Chapter 24: 24 The Party, Part One

When Angharad stepped in, almost stumbling after Sophie's elbow caught her in the back, she noticed they'd moved all the tables to one side of the cafeteria and taped streamers to hang down from the ceiling, the sticky-tape shiny in the reflected afternoon light.

"Do you like it?" Sophie asked. "Tsuyoshi got Zelko to move all the tables while he made mean comments."

Angharad nodded. "That sounds like him. It looks nice. Did you bring the things?"

"Tabitha brought the things," Sophie said, and pointed to where Tabitha leaned against the opposite wall.

Tabitha had her arms crossed so Angharad couldn't see all the bodice details, but she wore purple pleated satin, clearly tailor-made. Angharad had never seen an off-the-shoulder dress that looked that aggressive before, but that was part of the magic of Tabitha. Tabitha stood up straight and uncrossed her arms, and the fabric of her three-quarter sleeves didn't even crease. Angharad was impressed.

Gemma and Mac pushed past her to lean against one of the tables in that classic awkward high school dance pose, and then looked around the room, their eyes flicking quick over Tabitha and away like they had a problem with her. There was probably a story there, but at that moment Angharad didn't even care.

She reached Tabitha in a few long strides and said, "You look totally hot."

"As do you," Tabitha said. "Party hats, madam?"

If the fully stocked crafts room was good for anything, it was this – the cute little party hats she'd asked Sophie and Tsuyoshi to put together so some of their less talkative acquaintances wouldn't have to feel alone. A thorough investigation had helped her figure out that the kitchen robots couldn't move anywhere outside of the kitchen – if you unplugged them, they had no stored up battery power to keep them awake, and doing that just once to test things had made Angharad feel weird and bad. Helping them feel part of the party with accessories was the best she could do.

"Okay, first of all," she said, leaning over the counter toward them, "do you guys actually want hats?"

The robot closest to the counter banged its arms together, so she assumed that was a yes and strapped a hat to his shiny oval head.

"Very cute look. Brings out the best in your metallic sheen."

The robot near the refrigerator leaned and stretched its arms towards her, so she jumped over the counter and went to it, manoeuvring around its arms so she could secure a hat to its head without it getting caught on the beaded portions of her dress.

The other robot stood hunched over the oven, but it turned away and shuffled back when she got closer.

"That's okay. No hat for you."

"This was a great idea!" Sophie said, and clapped her hands a little.

"I admit, it's not terrible," Tabitha said.

Sophie turned the music on and people slowly shuffled in.

Angharad had already managed to compliment Dr Yeoh's silk tie and let Colonel Huppert know he looked very handsome in his uniform when Tsuyoshi finally swaggered in, almost slamming into the doorway as he said, "I'm here. Everyone applaud."

Clearly she was not the only person who packed for travel with potential fashion emergencies in mind. Tsuyoshi was a vision in black and red, his pocket square folded into a rose, his eyes sharp and intensely dark. He still wore his scuffed boots, but one imperfection she could forgive.

The music swelled as they walked toward each other. He grabbed her arm in his tight grip and pulled her close. "Pay attention to me. We should dance. Why is nobody dancing?"

"You smell like wine," she said.

"Mmm," he said with his rumbling voice, as he shifted his grip on her. "I liberated the good doctor's bottles of Pinot Noir. What are they for if not this?"

He seized her hand and then her side, his grip a little too tight over her lower ribs. She had to put her hand on his shoulder to steady herself as he pushed them into a clumsy waltz.

"You do look good," she said. "And we match. You in red, me in red."

His laugh was barely more than a huff of breath. "Both of us the most beautiful people in the room."

"If you say so."

"Who would we be in a movie? Would I be the dangerous bad boy you can't stay away from?"

She tried to imagine either of them ever being the kind of person Hollywood made movies about. "Well, you did give me a leather jacket. So I guess I'd have to be the good girl you seduced to your wicked ways."

He snorted with laughter, inelegant. "I'm so glad we're not hetero. Sounds dire."

"Hey, some of my best friends are straight."

She felt a little dizzy as he twirled her around, too fast to quite control his movements. Was everyone looking at them? Surely they'd bump into the tables if he wasn't careful.

He pulled her closer still and breathed gross wine breath all over her ear.

"Everyone's watching us," he murmured. "Wishing they could be us. Wishing they could be between us."

"U-um..."

"Matching in red like twins, only you were tragically born white."

She pushed back far enough to look at his face, the angry furrow of his brow and the sulky tint to his eyes.

"How drunk are you?" she asked.

"Not drunk enough."

