“You know this one?” he asks.
“I do. It’s one of my favorites, actually. It’s calledBird in Space.”
“It’s quite something.”
A donor approaches, and Roman handles him with smooth charm and social precision. Roman glides his hand over my hip when the man walks away. I close my eyes for a moment, savoring the feeling.
“It’s funny,” I say, gesturing to the sculpture, “people argue about this, whether or not it’s even supposed to be a bird. But in my opinion, that’s kind of the point.”
My eyes are on the sculpture. But Roman’s eyes are on me.
“You see things others don’t, Amalie.”
“I just have an eye for art, that’s all.”
He shakes his head. “No, that is not all. Far from it.”
A moment of silence passes.
“Are you ready to mingle?” he asks.
“Sure.”
We turn from the sculpture and move into the crowd. I feel more at ease, taking in the people, the soft music.
“I feel like I’m overdressed and under dressed at the same time,” I say.
He chuckles. “You are exactly perfect. Which is why no one can stop looking at you.”
I roll my eyes, secretly loving it. “You’re impossible.”
“I am honest. And I’m the luckiest man in this room.”
We move deeper into the gala crowd, people greeting Roman, Roman introducing me to them. It’s awkward at first, but with every greeting, every handshake, I feel a little more at ease and less out of place.
“Perhaps the dress was a mistake,” he says as we move to another knot of people.
“Oh?”
“It makes it very hard to focus on philanthropy.”
I laugh, nerves easing despite myself.
A bit later, standing in front of a massive glass installation, he leans in and says, “Every man here wants what I have.”
“And what’s that?”
“You.”
I stop thinking about how I look or whether or not I’m fitting in. I just stay where I am, right at his side.
“I’m glad I came,” I say quietly.
He smiles, slow and certain. “Me too.”
The shift in the room is subtle at first.
There’s no grand announcement, no fanfare. Just a change in the vibe of the crowd; conversations lower in volume and eyes sharpen as a different sort of presence filters in through the towering doors.
