Chapter 19

Veronica

Liam Danielson arched an eyebrow at me, hands in his coat pockets. “You’re not going to freeze to death with fewer than thirty coats on?”

“I am, so that’s why I’m going to run to the car and then run from the car into the building. You see the sacrifices I make to show up looking nice. You could have honored my sacrifice by keeping the office temperature above the cryogenic preservation setting.”

“It’s sixty-nine degrees…”

Sixty-nine degrees was not my favorite sixty-nine. Like most things, my favorite involved Kelcey Huntington. “Okay, whatever you want to call it,” I said, gesturing to the office. “Are we ditching this junk heap and going already, or what? Why’d you even make me meet you here?”

He let out a heavy breath, shoulders falling. “We should take a car together.”

“What? Why? Gonna be lonely on the drive?”

“It’ll look more appropriate with us showing up at the same time,” he said, measuring his words carefully. Crock of bullshit is what it was—Danielson had kept me around like a feral dog since I’d gotten on his case about Kelcey, keeping me at a safe distance and a wary eye on me. I didn’t really give a damn, honestly. He was looking for an opportunity to get rid of me, probably half because he was scared of what I might pull next and half because he felt belittled with a woman younger than him twisting his arm until he cooperated, but I was looking for an opportunity to leave anyway, so all was well.

Obviously, he wanted to put me in an awkward situation somehow or other at the event, thinking I wouldn’t be able to leave without him. Even if Kelcey wouldn’t put her reputation with the company at risk by leaving with me, even if I couldn’t hitch a ride with Anna once again—the guy didn’t pay me heaps, but I could afford to call a ride.

But whatever let him think he was winning. If I didn’t, then he’d get more and more irritable, trying something until he hit on something to make me miserable.

“Ugh… sure. But you’re driving. I’m not getting behind the wheel of your clumsy brick of a car.”

He scowled. “It’s a nice car.”

“That’s worse. That just means it’s expensive even if I just hit one little mailbox.”

I was a good driver, actually, but it was worth bullshitting just to see the look on his face. “Okay, yeah, I’m driving. Let’s go.”

I climbed into his car and criticized his music choices on the whole way there, until halfway through he got frustrated and told me to put something on, and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to make him angry, so I put on all the exact songs I’d just criticized him for. He was staring blankly ahead with a look like he was disassociating by the time we got to the event center and squeezed into a crowded parking garage with a million other cars, and I took it as my win for the day.

My loss for the day was immediately after, when I had to trudge through the bitter cold in a light dress and just one coat, and to top it off, once the receptionist took our names and guided us into the event center, it wasn’t even dressed up in six hundred light strings.

It was beautifully decorated for Christmas, just like it had been the other times—including the last time I was here, when I got thrown into a Christmas tree, but the tree was back to standing up normally, thankfully. Danielson stuck close to my side as we headed towards where people were starting to gather at the center, and he gave me a wary look, scoping out the people looking at me weirdly.

“Are you a celebrity here?” he said.

“Where am I not a celebrity?”

He clicked his tongue, shaking his head. “It’s impossible to get a straight answer out of you.”

“Well, I’m not straight, so that makes sense.”

He took a long breath, letting it out slowly, measuring his response. Come to think of it, he’d never known I was bisexual. Guess that was how I was coming out. “Okay,” he said finally.

The cold, Danielson being pushy, and the lack of lights were all suddenly irrelevant, though, when my gaze swept across the room and found the one who was brighter than any number of lights put together—Kelcey Huntington, dressed in a sleek all-black outfit today, with a loose blouse and straight-leg pants with low heels, a look that was equal parts showstopper and understated. She was on the other side of the room, just a glimpse of her through the crowd, talking brightly to one of her coworkers, and the way her smile just lit up the room…

I must have stared hard enough for her to notice, because she stirred and glanced my way, and when her eyes locked with mine, even from across the room, it made the world stop turning, stole my breath right out of my body, and had me smiling like a kid on Christmas morning.

I was never making fun of Lucy again. Damn, I was down bad.

