Cheers from the fans inside drifted out, and Reuben couldn't help asking,
"Let's go in and watch too."
A quiet drink, easy talk, and the game he loved to watch—of course I wasn't going to say no.
We found a corner and sat down.
In the middle of the crowd a girl was shaking a beer hard, spraying it everywhere,
soaking her hair and clothes until they clung to a figure like a runway model's.
Her smile was bright and blazing,
and a spotlight fell over her, like a ball of fire in the dark.
Reuben stared, transfixed, unable to look away.
Fiona caught his gaze and walked straight toward us.
Red lips, white teeth, her smile bold and unhidden.
"Hey, handsome, which team are you rooting for? Pick mine, and there's a reward."
Before Reuben could answer, Fiona plucked the cigarette right out of his fingers, slipped it between her red lips, and took a deep, hard drag.
Reuben gazed at her in a daze, lost for words.
I used to not understand what it meant to fall for someone in a single glance. In that moment, I understood it completely.
Later we went home and lay back to back in bed.
Reuben, who hadn't posted in years, put up something new on social media:
"Love at first sight is the only true love. A moment's hesitation and it isn't real love anymore."
He and I had never been anything like love at first sight.
What we had grew slowly, day after day,
knit into flesh and blood.
Love at first sight is the only true love?
Then what were we?
I liked the post, and a second later he deleted it.
The days after that, I was busy with online meetings with overseas clients. Ever since I became Reuben's assistant, I'd handled most of the company's work.
He spent every day in the bar watching games.
We were each absorbed in our own things, and for the first time in seventeen years we had nothing to say to each other.
A car horn broke into the memory.
I turned my head. The familiar Maybach was stopped in front of me.
The rear window slid down, Reuben's brow tight.
"It's late. Why aren't you home? What are you doing wandering around out here?"
My chest tightened for no reason. "Is the game over?"
"Not yet. I was worried it wasn't safe for you to go back alone. Get in, let's go home together."
In the face of that faintly worried look of his, I pulled open the other door,
only to see Fiona slumped across Reuben's lap. She lifted her hand high and gave me a little wave.
"Macy! Surprise! I got off work early!"
My head went blank with a buzz.
Reuben explained to me as if nothing were wrong,
"Fiona's had too much to drink. Sitting beside me keeps her from getting carsick."
I let out a cold laugh. "I've heard riding shotgun helps with carsickness. Didn't know you cure it too."
I'd never liked arguing with anyone, but right then something rose up in me that I couldn't name.
I reached over, yanked Fiona off his lap, and shoved her straight into the passenger seat.
The moment Fiona saw the older driver beside her, she sat up straight.
Then she shot me a cold glance. "I'm going to throw up."
I answered flatly, "This car's been filthy for a while now. It doesn't matter."
Reuben gave me a look, his tone impatient.
"That petty, prickly streak you've had since you were a kid—can't you fix it? Fiona isn't like you. She's easygoing. She can't stand this side of you."
When we were children, people used to sneer that Reuben was a stray, a kid with no family.
I barely spoke as a child, but the moment I heard someone bullying Reuben, I'd march up and have it out with them, never minding the cost.
My classmates all said I had a strange temper, that I was small-minded, that I couldn't take a joke.
Only Reuben said it was cute of me.
And now, it had become petty too.
"Team A wins! Team A wins!"
Outside the car window, fans on the street broke into thrilled cheers.
