Chapter 12 After Hours Birthday #2
“To us being legally allowed to make worse decisions.”
Sophia said, “Not all decisions.”
Gia pointed at her. “Legal queen strikes again.”
Victoria lifted her glass higher. “To Bella Luna. Because this year would have sucked more without it.”
The room quieted a little. Not completely, but enough.
Antonia’s face softened. Brett looked down into his drink.
Gia lost some of her grin. Sophia knew Victoria meant more than work.
Bonnie. Treatments. Bad days. Appointments.
Victoria making jokes and working shifts and posting beautiful photos while worrying about her mother at home.
Vinny moved softly toward the kitchen. Sophia noticed because she was always noticing him now.
He returned a minute later with a simple covered container and set it near Victoria’s purse, away from the cake.
Victoria looked at it. “What is that?”
“Pastina soup,” he said. “For your mom. Antonia said she had a rough treatment day.”
Victoria went very still. Gia looked down at her glass. Sophia’s throat tightened.
Vinny shifted his weight. “No big thing. It’s plain. Chicken broth. Tiny pasta. A little carrot. If she doesn’t want it, don’t force it. Just thought maybe later.”
Victoria stared at the container. For a moment, all the sharpness was gone from her face.
“Thank you,” she said.
Two words. Short. Real.
Vinny nodded. “Yeah.”
He held back the joke. No one did. It was why the moment worked.
Then Gia sniffed once, too loud. “Great. Now I have to like you for at least six minutes.”
Vinny looked relieved. “I’ll take it.”
Victoria picked up the soup container and held it against her chest for one second before setting it back down.
Sophia saw. So did Vinny. He looked away first. That made Sophia want to kiss him.
Not because he had done something for her.
Because he hadn’t needed credit for doing something for Victoria.
The cake was fair. It was. Gia moaned dramatically over her espresso side, then accused Vinny of trying to buy loyalty with frosting.
Victoria ate hers slowly and gave him one nod that somehow meant more than Gia’s entire speech about cake changing the legal system.
Sophia ate a narrow slice of each because Gia insisted both women had to be represented.
Her sparkling lemonade stayed in her glass. Refilled once by Brett, who said, “For the lawful member of the group,” with a faint smile.
Sophia liked Brett. He looked polished and expensive and still slightly out of place in an after-hours Bella Luna birthday party, but he tried.
He handed Antonia napkins before she asked.
He stood close enough to her that they looked like a unit, but he never pulled focus from her.
Sophia noticed that too. She was noticing a lot of things lately.
After cake, Gia made everyone take pictures.
Everyone. Even Antonia. Especially Antonia.
Gia insisted on one photo of herself and Victoria under the broken TWENT ONE streamer, holding up tomato earrings and the compact mirror like prizes.
Then one with Antonia between them. Then one with Brett looking uncomfortable but cooperative.
Then one of Sophia and Victoria, which Gia declared “proof you two survived the night.”
Then Gia pointed at Sophia and Vinny.
“You two.”
Sophia froze. “What?”
“Picture.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Victoria lowered her cake plate. “I support this for documentation purposes.”
Vinny held up both hands. “I am not forcing a picture.”
Sophia looked at him. His answer steadied her.
Gia rolled her eyes. “It is a birthday picture, not an engagement announcement.”
Antonia said, “Gia.”
“What? Too far?”
“Yes,” Victoria and Antonia said at the same time.
Gia winced. “Fine. Too far. Sorry.”
Sophia’s face was hot, but she looked at Vinny. He was watching her, not Gia.
“If you want,” he said. “If not, I can survive without evidence.”
That made her smile.
“I guess one picture is all right.”
Gia recovered immediately. “Excellent. Stand there.”
Sophia moved beside Vinny near the table. Not touching.
Then Gia made a face. “You look like cousins at a baptism.”
Sophia covered her face. “Gia.”
Vinny laughed. “That’s specific.”
“Move closer.”
Victoria crossed her arms. “Reasonable closer.”
Vinny looked at Sophia. She stepped closer first. Their shoulders touched.
It was a tiny thing, but it didn’t feel tiny.
His arm hovered for one second before settling lightly behind her back.
Not pulling. Barely touching. Sophia leaned in just enough that it counted.
Gia took the picture. Then another. Then one more because she said the first two looked suspicious.
When Sophia stepped away, she missed the warmth of Vinny’s arm immediately.
That felt like a problem. A fine one. Still a problem.
The party loosened after that. Music played low from Gia’s phone.
