Sora stepped aside to let Yelena and Diego into her house the next day. "Welcome to the party."

"Thanks for inviting me."

"You're Tommy's brother, of course I'd invite you. Please, make yourself at home." Spotting the box wrapped in puppy-checkered paper, she directed him to the kitchen. "Gifts go in the kitchen. There's punch. Help yourselves."

"Thanks."

Yelena and Diego trooped off, cooing behind the toddlers waddling about the house in their primary-colored rompers and foil birthday hats.

Aiko walked up juggling a cup of cherry punch for each of them. They were on a ginger path to mending their relationship now that Sora had declared discussion of her romance with Ravi verboten. Sora and Ravi were not up for negotiation. Less so with each new day.

After Sora briefly made the rounds of the other parents from Tommy's working moms playgroup, she and Aiko took a breather near the fireplace.

"Sam and Diego at the same party?" Both still a little in love with Yelena but Yelena had chosen Diego and Sam would have to learn to live without her. Sora's tender heart ached to watch it; they were both good enough men, even with their father's hot blood flowing through them.

Sora lifted her free hand in disavowal. "They're both Tommy's brothers, I couldn't not invite either of them. Think of it as a peace offering." She checked her watch. "Anthony should be here soon." Anthony had dropped Tommy off after breakfast, as promised.

"Odds on whether he'll bring Diana or Hana?"

"It's a nightmare, right? But it's not my nightmare anymore, so I don't care. As long as they don't ruin Tommy's party, he can bring the Duchess of Cambridge if he can get her to answer his calls."

Yelena was the one to open the door on Anthony arrival an hour into the party. Sora was enjoying a reprieve from her hosting duties on the couch.

"Diana Parrilla and Hana," Sora exclaimed, grabbing Aiko's leg and pointing.

Aiko blanched. Sora had told her about her encounter with Anthony and Diana in August.

"What do we do? We should tell her, shouldn't we?"

Sora necked her punch, wishing it were wine. "I've tried, but she isn't listening to me anymore. You tell her."

"I should tell her now, right? Sooner is better. Just rip the Band-Aid right off." Aiko grabbed Sora's arm in a vice grip. "Give me another idea, Sora. This is a terrible idea, Sora."

"Take her out by the driveway and tell her. Give her a chance to leave before they can make a scene."

"Maybe she won't mind," Aiko posited, her smile a rictus of forced optimism.

"Maybe she won't mind? Aiko..."

Her older sister shut her eyes. "What am I thinking, of course she'll mind! Not minding is not Hana."

The two younger Gallegos sisters trepidatiously watched the guests putter around Sora's house in overwhelmed camaraderie.

Sora made to stand. "I should mingle."

"What about Tommy?"

"Sam is looking after him and the other kids from group. Everyone's talking. The games don't get under way for another half an hour. The magician is scheduled for a half-hour after that. This party should be over in two hours." Sora was fervently counting the seconds.

"That's not too bad," Aiko reassured her and, from the pinched expression she was assuming, herself. Sora desperately wished Ravi would hurry back from his afternoon conference call with Fabrice in New York.

"We're rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. My son's second birthday is going to be Chernobyl but with more cake." Sora resolved to defuse this situation before it imploded. "Okay, here's the plan. I'll take Diana and you take Hana."

"Why do you get Diana?"

"Because we have Anthony in common and not long ago you wanted to kill her."

"I didn't want to kill her."

Sora tapped her toe until Aiko relented.

"Maim, not kill. Just so Manny wouldn't look at her twice."

"Just an FYI, Manny isn't looking at her anymore. He's only got eyes for you."

Aiko fretted, "We both know that's not true."

Sora couldn't lie to her. "One hurdle at a time, Aiko."

...

Sora approached Diana with punch, which the women took graciously enough. They hadn't had reason enough to butt heads for things to be awkward between them. Well, aside for them having an ex in common and Sora was making it a point not to hold poor taste in men against anybody else these days. Glass houses.

"You have a lovely home."

"Thank you. It used to be Ravi's. Small world." Never had Sora imagined that Ravi would make this house his home again, but here they were.

"The smallest."

"Speaking of slightly unbelievable coincidences...You came with Anthony and Hana. That seems like it must have been an interesting car ride."

