Page 59 of Time for You
“Uh, telling,” Michelle said, and sent another frantic look at them when Meghan turned to place her wine on the empty table behind them.
“She didn’t know him before this trip,” Vibol explained. “Distant family, visiting some cousins—she had no idea who he was until the next weekend, once the whole, um, past thing had been sorted out.”
Henry approached and Daphne watched in horror as Ellie tried to signal him with the neck-slicing “don’t say anything” motion. He clearly didn’t understand, and Daphne couldn’t blame him. He wouldn’t recognize Meghan, given how disorienting that first day had been and how briefly they’d interacted, and anyway, he would have no way of knowing what they were talking about.
So of course, he opened with the worst possible sentence: “This century has marvelous—”
“Hahaha, such a joker, this one,” Vibol said loudly. “We were just explaining to Meghan here about how you’re Michelle’s cousin, but your accident had made your identification kind of difficult to track down, right?”
“Oh yes, ah, exceedingly so,” Henry said, with a quick furrowed-brow look at Daphne. “Michelle and I are—cousins?”
“Second cousins,” Michelle repeated.
“Oh hey, there’s that, uh, person we wanted to talk to,” Brittany said, pointing wildly. “Let’s go over there. Now.”
Daphne tugged a bewildered Henry behind them and out into the hall. “That was a close one,” Ellie sighed dramatically.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not sure she bought that,” Vibol said with a glance back into the ballroom.
Henry looked carefully at Michelle. “Will she believe we’re cousins? I don’t mean to be indelicate, but won’t she notice that we’re, well—”
“That I’m Black and you’re white? Yeah, she’ll notice. But, you know, families can be big and weird, so hopefully she’ll just assume I’ve got some white relatives or something.”
“I’ll be honest, I think the bigger problem is that we were all just incredibly weird back there,” Ellie observed. “Like, turbo weird.”
“Possibly the weirdest we’ve ever been,” Brittany agreed.
“We probably created more problems than we solved there, but at least Michelle was quick enough to come up with something on the spot.”
“Should I go do damage control?” Daphne asked.
“Genuinely don’t think that’s possible, especially not with you. No offense,” Ellie said and grinned at her. Daphne smiled back ruefully, taking Ellie’s point. Improv had never been her strong suit.
Vibol shrugged. “Probably best if we just keep on going like nothing happened. The more we try to explain, the harder it gets. He’s Michelle’s cousin—”
“Second cousin,” Michelle interjected.
Vibol nodded. “He’s her second cousin, and when Daphne cruelly rode him down with her bike—”
“Hey, objection,” Daphne protested.
“Overruled,” Vibol said, holding up his hand. “She rode him down, gave him a teeny-tiny brain injury that temporarily made him believe he was from a different century, because he was on his way home from aBridgertonreenactment and happened to be wearing that costume. End of story.”
“Won’t they notice my clothes are some seventy-odd years more modern than that?” Henry asked.
“Nope,” everyone said in unison.
“What shall we do next?” he asked.
“You guys should go dance,” Ellie said with a gesture at Vibol, Michelle, Daphne, and Henry. “Leave me and Brittany to go on the prowl.”
Daphne smiled as Vibol joined her at their table, Ellie walked onto the dance floor with Henry, and Michelle headed toward the restroom. Brittany was deep in conversation with Dr. Gupta and an older white man in a tuxedo over in the corner.
Vibol leaned back into his chair, jacket tossed on the empty seat next to him. “So what is your deal?” he asked.
Daphne was busy studying Henry and the figure he cut in his suit, and didn’t quite pick up on the undercurrent in Vibol’s tone. “Hmm?”
“Your deal,” he repeated. “Something’s up with you.”
