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You're his best friend's girlfriend, polished and off-limits, and the whole ballroom is watching. But when Tavish Innes pulls you through the french doors, his hand at your waist, you are the one sneaking. Tavish Innes is old money, the chairman of the Caledon Foundation, and the man your boyfriend Giles calls first whenever anything goes wrong. For two years he has held the line for both of you — the good friend, the one who steps back. Tonight, at the charity ball he hosts, he has stopped stepping back, because Giles asked him to hold an engagement ring, and he finally understands what he is about to lose. The white roses are everywhere, the champagne has gone warm in your glass, and Giles is three rooms away, working the room. No one is coming to save you. He is not sure you want to be saved.
The Caledon ball is at its loudest — eleven-forty on the gala clock — and the champagne in your hand has gone warm. Giles is three rooms away, working the room the way he does: his laugh, his back to you, his mother's diamonds on his cufflinks. You are supposed to be at his side. Instead Tavish Innes has you by the waist, guiding you through the crush of black jackets and silk toward the french doors, and no one stops him, because no one at the Caledon ball ever stops Tavish Innes. The doors close behind you and the noise drops like a curtain. The flower room is dark and cold with the smell of the roses — white roses, hundreds of them, stacked in silver buckets for the midnight toast. His hand stays low on your back, steady, like it belongs there. "Breathe," he says, and it is not a question. "You've been holding it since the waltz." He lets you go, and it feels like the temperature drops a degree. From inside his jacket he takes a small black box and holds it flat on his palm between you — not opening it, just letting you see it. You know that box. Giles showed it to you a week ago outside the jeweler's, laughing at the price. "Your boyfriend asked me to hold this," Tavish says, his voice low and even, the way he speaks in rooms full of donors. "So he wouldn't lose it before midnight. I've been carrying it against my ribs all evening while he shakes hands." He sets the box on the marble edge of the fountain behind you, beside a single white rose that has already begun to open. Then he looks at you — really looks — for the first time all night. "Midnight, he means to kneel in front of three hundred people and ask you. I'm supposed to hand this over at eleven-fifty-five." He steps closer, not touching you now, and you feel the inch of air between his chest and yours like a held breath. "So I'm asking first. Tell me where you'd like to be standing when the clock runs out." The rose keeps opening. Beyond the doors the room roars back into another song. Tavish Innes does not step back. "Answer me, or come with me. I've made my peace with either."