Antonia let Gia pour one more little glass for herself and Victoria, then cut them off with the authority of a woman who knew birthdays didn’t cancel tomorrow morning.
Sophia drank lemonade and didn’t feel left out.
She was younger. Tonight, it was just true.
It didn’t make her feel smaller. She liked being part of this room.
At one point, Victoria slipped outside for air. Sophia followed after giving her thirty seconds. The sidewalk outside Bella Luna was cool and low. The blinds glowed gold behind them. Victoria stood near the window with her arms folded, looking down the street.
Sophia stopped beside her. “Too far?”
Victoria shook her head. “No.”
“Bonnie?”
Victoria looked at her. Sophia didn’t apologize for asking.
Victoria let out a breath. “She had a bad nausea day.”
“I’m sorry.”
“She told me to go. She said if I stayed home on my birthday, she would be offended.”
“That sounds like her.”
“It does.” Victoria rubbed her arms. “I wanted to go home three times. Then I didn’t. Then I felt guilty for not going. Then I felt guilty for feeling guilty. Very efficient.”
Sophia touched her arm. “You’re allowed to have a birthday.”
Victoria looked at her. Her eyes shone, but she didn’t cry. Victoria didn’t like crying where anyone could see.
“I know,” she said.
“Do you?”
Victoria gave her a look. “Don’t use your new maturity on me.”
Sophia smiled. “Too late.”
Victoria leaned her shoulder against Sophia’s. “You are getting annoyingly brave.”
“Barely.”
“Still.”
They stood there for a minute.
Then Victoria said, “The soup was right.”
“You haven’t tasted it.”
“You know what I mean.”
Sophia looked through the window.
Vinny was inside, clearing cake plates without being asked. Gia was arguing with Brett about whether expensive watches were useful or just “wrist confidence.” Antonia was laughing with her hand over her mouth.
“He’s skilled at that,” Sophia said.
“Food?”
“Remembering.”
Victoria followed her gaze. For once, she didn’t immediately object.
“He is trying,” she said.
Sophia looked at her.
Victoria sighed. “I am not approving. Don’t get dramatic.”
“I said nothing.”
“You had a hopeful face.”
“I need new faces.”
“You have very readable faces.”
Sophia smiled.
Victoria looked back at Vinny through the window. “I still think he can hurt you.”
“I know.”
“But tonight…” She paused. “Tonight was decent.”
Sophia bumped her shoulder gently. “That is high praise from you.”
“It is. Tell him nothing.”
“I won’t.”
They went back inside. Gia immediately accused them of having a serious meeting without her.
Victoria told her she had reached her emotional limit, and Gia accepted that because cake was still available.
Near the end of the night, Sophia found herself in the kitchen rinsing lemonade glasses because she needed her hands busy.
Vinny came in carrying the empty cake knife and stopped when he saw her.
“You know you don’t have to clean,” he said.
Sophia looked at him.
He lifted one hand. “You can clean if you want.”
“Learning.”
“Slowly.”
She smiled and rinsed another glass.
He set the knife beside the sink. “Did you have fun?”
“Yes.”
“Even without illegal alcohol?”
“Especially without illegal alcohol.”
“Nice.”
He leaned back against the counter, keeping space. The kitchen was quieter than usual. No orders, no rush, and no Antonia calling for plates. Just the hum of the coolers and the muffled sound of Gia laughing in the dining room.
Sophia set the glass in the rack. “The cake was beautiful.”
“Thanks.”
“And thoughtful.”
He looked down. “They’re both different. I didn’t want it to look like I shoved them onto the same cake because their birthdays were close.”
Sophia turned off the water.
“That is exactly why it worked.”
His eyes lifted. She dried her hands on a towel.
“Victoria liked the soup,” she said.
“She hasn’t eaten it.”
“She liked what it meant.”
Vinny was calm. Sophia stepped closer before she could talk herself out of it. Not all the way, but enough.
“You’re skilled at taking care of people without making them feel like a project,” she said.
His face changed. That had hit something. She could tell.
“I don’t always get it right,” he said.
“No.”
His mouth twitched.
Sophia smiled. “But you got it right tonight.”
He looked at her like he had no idea what to do with the praise.
“Thank you,” he said.
She wanted to kiss him, again. She was starting to want that too often. But wanting wasn’t the same as losing control. She knew that now. A little. Sophia glanced toward the dining room. No one was looking, probably. Maybe. She looked back at Vinny.
“Can I kiss you?” she asked.
His eyes darkened a little, then softened.
“Yeah,” he said. “You can.”