Kelcey smiled, a quick and sly thing, before she turned back to the person she was talking to, continuing her conversation without a hitch, seamlessly done, no indications given that we knew each other. I didn’t pull it off as well as she did, judging by the way Danielson stopped and looked at me, which made me realize that I’d stopped walking to gawk at her.

“Veronica—what’s your deal?” he said.

“Honestly?” I laughed. “I really couldn’t tell you. Well, c’mon, let’s get drinks.”

“We’re not getting drinks, we’re going to meet the heads of the comms department who helped organize this. I thought you knew how to handle a formal event, Veronica.”

“Even monkeys fall from trees. Or into trees. Yeah, let’s go say hi to the useless sapphics.”

“Thank god it’s your sister, or I’d have to walk you out of here…”

I decided not to grace his comment with an answer. Mostly because I was thinking about Kelcey.

I followed him to where Lucy and Anna were at the side of the room talking with the douche I recognized as the company president Michael Berg, and it was apparently a douche-off because I didn’t know who to cheer for as Danielson walked up and interrupted it like he was the most important person at this event.

“Sorry to interrupt,” he said, not sorry at all, as Berg gave him a sharp look. “Anna Preston, Lucy Masters? Liam Danielson, with ECR Animation and Videography. I assume you know my outreach coordinator Veronica.”

Lucy quirked an odd smile at him, and, as much as I didn’t want to give Anna credit, I had to admit she was damn good at some things. For example, the patronizing way she looked at Danielson like he was a child walking in on an important business meeting. “Nice to meet you, Danielson,” she said. “This is Michael Berg, Lakeshore president and CEO. Veronica knows her way around these things, so she’ll show you where to go.”

Danielson looked a little taken aback, glancing between me and Anna, and I smiled. “C’mon, let’s get drinks,” I reiterated, and he took a second catching himself before he smiled politely and nodded.

“Right—it’s a pleasure to meet you, Mister Berg. We’ll talk later, Preston, Masters. Let’s go, Veronica.”

Luckily I was able to lose the guy for a bit once I’d taken him to the refreshments table, where—they weren’t serving any champagne yet, which was a shame, but I didn’t feel like marching into the back to ask for some this time. Ended up making polite small talk with a bunch of people in suits even though all I could really focus on was the glimpses I got of Kelcey moving perfectly through the crowd, handling an event like she was born to do it… she was clearly taking this as her opportunity to show everybody she knew how to navigate the scene, moving fluidly from one person to the next, talking to everyone like they were old friends. With that damn smile every step of the way, so radiant I couldn’t see anything else, even as we had to play it cool.

Well, she was playing it cool. I was staring at her like a lovesick puppy, enough that I didn’t notice Anna next to me until she spoke, and I jumped, whirling on where she gave me a dry smile.

“I said to not make it look like you’re dating her. That should have implicitly included don’t make it look like you’d sell your soul to date her. ”

“Psh… that’s some serious damaged goods,” I said. “I’d be lucky to get a half-finished bag of chips for my soul.”

She elbowed me. “Kelcey’s a fan. So don’t say things like that. I’ll tell her you said so, and then I assume she’ll be chewing you out. She’s very earnest like that.”

“She really is…” I said, with just a bit more dreaminess than I meant to. Maybe a lot more. Anna shook her head, laughing under her breath.

“Are you planning on telling Mom at any point about you two?”

“God, don’t tell me that means she’s here.”

“Thankfully not…” She closed her eyes with a tired sigh. “I gave her the wrong address for this place. Even if she decides to crash this party despite me telling her not to, I’ll get advance warning when she starts texting me about why the party isn’t going.”

“Communications director in action.”

“Answer the question,” she laughed. “You and Kelcey. Our parents are basically both waiting for it to happen.”

I shrugged, leaning back against the table, looking up at the gleaming lights of the chandeliers overhead. “Nothing to tell, honestly… it’s not like we’ve actually made this anything serious.”

“Uh-huh. Right. So you’re telling me you’re not sleeping with my employee after all.”

I swatted her. “Anna! Don’t be crude about Kelcey.”

She put her hands up. “Do you understand then why it’s a little weird when you would go on about what Lucy and I were doing?”