She sighed. "I'm pretty sure everyone watching us is thinking we're the most obnoxious people in the room. Sway more softly, Wino. Your weird fantasy universes don't require you to dance me straight into the punch bowl."

"Sorry," he mumbled. Tsuyoshi slowed down so they were only scraping their feet around a small circle of the laminated floor.

"Anyway, even in an alternative universe we could never be twins. You have to be older. It's the rules."

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"Oh, of course. The dangerous bad boy older brother type, scaring off all your potential suitors."

"Would you make sure creepy old men wouldn't try to hit on me for all that money they think I have?"

"I'd frighten them all off with a glare."

She felt her face trying to smile, something small and genuine. "I'd like that. I'd like you as a brother."

He scoffed. "I'd like a parent with your dad's money. Better than uncle Tim, any day."

"I'm serious. I wish I'd met you earlier."

He looked away.

The music stopped and silence settled over them, just for a moment. Then in the background someone yelled, and there was a thumping noise, and the music whirred back to life, halfway through an overwrought dance song about lovers who don't talk about feelings.

"I feel half digested," he said. "Like in that Goya painting of Saturn eating his son."

"Do you always talk about creepy art when you get drunk?"

"I usually like something more muscular and energetic. Degas, Frederick McCubbin, Winslow Homer. I'm not fond of the Spaniards. A miserable people."

That was a bit more than she could handle. She felt honest relief when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She looked up to see Zelko, cleaned up and neat, actually looking good for once. He looked eager and nervous, like a high school boy waiting for his prom date.

"Can I cut in?" he said.

"Please do," she said. "Take him off my hands. I can't think of anything I want more."

Tsuyoshi released her immediately and started to gaze up at Zelko instead. She rolled her eyes as she turned away to get a drink.

Mac stood next to the fancy glass water dispenser thingy someone had found in someone's luggage and in front of a plate of plain water crackers, the only food the kitchen robots had let them have.

"Yuck, lemon flavoured. That is the opposite of refreshing!" Angharad said, when she reached Mac's side.

Mac smiled, like they were sharing a secret, and said, "Isn't Tsuyoshi being really annoying?"

"I'm not hearing that from you tonight," Angharad declared.

But she looked around at the party – people were starting to dance, including Sophie stepping carefully around the room with a white boy with sandy blond hair – and then smiled back at Mac.

Mac grabbed her by the elbow. "Let's talk to the girls."

Gemma was only a few steps over, talking with a doe-eyed skinny girl whose long dark hair was set off with a neat black bow.

"I rescued Angharad," Mac said, and the girl turned and said, "Hi. We haven't been properly introduced. I'm Eleanor. Josephine talks about you all the time."

Angharad made herself smile. "Not as much as she talks about you."

"Girls like you don't normally hang out with girls like Josephine. I'm really happy she's made a friend," Eleanor said.

"What does that mean, girls like Angharad?" Mac said. She'd leaned over Angharad's shoulder to talk and wound her arm all the way around Angharad's, like a boa constrictor in a blue dress.

"The pretty, popular, straight girls that like shoes and clothes don't usually like Josephine's enthusiasm," Eleanor said, and tilted her head to the side with a small upward curve to her mouth. "I find it inspirational the way she keeps going for her dreams. Others may find it a little obsessive."

It would have been quicker, Angharad thought, to just say 'I don't think you're a threat'.

"Oh, I'm not straight," Angharad said. "But that's so weird anyone would feel that way, because Josephine's so nice to everyone. I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to be her friend."

Angharad wasn't sure her friendly smile was as non-threatening as she meant it to be.

Mac's hand clenched on Angharad's wrist.

"What kind of things do you talk about?" Eleanor asked. "You don't look like you and Josephine would have anything in common."

"Angharad has a boyfriend," Gemma said, voice flat. "They probably talk about that."

"Which one is he?" Eleanor said, as she looked around the room.

"He's not here," Angharad said. She shook off Mac's grip on her arm. "I'm going to go dance with Jin, now that he's finally shown up."

"Would your boyfriend seriously be okay with you dancing with other boys?" Mac asked. She looked genuinely confused about the idea, which was completely bizarre to Angharad.

"I don't have to care about that." She swung around to kiss Mac on the cheek, friendly. "But don't hit on Tsuyoshi's boyfriend again. It's a really bad idea."

"What do you and Jin even talk about?" Mac asked.

"Resource allocation in operating systems and complex sound patterns emitted by the barrier," Angharad said.

"Exciting," Gemma said, deadpan.

Angharad laughed and twirled away.

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