45. Extraordinary
Extraordinary
Kiri
The sight of all of us together like this feels like a fever dream.
Radhika beside me. Rithy and Ronan grinning at her like no time has passed.
Rafe standing with Kasia instead of Emily or whichever beautiful disaster used to be draped over him at parties like this.
It feels like two versions of my life have been forced into the same room.
I turn toward Kasia.
“Kasia, this is Radhika Malhotra. Radhika, Kasia Sawadzka.”
Radhika’s smile widens with recognition. “Of course. I’ve heard so much about you.”
Kasia glances at Rafe. “Should I be concerned?”
“Only if he told the truth,” Rithy says. Rafe gives him the finger without looking away from Kasia. “What? She already knows insults are my love language.”
“Yeah, we're all fluent,” I say.
Kasia laughs. A server passes with a silver tray of champagne, and we each take a glass. Radhika lifts hers toward the group.
“To finding the same idiots in every decade.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Ronan says.
We’ve barely taken our first sips when a woman in a silver dress comes weaving toward us.
I recognize her from something. A series, maybe.
One of those shows everyone pretends not to watch and then discusses in detail.
Her eyes are fixed on Radhika. She's clearly coming over to tell her something heartfelt, worshipful, or completely incoherent.
She never makes it. Her heel catches and she stumbles sideways into Ronan, her champagne going directly down the front of his shirt.
“Jesus Christ.”
Ronan catches her before she follows the drink to the floor, steadying her by both arms.
“Oh my God.” Her face goes white beneath the makeup. “I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
“You’re grand,” he says, because Ronan could be bleeding and still reassure the person holding the knife. “You okay?”
She nods too quickly, then remembers why she crossed the room. Her gaze snaps back to Radhika.
“I’ve seen everything you’ve ever done.”
Radhika smiles politely. “That’s very kind.”
“Everything. You’re incredible. Like, genuinely incredible. My mother loves you too. Not that you’re old enough for my mother to—God, that sounded terrible.”
She apologizes twice more, nods frantically at Radhika, then disappears into the crowd with as much dignity as she can recover while moving at that speed.
Ronan pulls the wet fabric away from his chest.
“Off to a great start lads and ladies. This is miserable. Cold as fuck.”
“You’ll survive,” Rafe says.
Ronan looks down at himself. “Didya know humans can’t actually feel wetness?”
Kasia's eyes widen.
Rithy slowly lowers his glass. “Normally Ronan's Science Hour bores me, but this I've got to hear. Explain.”
“We don’t have the receptors. Hydroreceptors or whatever the fuck they’re called. Not like spiders and shit. Your brain just figures it out from the change in texture and temperature.”
I raise an eyebrow.
“It’s okay, Ro. We all know you’ve never felt anything wet in your life. No need to make excuses.”
Rafe chokes. Champagne sprays back into his glass as he doubles over coughing.
Rithy bends at the waist beside him, one hand braced on Ronan’s shoulder, the other trying to not spill his champagne.
Kasia stands frozen with her mouth open for one stunned second before the laugh tears out of her.
Radhika loses it beside me. Her head tips back as her hand lands on my arm to steady herself while Ronan stares at all of us with disgust.
“Oh, yeah, yeah. Whatever.” He wipes uselessly at his shirt and points at me. “Fuck off.”
The laughter starts to settle. Radhika leans closer, champagne warm on her breath.
“That’s never been a problem for you,” she whispers.
I turn my head. She looks up at me over the rim of her glass.
For once in my life, I have absolutely nothing to say.
My brain empties. Radhika, a woman who shouldn't be willing to spit on me if I was on fire, saying something like that? Maybe it’s the champagne.
I swallow and her eyes flick briefly to my mouth.
Then something beyond her shoulder catches me.
Natalia.
She's sitting alone at the end of a long velvet couch, one leg crossed over the other, a drink balanced loosely in her hand.
Her nails tap against the glass in a quiet, uneven rhythm.
I know she's avoiding me. The deliberate angle of her face.
The way she studies everyone who passes as if they are suddenly fascinating.