“That’s different. You’re just Anna and Lucy. She’s Kelcey. ”

She rolled her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Right… have you considered it feels that way because you’re in love with Kelcey, and I feel that way about Lucy because I’m in love with her?”

“Apples to oranges. Luce is cool and all, but… I mean, for god’s sake, it’s Kelcey Huntington.” I paused. “And regardless of how intimate we may or may not be—”

“Save me.”

“The important part is that she’s still not sure if she’s able to commit to me, to, uh… trust me.” I shrugged, hunching my shoulders, looking away. “I’d gladly parade her around this place and say look at my girlfriend, but I’m pretty sure it would get her in trouble anyway. Never minding the fact that she has to be the one to initiate that… I’ve already put it out there how I feel, so it’s really on her now.”

She smiled wryly. “Listen to you. You going to be okay once you actually get together? You’re not going to miss hookups, orgies…”

“Don’t even say that. You’ll get my hopes up.” I laughed suddenly. “Honestly, they’ve been boring to me for a minute now. The last few times were just trying to fill a void anyway.”

I was so caught up in the dreamy state of it all, thinking about what it could actually be like if I got to be together with Kelcey, if it could always be as perfect as it had been over the last week, that I didn’t even notice the subject of every happy dream coming towards me until I heard Kelcey’s sweet voice saying, “The lovely Preston sisters. It’s good to see you, Veronica.”

I turned with my heart missing a beat, and then it sank seeing Kelcey tag-teamed by the office’s resident black cloud Miranda, who scowled at me. “You again?” she said. “Aren’t you the one Kelcey threw into a tree and ruined the whole event last time?”

Kelcey gave her a flawless smile and, before I could respond, cut in with, “Veronica is the outreach coordinator for the videographers I was working with. We’d had an impassioned argument at the last event that did get a little out of hand, but—well, it led us to a good result with the videos, in the end, didn’t it?”

Oh, okay, we were lying. I could lie. “Kelcey drives a hard bargain,” I said. “Tried everything in our power to get ahead in the negotiations, but… no slipping anything past Miss Huntington.”

Anna sighed, quietly, putting a hand to her forehead. As if I needed her commentary right now? Miranda scowled, looking between me and Kelcey. “That’s your idea of negotiations? I don’t think that’s in line with bargaining standards.”

Kelcey laughed, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I know how to get results! Don’t worry, Miss Preston and I are best friends now.”

“Nothing to bring a couple of business rivals together like a fight in the middle of an event hall,” I said. “Isn’t that right, Anna? You know all about forming a good relationship with a rival by fighting them.”

Anna put her hands up. “I’m not a part of this conversation,” she said.

At the sound of footsteps—pointed footsteps, the kind that I recognized from too many years of getting people angry enough to track me down—I glanced over to where I got an uncomfortable twist in my stomach at the sight of mister self-important president Michael Berg striding my way, together with Liam Danielson, and that vague smirk on Danielson’s face looked like trouble.

“Ah, well, I gotta go to the bathroom, I had way too much champagne and I’m about to pee myself,” I said, backing away, but I bumped into the table, and Miranda didn’t recognize the importance of the situation fast enough to move and clear the way for me to escape before Berg’s voice cut through the noise and the music playing overhead.

“Hi, Miss Preston—Anna, Veronica,” he said, turning to me. “Veronica, can I talk to you and Mister Danielson in private one second?”

This was probably why Danielson had gotten me to take his car—getting me in trouble somehow here and cutting off my escape routes. Little did he know I was difficult. “Nah, sorry,” I said. “I was just about to head to the bathroom, about to pee myself, previously established.”

Danielson narrowed his eyes a little with a dangerous smile. “Pretty sure you just went. It’ll only be a second.”

“Think I’ve got a stomach bug. Actually think I’m going to start throwing up. Must have been that sketchy sushi I got for lunch.”

The situation instantly turned from manageable problem to unacceptable crisis when I heard the last voice I wanted right now, barging in on the scene: my fucking mother’s voice, pushing through the crowd towards me. “Oh, god, Anna, I just got here and you’re sick?”

Anna straightened instantly, going marble-pale. “ Mom —what are you doing here?” she said, looking at where Mom pushed through the crowd and came over to where she lit up at the sight of Kelcey.

