“Come on, I’ll introduce you,” he said, tugging me along before I could protest. I caught Georgeann’s eye as we passed, and she winked.

Kendra McCaul was in the middle of a story as we approached. “—and I was like, I completely had told you not to go with him, so what did you think was going to happen?”

“Excuse me, ladies,” Adam interrupted. “I just wanted to introduce you to my better half. This is my wife, Theresa Pressley.”

The women stood between two cafeteria tables, four of them with slight smiles, heads cocked at the same angle, a united front. An army with moisturizing sunscreen and Kate Spade purses, doused in Yves Saint Laurent perfume.

“Well, I’ll leave you all to it,” Adam said, patting me on the back and disappearing into the crowd. He forgot sometimes that not everyone was comfortable meeting new people.

Bettina broke the silence and introduced herself. “So, you’ve been married for a year?” she asked after we shook hands.

“Well, it’ll be a year in March,” I said. “Still newlyweds.”

“How did you meet?” Alice bent down to fish one of her children out from under a table. “I’m Alice, by the way,” she called from the floor, snatching a dirty penny from a toddler’s clutches.

“Uh, on a plane actually,” I said. They didn’t seem like the type, but I always braced myself for a “Mile-High Club” joke whenever I shared that fact.

“A plane! That’s so funny.” Pia, the oldest of the group, held out her hand and introduced herself.

“If the only way to get married was to meet on a plane, I’d be single forever,” Bettina said. “The second I sit down and buckle my seat belt, the headphones come on. Small talk with someone you’re trapped with for hours like that is my nightmare.”

I laughed, feeling myself calm. “Normally, me, too,” I said. “But I spilled my ginger ale all over him.”

I’d been mortified. I wasn’t usually that clumsy. I was the girl who always checked all angles in the mirror, who showed up ten minutes early, who beat herself up over every small mistake. But Adam had been laid-back about it. So charming. By the end of the flight, I’d completely forgotten my embarrassment and was plotting instead how to make sure he didn’t vanish from my world when the plane touched down.

Pia’s turn to laugh. “Now that’s a good move, honey. I may have to try that myself.” She had an air like she couldn’t be bothered, though her eyeliner was applied perfectly and she kept twisting her bracelets to make sure the jewels were on top of her wrist for all to see.

“Please do not go dumping your wine in poor men’s laps all over town,” Bettina said.