Page 74 of A Conflict of Interest

“Ah, welcome to the club, Maria,” Gould said, putting an arm across Mom’s back.

Anna closed her eyes with a sigh. “Yeah… was actually about a year ago they got together,” she said. “I admit, never thought it would work. But true love… overcomes all, doesn’t it?”

“We talking about true love?” Lucy’s voice said, and she stepped around a group of people coming towards us, sidling up next to Anna and slipping her hand into hers. “You said you were off to talk to your sister, I didn’t realize that included half the invitees, darling. And some bonus non-invitees.”

“Luce,” I said, “Kelcey and I have been together for a while now, right?”

Lucy raised her eyebrows at us before she broke out into a brilliant smile. “Ah, yeah, absolutely. Haven’t been able to keep your hands off each other for ages now.”

Miranda hunched her shoulders, upset now that her favorite polycule soap opera drama was interrupted. “Veronica, I thought you were about to throw up.”

“Ah, I’m feeling better. Cured by true love.”

Danielson stared blankly. Berg gave him a loaded look. “Mr. Danielson… am I wrong to suspect you’ve been holding out relevant information on me?”

“No!” Danielson said, whirling on him. “I mean—yes, you are wrong! I mean—not to say it’s your fault—it’s not like that,” he blurted.

“So, this plan of yours,” Berg said lightly. “What is it?”

“I never…” Danielson looked frantically between us all. “Plan?”

Berg sighed. “Honestly, at this point, it’s in the past… it’s a small enough contract that it’s not enough to get any regulatory attention. But suffice to say I’m not happy with the pointed way you’ve leveraged this for… god knows what, Danielson.”

Danielson made a helpless sound as he visibly withered, and Mom folded her arms.

“Honestly—bothof my daughters are here with the loves of their lives, and I’m having an important moment too, so you could stand to be a little more respectful!”

Miranda shook her head. “Men like him don’t care about respecting anyone… just changing the channel to suit themselves.”

Mom gave her a knowing, sage nod. I don’t think she picked up on how the whole thing was actually just Miranda’s internalized marital stress over TV arguments, but that wasn’t the most important thing right now. Kelcey picked up a champagne flute from the table, and she held it up towards the center of the group. “Here’s to true love,” she said, and Mom was the first to sweep up a glass in a rush of excitement, Matthew Gould right after, and then the rest of us picked up glasses and clicked them together, including Danielson helplessly when he was forced into it by way of too many dirty looks to bear.

“You heard them, darling,” Lucy said as our glasses met. “Here’s to true love.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Anna looked away, a hint of flush on her cheeks. Lucy laughed, leaning in and pressing a kiss to hercheek, and Mom made anawwsound that prompted Kelcey, never to be outdone, to turn to me with her expression glowing.

“Here’s to true love,” she said, and suddenly the rest of the event didn’t exist, because Kelcey existed, and that was all I cared about. She put two fingers on my chin, and I surrendered into the softness of her touch as she turned me towards her, and I closed my eyes as she leaned in and met my lips with hers.

Ah… she was perfect. I never wanted anything but this, anything but the chance to call Kelcey Huntington my girlfriend, my lover, my one and only person in this world, forever.

Berg cleared his throat, and I pulled away from Kelcey to where, thankfully, he was just glowering at Danielson. “Mr. Danielson… with all this said and done, I think I’d like to have a quick word with you.”

“Y-yeah,” he mumbled, a shellshocked look into the middle distance. “A, uh… a quick word.”

Miranda waved them off. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let’s get back to what’s interesting. Mrs. Preston, where’s the rest of your lovers?”

Mom lit up. “Oh—we should get everyone together—”

“Oh, that sounds wonderful,” I lied, “but give me just one second, I’ve held it in as long as I can, I gotta get to the bathroom.”

Miranda shot me a look. “I thought you were cured.”

“Cured of the throwing up. Even true love can’t cure a full bladder. Well, gotta go,” I said, taking off before anyone could stop me.

Chapter 20

Kelcey

I caught up to Veronica at the back of the hall, nowhere near the bathrooms, leaning back against the wall looking out over the party, and when she glanced over and spotted me coming, her face lit up in that way she only ever did for me, and, like—god, I could have gotten used to that. Actually, no, I’d never get used to it, but I kind of wanted to spend forever trying.

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