A moment of silence followed, and then Tommy cleared his throat. She steeled herself for the gentle but firm turndown. “Alice,” he said softly, “the reason I never said I wanted to be your guy was because I just assumed I was.”

The relief she felt hearing these words was so strong, her whole body just sagged. It was like she momentarily lost control of her spine. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. This is the happiest I’ve been in a really long time.”

“That’s good,” she said. “That’s great. I mean, not that you were unhappy before, but that you’re happy now.”

He smiled at her, flashing that ever so slightly crooked front tooth. “And I’ll be even happier when I order.” He began craning his neck again. “I don’t see the waitress, do you? Where do you think she disappeared to? I went from kind of hungry to starving.”

“So, we’ll go together this weekend, then?”

Turning to her, cocking his head. “Go where?”

“The Fourth of July party at the club.”

There was a one-second pause, and in that second Alice’s relief turned into disappointment: nothing between them had really changed.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

“Why not?” she demanded.

“I’d prefer for you and me to just stay, you know, you and me.” Her feelings must’ve shown on her face, because he reached suddenly for her hand, began talking fast: “Look, not for forever, just for now.”

“I was joking a couple days ago about the secret-shame thing, but are you ashamed of me?” she said, trying to control the wobble in her voice, and failing.

“God, no. Of course not. This has nothing to do with you. It’s”—looking at her, looking away—“it’s my family.”

“Your family? Why would your family care if we were dating?” she said, really trying to understand him, understand where he was coming from.

“They’ve just been through a lot lately. The divorce, the trial, my dad losing his medical license.”

“Yeah, but it’s like a fake divorce, right? And things are looking up for your dad. I thought it seemed like he was going to get that job with the hedge fund guy, Sloane’s father.”

“Actually, he got the offer just before I left the house to meet you.”

“That’s good news,” she said. And then, noticing the troubled look on Tommy’s face. “I mean, isn’t it?”

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “No, it is good news. Beyond good news, in fact.”

“Then I don’t understand what the problem is.”

A beat passed, and then Tommy said, “I wasn’t being totally honest with you a minute ago.”

Alice withdrew her hand from his, folded her arms across her chest. “Okay,” she said, her voice cool.