She makes sure her attention lands everywhere except here.
At least Julian Mercer has left her alone.
I’ve heard things about him. Nothing bad enough to destroy him or that anyone could likely prove.
Assistants who quit abruptly. Young artists who stopped getting opportunities after refusing private meetings.
Women warned not to drink too much around him, though no one ever seemed willing to explain why.
Industry shit. Rumors. The kind powerful men collect because everyone beneath them learns silence is better for their career.
I knock my knuckles lightly against Rithy’s arm while he's still laughing. He looks at me, my eyes dart toward her. His smile fades at the edges. Then he looks back at me and gives one small nod.
“I’ll rejoin you all in a moment,” Rithy says, placing his untouched champagne on the nearest table. “I have a mission.”
Radhika glances toward Natalia. “A mission?”
“To cheer up a miniature blonde Rottweiler.”
Kasia snorts. Rithy grabs two fresh drinks from a passing tray and starts across the room.
Natalia notices him coming and immediately narrows her eyes.
He drops onto the couch beside her and offers her one of the glasses.
Whatever he says makes her scowl deepen, but she takes it.
Radhika watches them for a moment, puzzled. Then she gestures toward Kasia.
“Tell me all about the wonderful…” She tilts her head. “Kasia, was it? Rafe tells me you're a doctor?”
Kasia nods. Rafe straightens as if someone has handed him a microphone and asked him to discuss his favorite subject.
“A retinal surgeon.”
It's the most impressed I've ever seen her. That's saying a lot for someone like Radhika.
Kasia gives Rafe a look. “You don’t need to announce it like I personally invented medicine.”
“You save people’s sight,” he says. “I’m allowed to brag.”
“That is extraordinary,” Radhika says, and she means it. “How did you choose that? It must have taken years of schooling.”
The doctor effect. Actors can win awards.
Musicians can sell out stadiums. None of it survives the introduction of someone who can cut into an eye without ruining it.
Kasia begins explaining, and I glance back toward the couch.
Natalia is listening to Rithy with her arms folded.
He says something that makes her almost smile even though she's fighting it.
I wonder how often this happens to her. How many rooms she enters beside Kasia only to watch everyone turn toward her sister with the same expression Radhika is wearing now.
The brilliant older sister. A surgeon. The woman Rafe Ashton fell in love with and can't stop bragging about.
Then Natalia beside her, beautiful enough to build a career from being looked at, which probably only makes people assume there's nothing else worth finding.
All that humor, fire and intelligence lost beneath dismissal.
I know all about that comparison. Rithy is the cofounder.
The guitarist musicians study like homework.
The one who writes the line that brings an arena to its knees, then steps forward and plays something that makes everyone forget how to breathe.
He sings, writes, makes the guitar sound like an extension of his soul. I pluck the strings. I hold everything together while the others make people feel something.
It isn’t the same.
I know it isn’t because I've spent most of my life standing beside him while people prove it.
I look toward Natalia again. This time, I catch her staring.
Her eyes meet mine for less than a second.
Then she looks away so quickly it's almost violent, turning back toward Rithy and crossing her arms tighter over her chest. I pull myself back into the conversation and catch Rafe’s eye over the women between us.
I raise my eyebrows in question.
How the fuck did we get here?
Rafe looks at Radhika, then Kasia, then back at me.
His eyebrows lift and he gives a small shrug in answer.
No idea.
It should feel good. Radhika is beside me again.
Her hand occasionally brushes mine. Her laugh still pulls memories out of places I thought I'd buried them. But all I can think about is Natalia sitting across the room, pretending she doesn’t see me.
My feet itch to go over there. To tell her she isn’t alone, that she belongs here, that I see her.
That I understand. But I know I’m the reason she’s sitting apart.
Why she keeps her eyes on everyone else.
Radhika slips her arm through mine. I smile down at her because any bastard with sense would know how lucky he is to have her here.
Then my chest pulls hard in the direction of the woman sitting across the room.
I look at Natalia once more and wonder when I’ll become more than the thing that happens to people.