding no humor in her acidic barb. It was the kind of thing she might think, but never say—at least, not to his face. For the first time since arriving, she had the distinct thought that she wanted to be less inebriated and set her glass on the table.