“Oh, god, Kelcey, it’s so good to see you, it’s—oh, you look beautiful tonight,” she said, going in for a hug, and Kelcey met her hug gladly.

“Oh, Mrs. Preston, you too! Don’t worry about Veronica, she’s just about to go throw up.”

Anna massaged her temples. “Mom, for god’s sake, I told you not to—”

Mom waved her off. “Don’t be silly! Of course I’m attending. You know wherever Matthew and Chelsea are, your father and I are here too. I think you sent the wrong address by mistake, but luckily he was able to clear things up.”

Berg shifted awkwardly, looking between everyone. “This is nice and all, but Veronica—”

“Veronica’s really sick,” Kelcey said, nodding at him. “She’s been throwing up since the morning.”

“I have,” I said. “It’s been awful.”

Miranda scowled. “I thought it was since lunch.”

“I thought the sushi would help the throwing-up situation,” I said quickly. “You know how it is—like dissolves like.”

Kelcey nodded. “She had a whole lot of bad sushi last night, so it felt natural.”

Danielson looked at the situation like a kid whose favorite toy had just broken. “Can we focus on the task at hand? There’s an important situation we have to talk about.”

“Veronica,” Berg said. “If we can’t get a second, I’ll have to talk to you here. Your employer Danielson was talking to me about some questionable transactions between you and Kelcey Huntington…”

Mom beamed at him. “Aren’t they so wonderful?” she said, and Berg frowned.

“Miss Preston—” he said, and she laughed.

“Oh, Miss Preston, like I’m young and free again. Well, I feel like it. I’ve been in a wonderful place lately.”

I nodded quickly. “Oh, yeah—I’m sure you have. I mean, you and Dad and the Goulds—why don’t you take a second to talk about that whole situation while I go throw up real quick?”

Anna turned her gaze to the middle distance, looking like she was waiting for the chandelier to fall on her head. Kelcey nodded excitedly. “Oh, absolutely,” she said, turning to Mom. “Now’s the best time, right? I mean, everyone’s here.”

Danielson cleared his throat, speaking louder. “ Veronica —I’ve been talking with Berg and with a certain someone you’ve been in contact with lately trying to jump ship and get a job at their firm,” he said, standing up taller. “Apparently trying to do it behind my back, which is understandable, because your work with Kelcey Huntington raised some flags,” he said. “So before we get distracted any further—can you tell me what exactly the Huntingtons gave you in exchange for your private work?”

Ugh, god, was that what this was? I should have figured the guy with the suspicious look my way from the magazine would have contacted Danielson trying to look for dirt on me. It getting out that Kelcey and I were dating… or whatever we were… was one thing, but if he was setting this up to look like I’d been bribed, that was objectively worse.

Guy hadn’t liked my attitude and was trying to brand me with bribery allegations that would haunt the rest of my career. Maybe now I actually was about to throw up. But Mom missed the memo entirely, because she beamed at Danielson.

“Oh, well—we haven’t gotten to meet many of the Huntingtons yet,” she said. “But I’m hoping we can soon, can’t we, Kelcey? You and Veronica are just wonderful, after all.”

Danielson shot Mom a helpless look. “Ma’am—I’m sorry, who are you?”

“Someone who’s not supposed to be here, ” Anna hissed, pushing past me to put a hand on Mom’s arm, trying to lead her away. “Mom—you said Dad’s here too? Let’s go say hi.”

Mom smiled and turned away. “He’s right here. With… oh, it’s Matthew,” she said, instantly beaming, absolutely radiant. “Matthew! Come say hi!”

Well, that was exactly what we needed. Danielson’s face fell further as Matthew Gould walked up along the edge of the table towards us, stepping up next to Mom’s side, a little too close. “Oh, Maria,” he said. “Kelcey, Veronica, Anna, everyone. Good to see everyone’s looking so cheerful.”

“Cheerful?” Miranda muttered, eyes flicking between everyone like a cornered animal. “I thought Veronica was about to throw up and pee herself.”

