“Oh, my god.” She laughed, walking over to Paul’s outstretched arms. “What is this?”

“It’s a birthday party, babe.” He smiled, bringing her in for a hug. “I know you know what that is.”

“But my birthday… my birthday was almost three weeks ago.”

“And we weren’t all together three weeks ago,” he answered, walking her over to the island where a waterfall of gifts was arranged behind her cake. “And I want to celebrate.”

“I love you.” She smiled, hugging him tighter. From over his shoulder, she saw Danial raising his glass to her, giving her a subtle wink.

“Happy birthday, bud,” Dev said, giving her a friendly punch on the arm. Overt displays of even platonic affection were never his thing, but she was warmed by the acknowledgement.

“Am I late to the party?” A strikingly handsome man with a heavy French accent asked from across the room. He was holding a beautiful glass bottle in one hand and a wrapped gift in the other.

“Gabriel!” Sophie called, walking over to him in a surprisingly girlish way and wrapping her arms around his neck.

“You’re right on time,” Paul said, taking the bottle from his hands and examining it in the light. “Thank you for this—should I open it?”

“Oh, that is a gift,” he demurred, rubbing his hands together. “I’ll just take a club soda.”

“Club soda for Sophie’s man,” he called over to Melanie, who was standing in her usual perky way across the room, setting out more canapés. He turned back to Gabriel: “Lemon or lime?”

“Uh, lemon, please.”

“With lemon! And turn up the music!”

Alex winced at Paul’s typically insensitive way with service workers, one of her least favorite qualities of his. Across the room, she caught Danial looking in her direction. His eyes darted over to Paul before rolling, and she nodded, just barely, the corner of her mouth flicking upward. He paused for a moment, studying her before tilting his chin and raising his eyebrows as if to ask if she wanted this to be a real conversation. She smiled more openly but shook her head: no, thank you.

When his back was fully turned to introduce himself to Gabriel, her gaze lingered, settling on the nape of his neck. She immediately regretted not taking him up on his nonverbal offer to speak, and wished that she had used it as an opening to something real. She wanted a reason to continue the conversation, even if she had never been less sure of what she actually wanted to say.