She did not know yet that the warmth was not permanent, that it was simply the thing Julian gave to whoever was newest, that one day she too would be receiving texts about milk while someone else got the recipes and the playlists.

I did not envy her.

If anything, across that glittering room, I pitied her a little, because she thought she had won something, and I knew how little it was worth.

For the better part of an hour, I sat at my table near the back and I watched Julian try, and fail, to keep his distance from her.

He was disciplined about it at first, working the room, shaking the right hands, playing the managing partner.

But habit is a current, and it pulls a person even when they are trying to swim against it.