Berg cleared his throat loudly. “Hi, Mr. Gould—it’s nice to see you here enjoying yourself—sorry, Veronica Preston and I were just having a conversation together with—”

Kelcey interrupted, turning to Mom and Matthew Gould. “That’s right, we were in the middle of the conversation about you two—and about Mr. Preston and Mrs. Gould. I mean, you two just look so radiant right now,” Kelcey said, and Miranda shot her a look, helplessly between her and the two in question and Danielson, who met her confusion.

“Wait—” she said. “Anna Preston’s mother is showing up to the event to announce she’s having an affair with our client?”

Mom scowled at her. “It’s not an affair. It’s a very special bond, between all four of us. Isn’t that right, Matthew?”

Matthew beamed. “That’s right,” he said. “Maria and Heath, both of them—and both me and my wife Chelsea—a very special bond.”

“It’s a beautiful thing,” Mom said, absolutely glowing. “And I won’t be ashamed of it.”

Berg put a hand up. “I’m sure it’s wonderful, but if I could just— ”

I put my hands on my hips, shooting him a scolding look. “Michael, wait your turn. My mother is having an important moment.”

“Uh.” He stopped, staring, blinking at where Mom put her chest out.

“That’s right,” she said. “Honestly, it’s like manners are dead.”

Miranda put her hands up. “Are we not worried Veronica’s about to throw up on us all?”

“I’m getting pretty close,” I said. “I should probably leave you all to this while I go—”

Mom waved me off. “Oh, Veronica, hold it in for one second, this is important.”

I gestured to her. “You’re sleeping with Matthew Gould, and his wife is sleeping with your husband, we know, we know. Now, I really have to go to the bathroom.”

A waiter walked up to us with a smile that faltered when he heard me, pausing halfway through setting down a tray of champagne flutes. Anna took one before it touched the table and knocked half of it back in one go. Mom put her chin up.

“I told you, it’s not just that, it’s a special bond, with the four of us.”

Danielson made a sound in his throat. “Can we circle back to the special bond in a second?”

Of all people, it was Miranda who shushed him. “God, why won’t you shut up?” she said. “Hang on, I’m invested in this now.”

Anna groaned loudly. “I’m so happy to hear everyone’s having a good time.”

I took a champagne flute and drank too, which got a look from Miranda that reminded me I was supposed to be on the verge of throwing up and wetting myself, neither of which alcohol helped. Whatever. I spoke before she could. “ Special bond just means you’re in an exclusive swinger’s arrangement and not that you’re not swingers—”

Matthew chuckled, looking at Mom. “Your daughters are both feisty ones. Well, soon it’ll be all four of them are feisty ones.”

Mom put a hand on his back. “Oh, I know. It’s so wonderful. I’m so happy for all of them. But all four of us are feisty ones, too…”

Kelcey lit up, clasping her hands at her chest. “Oh, Mrs. Preston—are you saying you’re actually just dating each other? Oh, that’s so sweet and so romantic.”

“Is it,” Anna muttered, her gaze fixed on the distance.

Mom glowed. “That’s right,” she said, just about bursting. “It’s… it’s all a big family. The four of us, all together. Well, Anna, Veronica—your father and I were so worried about how you might take it—”

“Wait, all of you?” I said. “You and Mrs. Gould and Dad and Mr. Gould too? Damn, Mom. I underestimated you. Respect.”

Mom must have actually been serious, because she welled up a little at me. “Thank you, Veronica. It’s just—your father and I—we’ve discovered so many things about ourselves over the past year…”

Anna finished her champagne, knocking the flute back. “Mom, I told you not to come to my events and you crash it anyway to come tell me you’re in a bisexual polycule with my client.”

Berg drew in a sharp breath, putting a hand up. “I think maybe I’ve come at the wrong time,” he said. “I’ll talk to Veronica in a second—”

“No, wait,” Danielson said, looking frantically between me and Berg. “This is—”

Kelcey waved him off. “Oh my god, you have to be supportive of these things,” she said. “ Mrs. Preston, that’s so wonderful. I’m so happy for all four of you.” She stepped in to give Mom a hug, which meant that naturally, Mom squeezed her and then went to give me a hug too.

