“I’m good. Thank you for the opportunity.”
His thumb brushes my cheek in a brief, fatherly gesture he tries to disguise as adjusting my hair. “I’m proud of you,” he adds under his breath. “Don’t let anybody make you small again.”
Julie nods. “I agree.”
He grabs his wife’s hand. “Let’s get a drink, doll. The kids probably want to hang out with their friends.”
“I’m in mylate twenties,” Tristan protests. “We’re not kids.”
“Off you go, my boy.” Dante waves a hand like a king dismissing his subject. “I have adults to speak with.” He and Julie move on to greet the next set of arrivals.
“That went better than I expected,” Tristan admits. He offers me his arm again. “Do you want to check out the buffet first? Dante always goes hard on thehors d’oeuvres.”
There’s a huge line at the buffet already. I shake my head, incapable of verbalizing my discomfort.
“Okay,” he says, like it’s not a big deal.
“You should go,” I croak.
“I said I’d stay with you. Besides, I have a meal plan to stick to.” He grins.
“I’ll be fine here…”
“I promised you I wouldn’t leave you on your own.”
“She can wait with us.” One of Tristan’s teammates walks over and extends a hand to me. “Minnie, can I introduce you to my wife?” I finally dredge up his name: Camden. He’s one of Tristan’s better friends on the team, though we’ve barely spoken to each other since I was hired.
“Dot’s an introvert,” he adds in a confidential tone. “She gets overwhelmed by all the WAGs and small talk, but I think you’d get along.”
Tristan waits for my response. I manage a nod. “I’ll wait with them. Go on. I haven’t seen my family yet.”
Tristan waits a beat before heading toward the buffet line. I let Camden escort me over to a standing-room-only table, where a pretty pregnant woman is sipping a glass of sparkling water with her eyes downcast.
“Dot, this is Minnie. Minnie, this is my wife, Dot.”
Dot’s hand lifts in a wave, even as I hold out my hand. I switch to an awkward wave of my own just as she tries to transition to a handshake.
Camden laughs. “I see how it’s going to be. I should warn you, Minnie, we don’t get out much. Dot’s neurodivergent as hell. But so am I. My job just shoves me out in the limelight more.”
I stare at him. How does he do that? Just… say it, in public, without shame?
Or maybe I should be asking myself why the householdIgrew up in treated differences and social awkwardness as something shameful.
“It’s okay. I’m not good in public situations either. It’s so, um, loud.” I want to tell Camden what Marley said about autism, and how she thinks I might be neurodivergent, too. I’m not ready, though. I’m still trying to understand what that means for me, and I’m not ready for other people to ask me questions I can’t even answer for myself yet. It’s bad enough that I’m a young woman in STEM.
“Tell me about it!” Camden reaches for his champagne flute. “I have ADHD, so a room like this, with all the background chatter? It’s a nightmare.”
I nod my agreement. “By the way, I prefer to be called Minerva, if that’s okay.”
Dot smiles. “If I had a beautiful name like that, I’d want to use it, too.”
“Is Dot short for something?”
“Dorothy.” She wrinkles her nose. “It makes me sound like I’m an old woman, or like I should be frolicking through a field of poppies with my pet schnauzer.”
“Toto was a Cairn Terrier,” I say. “In the movies.” As soon as the words are out, I could kick myself.Nobody cares what kind of dog Toto was. Stop being disagreeable, Minerva.
“Was he?” Dot asks, evidently untroubled by this trivia. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it all the way through, actually. It’s too weird.”
