Romy rolled her eyes and pushed him towards the woman, turning back to her friends as others from the settlement began to take their seats. Phobos held out her chair, and she focused on tugging down her dress. She scanned the tables and couldn’t notice any discontent. Take that, Tina.

“Don’t worry so much.” Thrym smiled, patting her hand.

Romy saw Houston moving to take his seat. “Oh, I’m not worried,” she mumbled.

She exploded with laughter as the doctor sat down next to Tina.

“That’s just cruel.” Elara winked at Romy nevertheless.

Romy laughed even harder when Houston picked up the card on his other side and blanched.

The food and drink were the same as usual. But eating outside with the lanterns and open air made it seem special somehow. Romy sighed.

“This is what I thought Earth would be like,” she whispered to Thrym. She placed her napkin on her cleared plate.

Thrym nodded thoughtfully. “I don’t think I ever had any expectations. It never crossed my mind that we’d get here in this life cycle. So I didn’t think about it.”

Such a Thrym thing to say. She smiled. “I can understand that. It’s wonderful, but . . .”

“. . . Bitter?”

Romy smiled. “Yes. Bittersweet. Better now that Dei is back. I didn’t realise how much his absence has affected me.”

Music was starting up from the stairs of the offices. She glanced up and spotted Atlas shifting tables away to clear space for dancing. Romy knew about dancing. She’d read about it in fairy tales.

She played with a strand of hair as she watched Atlas. He was so. . . . Romy wasn’t sure of the word to use. Appealing? She wanted to run her hands across his shoulders—which were currently covered by a crisp white shirt. The sleeves were rolled up, and he wore black trousers, without the multitude of pockets for once. His hair was the same tousled mess. It was obvious he didn’t care one iota about his appearance. It looked like he’d paused long enough to exchange one set of clothing for another—and the result was entirely distracting.

A finger closed her mouth. Romy blinked sideways into Thrym’s impassive face. His blue eyes were icy. She looked past him and saw Houston heading towards their table.

“Gotta go. Delay Houston for me.” She whipped out of her chair and headed in the opposite direction, drawn towards the dancing.

There didn’t seem to be any form to it. Young and old alike moved in the space, throwing out their arms, twirling, and stamping their feet in random order. She smiled as she caught sight of Freya shaking her butt in the air.

“That wasn’t nice of you.”

Romy shivered as a low voice brushed close by. She craned her neck to the left to confirm it was Atlas.