“If I knew this would be a closed-book exam, I would have studied you longer,” he said. Her mouth twitched up.
“Well, time’s up. I need an answer,” she said, playful.
“Your secret? I think that you’d rather be anywhere else than at this party.”
“That’s hardly a secret. I’m on the roof less than ten minutes before midnight. Try again. Actually, no… I’ll try it this time.”
“You want to guess my secret? Go ahead.” He was curious to hear how a stranger perceived him.
“I think… you hide behind your camera and observe people from a distance so they can’t guess your secrets,” she said.
His eyes widened.
“That easy, huh?”
“I’m easy to read,” he admitted. “My turn.”
“You better get it right. If not, I’m stealing your job,” she teased.
Drew studied her and thought about it for a moment, trying to find a story through her face alone.
“Okay, I think… you came to this party even though you didn’t want to because it’s New Year’s, and your friends dragged you along. But now you’re up on the roof avoiding someone downstairs instead of just going home and enjoying the last few minutes of the year… because it’s easier to hide out than feel like you’re letting people down by leaving early.”
He immediately worried that he’d gone too far. But she seemed completely unbothered.
“Correct. Butsospecific that it could only be said by someone who feels the same way.”
She said it like a compliment.
“Well, we’re both sitting on the roof avoidingthe best—” Drew began.
“Party of the year,” Ari finished.
Based on his observations, the only people truly having fun were the people too famous to care. Everybody else was exchanging contacts, talking about their latest projects, and trying towork the room as if each conversation was a potential opportunity. Thandie had a bunch of famous friends, and he’d been Sade’s plus-one to his fair share of parties like this back in California. So, he’d developed a habit of trying to guess what social status someone carried to get an invite to a thing like this. But Ari’s appearance didn’t give anything away. She was beautiful, but not tall enough to be a model. Dressed well, but didn’t carry herself with the confidence of an actress. Maybe she was a musician, an athlete, or the founder of some buzzy tech start-up. As he tried to figure her out, he found himself drawn to her eyes. They were such a dark shade of brown that he could see the whole city reflected in them. But when she looked away, he looked away, too. They sat in silence for a moment before returning to the topic of the party.
“It feels like a networking event disguised as a party down there,” he said after a moment.
“It’s a glorified business mixer,” Ari said, nodding. But her tone wasn’t judgmental. “People have been asking me, ‘Where do I know you from?’ all night.”
“WheredoI know you from?” he joked.
“Nowhere,” she said. “But parties like this are for people who stick around just in caseyou aresomebody.”
“Even if I was a somebody—”
“Are you?” she joked.
“Do I look like a somebody?”
“Not in the slightest. I was just asking to be polite,” she said.
Drew laughed. “Well, I’m not. But even if I was, I have at least twenty red flags that would make them want to run for the hills as soon as they got to know me.”
“Oh, me too,” Ari said. “But it’s a party. You’ve got to show your best side. It’s kind of like a first date. I tell guys I’m a foodie, but the only thing I can cook is pesto pasta, and I order the samemeal from the same restaurant whenever I go out. You embellish the good and hide the bad.”
“My profile on the apps says I care about climate change. But I always end up buying plastic bags, and I’m too lazy to recycle,” he admitted.
“Oh, so you hate the planet. You’re the worst kind of person,” she teased. “But my deepest, darkest secret is that I skip to the last ten minutes of a film before I decide to watch it from the start.”
