She hesitated. Then kept typing.
April:Also I'm engaged now? For real? It's complicated.
Mateo:I'll be ready. Bringing food.
"We're getting Mateo," she announced to the limo at large.
No one questioned it.
April typed again.
April:Leaving gala. Going to club. Still engaged. I think.
She sent it to Laura.
The reply was almost immediate.
Laura:I thought the engagement was a prank?
Laura:what do you mean it's still real?
April stared at her phone.
Laura:April how are you even getting to this club, is someone going with you?
Laura was trying to help. April didn’t know how to explain that she was fine. Mostly. Probably.
The limo slowed. Pulled up to the curb outside Mateo's restaurant.
April:Gotta go. We’re at Mateo’s
Laura:That isn't a gala or a club
April put her phone away and leaned for the door handle, but Killian was faster.
“I’ll come with you.”
“You don’t have to—”
“I know.” He was already opening the door, stepping out, glancing back at her like it wasn’t a question.
April stared at him for a second, then followed him onto the sidewalk.
They walked around to the back of the restaurant, toward the service door she’d come through earlier, when the day had still made a little sense. Mateo was visible through the window, moving through the kitchen with efficiency built from years of muscle memory. Killian held the door open.
Mateo looked up, did a double-take. “Killian Blackwood using the staff entrance, should I take a picture? Commemorate the moment?”
“The view’s much better here,” Killian said, already looking at April.
Mateo’s eyebrows went up, but he didn’t comment. He went back to packing boxes as April stepped inside.
“You didn’t have to come get me,” Mateo said without looking up. “I could’ve met you.”
“I wanted to,” April said simply.
Mateo’s hands paused for a second, then kept moving. April watched him work, the precision of it, the care, like he was building something instead of packing it away.
“You don’t have to do this” she said.
