Arriving at the venue with Janice

The venue is already alive when they pull in, the parking lot buzzing with the particular energy of two hundred seniors who have been waiting for this night since September. Music bleeds through the walls from inside, the building lit up against the darkening sky, clusters of people outside in their finest doing what people do when they are dressed up and feeling good about it.

Miles finds a spot and kills the engine. Janice is already checking her hair in the visor mirror, unhurried, taking her time. He waits without rushing her.

Janice: okay. She snaps the visor shut. Let's go.

He gets out and comes around to open her door, which she accepts without comment but with a look that suggests she filed it away somewhere. They walk toward the entrance together, her hand finding his arm naturally, the two of them falling into an easy rhythm.

Their friend group is clustered near the entrance, phones out, the familiar chaos of trying to organize people who do not want to be organized. Miles and Janice fold into it, finding their spots, laughing at someone's failed attempt to get everyone looking the same direction at the same time. Maya is already there, stunning in a deep green dress, her date somewhere in the background talking to someone he barely knows. She catches Miles's eye the moment he arrives and smiles, the polite kind, the kind that has a layer underneath it that only he would recognize.

Maya: She steps in close under the pretense of fixing the pocket square on his tux that does not need fixing, her voice low enough for only him. You look really good.

Her fingers linger a half second longer than the task requires before she steps back into the group like nothing happened.

Janice is talking to someone on her other side and does not notice. Or does not let on that she noticed, which with Janice amounts to the same thing.

The photos take another ten minutes, the usual shuffling and repositioning, someone always blinking at the wrong moment. Miles is mid laugh at something when he sees her.

Aria.

She is across the courtyard with her date, a guy Miles vaguely recognizes from the soccer team. She is in red. Of course she is in red. She looks like she selected the outfit with the specific intention of being a problem tonight and succeeded completely. Her date has his hand on her waist and she is laughing at something he said but her eyes have already found Miles across the crowd with the unerring precision of someone who knew exactly where he was standing before she looked.

She holds his gaze for just a second. Then she turns to her date, says something close to his ear, and kisses him. Not a peck. Something slower and more deliberate, the kind that has a specific audience in mind.

When she pulls back she glances at Miles one more time over her date's shoulder with a small unhurried smile.

Then she looks away like it was nothing.

Miles turns back to his group.

Janice: everything okay?

Miles: yeah. Fine.

Janice follows his eyeline for just a fraction of a second before looking back at him. She says nothing but links her arm through his a little more firmly than before.

He files into the venue between Janice on his arm, the memory of Maya's fingertips on his lapel, and Aria's eyes from across a crowded courtyard.

The night has not even started yet.