“Careful, I might throw up,” I said, and she welled up and hugged me lightly before she moved onto Anna, and then on to Michael Berg, to everyone’s confusion but most of all Michael Berg’s confusion. Still, she wasn’t taking no for an answer, and she hugged him, and he seemed at a loss for a second as to what to do before he hugged her in return, patting her awkwardly on the back.

“Uh… congratulations…” he managed.

“Thank you,” Mom said, her voice thick and teary, and she moved onto where Liam Danielson tried to step back away from the scene, but Kelcey put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him from fleeing, and he too was forced to accept a hug from my mom blubbering about how happy she was to have his support, whatever your name is. From the look on his face, I think he was actually the one about to throw up.

“Ma’am, I don’t know who you are,” he said, his voice strained. Miranda glared at him.

“Christ, man, shut up. There’s one interesting thing happening at this damn event and you’re trying to get in the way of it. It’s like a soap opera and you’re turning off the channel. No better than my damn husband always sneering at my television choices and—”

Mom turned and gave Miranda a hug too, and Miranda made an awkward noise but consented to hug her back, fumbling a little bit with it. Danielson took advantage of the opening, red-faced now and aware of how much Berg was slowly backing out of the gathering, and he pointed a damning finger at me.

“Veronica—I’m not going to look the other way while you slip out of this. What did the Huntingtons pay you?”

“Nothing,” I said lightly. “You don’t pay very well, but I’m not about to go begging Kelcey for money.”

He reddened. “Then what explanation do you have for the secretive connections between you and Kelcey Huntington—for moving your communications to private channels and extorting me to demand the contract favors her specifically—”

Kelcey looked across the group, met my eyes, and I felt my heart flutter a little when she gave me that big, beautiful smile that she had patented—the absolute radiant look nobody could ever do half as well as her—and she slipped across the group to my side, snaked an arm around my waist, and she left me breathless when she said, “It’s because she’s my girlfriend.”

Ah—Jesus Christ, she called me her girlfriend. I lurched, my head spinning, seeing stars, before I put on a shaky smile and a laugh, slipping an arm around Kelcey’s waist to match her. Anna drew her lips in a tight line, giving us a look with eyebrows arched high, but I didn’t care about anyone in the world right now except for Kelcey Huntington referring to me as her girlfriend. “Yeah, of course,” I said. “That was what I’d been telling you when you started the case… that I’d take on Kelcey Huntington’s case since I knew her.”

“What—” Danielson paled, looking between me and Kelcey. “That’s not… huh? That’s not what you said.”

Kelcey and I exchanged odd looks, and Kelcey frowned at him. “Of course it is,” she said. “That’s why I’d been calling her Nic. It’s just a cute little nickname between the two of us.”

“You said—” Danielson looked quickly at every face around him, including Berg’s hardening expression, before looking back at me. “You said it was because her ex was named—”

“Yeah, me,” I said, scowling like this was all perfectly obvious and we’d talked about it extensively. I guess there was no better way out of these kinds of situations than gaslighting someone. “We’d broken up before, but we got back together… well, Kelcey was kind enough to give me another chance, is what it really was,” I laughed, turning to look adoringly at Kelcey and brush a strand of her hair back behind her ear. “Which… is very, very lucky for me.”

“Oh, stop,” she laughed, absolutely glowing at me in that way nobody else but her could ever do, and Danielson strained a noise in his throat.

“You can’t—it’s not appropriate for the kind of work—you needed to disclose that kind of conflict of interest before—”

“I did,” I said, shooting him a look. “I told you about it. I was just saying that.”

“We talked plenty about it,” Kelcey said, frowning at him. “I told you how I didn’t even know Veronica was with your firm because she’d started working there while we were apart, but that she was such a wonderful, intelligent woman who I trusted and had great work, and you said you had a plan in place to make sure it would all work out without trouble.”

Danielson scratched the back of his neck, sweating bullets. “A—a plan? When? You two—since when was this even—”

“Oh, Kelcey and I?” I laughed, resting my head on her shoulder. “God, we go back forever. Don’t we, Mom?”

