Page 114 of The Encore’s Crown

“I am.”

Rafe pulls out his phone before she asks and begins scrolling through photographs. Radhika leans closer.

“She’s beautiful.”

I sit across from them and say almost nothing. Whenever Radhika looks in my direction, I find something else to focus on. My glass. The harbor. The label on the whiskey bottle I’ve read at least five times. She once knew every version of me. Now I can’t even look at her without feeling like I’m trespassing. Ronan asks about her family. Her mother is well. Her father has retired from acting but has somehow become busier. The aunties still know everyone’s business before it happens.

“And you?” Rithy asks. “How are you?”

There’s a slight pause.

“I’m well.”

The answer is polished enough to appear in print. Rithy hears it too, but for once he doesn’t push.

“What about the engagement?” Ronan asks.

Rafe kicks him beneath the table.

Ronan winces. “What? It was public!”

Radhika turns her glass slowly between her fingers.

“It ended amicably.”

“I’m sorry,” Rithy says.

“I’m not.”

The answer comes without hesitation. I look up before I can stop myself. Her eyes meet mine. Something unreadable passes through them.

Rafe leans forward. “He was an idiot, then.”

“No.” Radhika looks back at her drink. “He was exceedingly kind. We simply wanted different things.”

That sentence finds every vulnerable place I’ve left exposed.

Kind.

The man she almost married was kind. I wonder what word she'd use for me now. Ronan opens his mouth, but Rithy speaks first.

“And the guy you’re here with?”

Radhika glances toward the bar. Her companion is still watching.

“He’s a close friend.”

Ronan makes a doubtful sound.

“A friend who looks like he wants to challenge Kiri to a duel,” Rafe says.

I nearly choke on my drink. Radhika’s gaze snaps toward me, then immediately away.

“He doesn’t know of Kiri.”

“That’s why he still thinks a duel is a reasonable plan,” Ronan says.

Rithy laughs. Radhika doesn’t.