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"I'm not saying anything."

"Your face is saying everything."

I lose the battle. The laugh bursts out of me so loud that it makes my stomach hurt and my eyes water. He stands there in the middle of a cobblestone street in the south of France looking like a man who just lost a fight with a bakery, and it is the funniest thing I have ever seen.

"You have—" I gesture at my own chin.

He swipes at it but misses entirely. Gets more sugar on his hand.

"Here." I step closer and reach up, brushing the powdered sugar from his jaw with my thumb. His skin is warm. His eyes track my face from this close with an intensity that makes my hand slow.

I pull back before I can do something stupid.

"You're hopeless," I say.

"I built a billion-dollar company."

"And you can't eat a crêpe."

"These are separate skill sets."

I'm still laughing when we reach the gelato shop.

It's the kind of place that only exists in coastal villages—bright colors, handwritten flavors, a line of three people that constitutes a crowd here. I order pistachio. Everett orders dark chocolate because of course he does.

We walk down toward the water eating our cones, and for a few minutes everything is simply, perfectly easy.

Then the seagull happens.

One second Everett is holding his gelato and saying something about the architecture of the building ahead of us. The next second a gull the size of a small dog dive-bombs from absolutely nowhere, clips his hand, and sends the cone flying.

He jerks back.

The gelato hits the cobblestones with a splat.

The seagull lands three feet away and starts eating dark chocolate gelato off the ground with zero remorse.

Everett stares at it.

Then at his empty hand.

Then at the bird.

"Did that just happen," he says flatly.

I am already doubled over.

"It's not funny. That bird just robbed me."

"He saw weakness and exploited it. Very CEO behavior, actually."

Everett looks at the seagull again. The seagull looks back with the dead-eyed confidence of a creature who has never once been held accountable for its actions.

"I'm going to buy another one," Everett says.

"The bird will come back. He seems to like you."

"I’ll be better prepared this time."