“Oh, you do, ” Mom said, looking like she’d burst. “I remember when I first saw you two together… I could see the sparks flying. And Kelcey—oh, she’s just so wonderful. Intelligent, quick-witted, charming, beautiful… I can’t believe I have such wonderful daughters, all four of them.”

“Ah, welcome to the club, Maria,” Gould said, putting an arm across Mom’s back.

Anna closed her eyes with a sigh. “Yeah… was actually about a year ago they got together,” she said. “I admit, never thought it would work. But true love… overcomes all, doesn’t it?”

“We talking about true love?” Lucy’s voice said, and she stepped around a group of people coming towards us, sidling up next to Anna and slipping her hand into hers. “You said you were off to talk to your sister, I didn’t realize that included half the invitees, darling. And some bonus non-invitees.”

“Luce,” I said, “Kelcey and I have been together for a while now, right?”

Lucy raised her eyebrows at us before she broke out into a brilliant smile. “Ah, yeah, absolutely. Haven’t been able to keep your hands off each other for ages now.”

Miranda hunched her shoulders, upset now that her favorite polycule soap opera drama was interrupted. “Veronica, I thought you were about to throw up.”

“Ah, I’m feeling better. Cured by true love.”

Danielson stared blankly. Berg gave him a loaded look. “Mr. Danielson… am I wrong to suspect you’ve been holding out relevant information on me?”

“No!” Danielson said, whirling on him. “I mean—yes, you are wrong! I mean—not to say it’s your fault—it’s not like that,” he blurted.

“So, this plan of yours,” Berg said lightly. “What is it?”

“I never…” Danielson looked frantically between us all. “Plan?”

Berg sighed. “Honestly, at this point, it’s in the past… it’s a small enough contract that it’s not enough to get any regulatory attention. But suffice to say I’m not happy with the pointed way you’ve leveraged this for… god knows what, Danielson.”

Danielson made a helpless sound as he visibly withered, and Mom folded her arms.

“Honestly— both of my daughters are here with the loves of their lives, and I’m having an important moment too, so you could stand to be a little more respectful!”

Miranda shook her head. “Men like him don’t care about respecting anyone… just changing the channel to suit themselves.”

Mom gave her a knowing, sage nod. I don’t think she picked up on how the whole thing was actually just Miranda’s internalized marital stress over TV arguments, but that wasn’t the most important thing right now. Kelcey picked up a champagne flute from the table, and she held it up towards the center of the group. “Here’s to true love,” she said, and Mom was the first to sweep up a glass in a rush of excitement, Matthew Gould right after, and then the rest of us picked up glasses and clicked them together, including Danielson helplessly when he was forced into it by way of too many dirty looks to bear.

“You heard them, darling,” Lucy said as our glasses met. “Here’s to true love.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Anna looked away, a hint of flush on her cheeks. Lucy laughed, leaning in and pressing a kiss to her cheek, and Mom made an aww sound that prompted Kelcey, never to be outdone, to turn to me with her expression glowing.

“Here’s to true love,” she said, and suddenly the rest of the event didn’t exist, because Kelcey existed, and that was all I cared about. She put two fingers on my chin, and I surrendered into the softness of her touch as she turned me towards her, and I closed my eyes as she leaned in and met my lips with hers.

Ah… she was perfect. I never wanted anything but this, anything but the chance to call Kelcey Huntington my girlfriend, my lover, my one and only person in this world, forever.

Berg cleared his throat, and I pulled away from Kelcey to where, thankfully, he was just glowering at Danielson. “Mr. Danielson… with all this said and done, I think I’d like to have a quick word with you.”

“Y-yeah,” he mumbled, a shellshocked look into the middle distance. “A, uh… a quick word.”

Miranda waved them off. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let’s get back to what’s interesting. Mrs. Preston, where’s the rest of your lovers?”

Mom lit up. “Oh—we should get everyone together—”

“Oh, that sounds wonderful,” I lied, “but give me just one second, I’ve held it in as long as I can, I gotta get to the bathroom.”

Miranda shot me a look. “I thought you were cured.”

“Cured of the throwing up. Even true love can’t cure a full bladder. Well, gotta go,” I said, taking off before anyone could stop me.