"Absolutely not," Dante says.
"D. One stupid face. For posterity."
"My face doesn't do stupid."
"I've seen your face do stupid," I say. "Three a.m. When you're half asleep and you walk into the doorframe because you forgot where the bathroom is."
"That happened once."
"It happened Tuesday."
Maya is laughing. Dante is fighting it. Gio is already making his stupid face, tongue out, eyes crossed, chin doubled.
The photo happens. The stupid-face version will be the one we keep.
The phones lower, and the group stays put, ten people standing in a cluster on a lawn in June. Nobody steps away yet.
Adrian looks around and counts us.
"Hell of a run," he says.
"Hell of a run," Declan says, low and heavy.
The cluster loosens as people drift and parents arrive. The lawn fills with noise.
Zoë pulls Gio toward the parking lot, saying something about a reservation and a time constraint while Gio protests that he hasn't finished his champagne. Clara drags Adrian toward the alumni tent. Declan and Talia walk off together, his hand on her wrist, her shoulder against his arm. Genny waves once and disappears into the crowd, her gown folded over one arm and her champagne lifted clear of passing elbows.
Maya takes my hand, her fingers threading through mine and locking there. Dante's hand settles on the back of my neck, his thumb braced just below my hairline, and the crowd moves around us while the three of us stay rooted in the grass.
"Ready?" Maya says.
"For what?"
"Chicago. The rest of it. Everything."
Someone touches my arm. I turn.
Gio has jogged back from the parking lot. Zoë is visible behind him, arms crossed, one foot tapping.
"You good, Cole?"
The same question. The same two words. From twenty minutes ago on this same lawn.
My mouth stays closed for a beat. Then two. The answer has to cross the space without the smile I usually put in front of it.
"Yeah," I say. "I'm good."
Gio nods and jogs back to Zoë before she kills him.
Maya squeezes my hand. Dante's thumb presses once into the back of my neck.
We walk off the lawn together, Maya on one side and Dante on the other, into the rest of it.
Epilogue
Three Years Later
Dante
