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That icy feeling in my chest intensifies. How am I supposed to raise a daughter in this kind of mess?

Vivica orders us two club sodas, and I wait until the bartender has passed them over and wandered off before I tell her, “Is it awful if I say I don’t remember for sure? I’m not always great with names and faces.”

She laughs lightly. Not the forced laugh I see her use in front of everyone else. “I don’t know. Do you think it’s awful?”

I shrug my shoulders. “I’ve been doing this a long time and my memory’s never been great.”

Her sympathetic pat on my arm makes me strangely uncomfortable. Thankfully my phone vibrates in my pocket, announcing a text.

Ravi: We’re here. There’s a bathroom down the hall opposite the ballroom entrance. Meet us there?

Thank God.

“Hey, you good here if I make a quick trip to the restroom?” Soon as I say that, though, I notice a man sitting alone at a nearby table. He’s staring at ‌both of us and doesn’t look especially happy. Not mad either. More like…hopeless?

I don’t know.

“Who’s that guy?”

She looks. “Oh. He dated a friend of mine a little while ago, but she moved to Milan to make contacts in the fashion world. Maybe he’s still sad about the breakup.”

I’m not so sure. The way he lights up when he realizes he has her attention? Even I know what that means.

“Maybe you could go and say hi to him? I’d feel better if I knew you had someone keeping you company until I got back.”

She gives me a smile. “You’re too good, Dean.”

No, I’m really not. But it’s nice to hear.

“You’re too kind. Thank you.”

When she walks away and I see her drop into a seat beside him, I light out of the room like my ass is on fire. Or like my dick is in a metal cage.

When I get in there, I’m immediately greeted by a scowling Liam, again wearing tactical pants and a T-shirt that’s three sizes too small. He shoves me into the room and braces his foot against the door, jamming it shut.

“There’s no lock,” he explains. To Ravi, he says, “Better hurry, kid.”

Ravi’s busy searching for something in his backpack. He pulls out a case with a triumphant noise, then adjusts his glasses before looking at me. “Okay, drop your pants.”

I glance at the man by the door. The rumors I’ve heard about Ravi’s boyfriend, I don’t exactly want to go pissing him off.

Liam only nods. “Hurry before someone tries to come in here.”

Fine. I suppose it’s good that this isn’t even close to the most embarrassing thing someone’s had to watch me do.

Bracing myself, I shove my pants and boxers to my ankles. Always better to get the scary things over with quickly, like I tell Ella.

“Don’t worry, Dean, I watched a video online and these things are pretty simple to get off. The guy in the video even did it with a folded-up condom wrapper.”

“I guess that’s…comforting.” Is it? I don’t think I’ll feel comforted until I’m out of this thing.

“You probably could’ve done this yourself.”

Ugh. “I’m not great at figuring things out like that. Didn’t want to risk hurting myself.”

“I get it. But, uhm, I’m going to have to kind of grab you,” Ravi explains.

My gaze goes to the ceiling above my head. To distract myself, I start counting tiles. “I figured you would.”