"It was illuminating," Diana quipped, sipping her drink. Diana Parrilla had a gift for understatement and the face of a stage actress; her expression told the tale. Lingering incredulity. Not a little pain. Bitterness. Watching Anthony and Hana work the room like a king and queen with no idea their kingdom was set to burn.

"I don't envy you being in love with him."

Diana froze in place, her blue eyes the flashing silver dollars, for once caught out instead of in on the joke. "I'm not."

"You're doing a savvy impression of someone who is. I guess you could say I'm an expert."

Diana looked away from the couple. "I don't know what I'm doing with him. He treated me like I was easy when we were younger. That's still how he treats me. There's just something about him."

"If he wants you, there must be something about you he can't resist, which means there's something about you somebody else wouldn't be able to resist."

"Good advice."

"I'm the last person to be talking another woman down from the King Anthony ledge of ruining your life and your self-esteem. He totaled mine. I let him. The difference between me and most women who get caught in his web is that I made him regret it. I make him regret it every day and I will never stop as long as he reminds me how little he thought of me."

Diana raised an eyebrow. "You're harder than I thought."

"Life will do that to you. I don't have to tell you that, do I?"

Diana swallowed, lips pinched. "Some part of me thinks if I can win him over it will be worth it. I can leave him like he left me." She scoffed at herself. "It's idiotic, I know that."

"Feelings and logic don't really go together. Throw in a dash of wounded ego and you'll find yourself the fool in any scenario. Just remember, if you keep fighting a fool, eventually onlookers won't know the difference." Her piece said, Sora left Diana to her contemplations. She wanted no further part in this. Her son was waiting. It was time for the party games to begin.

...

A few hours later than planned, Ravi stepped out of the kitchen into the middle of Diana and Hana's confrontation. He ducked behind Anthony to edge out the crowd and reach Sora. There wasn't time enough for greetings before the fur flew anew.

Anthony stepped between the two women, hands raised.

"Ladies, let's keep cool. It's just a little misunderstanding, all right. Hana, you know I'm in love with you. I've been all about you for months. Diana doesn't mean anything. She was just something to pass the time."

Diana narrowed her eyes dangerously. Sora swore under her breath, grabbing Ravi to pull him farther from the fray toward the verandah. This wasn't going to be pretty. "You certainly passed a lot of time with me, Anthony."

"Is that true?" Hana pushed at his shoulder. "Anthony, is that true? You and Diana have been having an affair?"

" 'Affair' is a loaded word. I prefer 'fling.'"

Ravi groaned and covered his face. He could have guessed this was how it would all end.

"So do I," Diana acquiesced. "We had a fling, nothing more or less."

Hana glared between the two who were busy glaring heatedly at each other. The air crackled with the chemistry between them. Sora wondered if Hana wasn't half as angry as she was because she could see it.

"You didn't think this fling was something I should know about?"

Anthony put a hand in his pocket, chin raised, legs apart. He was about to dig in his heels. "Well, no. Seeing as you and I weren't together when she and I...got it together, I don't think it should matter."

Hana rocked back on her heels. Her jaw dropped. "No? All your declarations of loyalty were just convenient lies?"

"We weren't together!"

She slapped his chest. "You claimed you wanted us to be."

Diana took a step back to let them at each other. A smirk played at the corner of her mouth. One looked much less foolish when they stopped talking.

"I did, Hana! I want that. I want us."

"So what was Diana?"

"A mistake."

Diana scoffed, crossing her arms. "Can't say I haven't heard that from you before."

Sora determined that now was the time to intervene before the hostilities kicked up again. Ravi squeezed her hand for luck. "Oh...kay, it's time for the birthday boy to get some sleep." Never mind that it was five in the afternoon. Sora wanted this scene and every one of its gawking spectators out of her house. "Thank you for coming, drive carefully. I'll see you all later. Aiko, Sam, Diego, Yelena, please help everyone find their coats."

...

Sora faced a wrecked but empty house with only Ravi for company once she'd seen all the guests on their way. Tommy was already down for an impromptu nap, all the excitement from the party having worn him out. He wasn't the only one. Sora decided she'd clean tomorrow. Better yet, she'd call the cleaning service in the morning and let somebody else worry about the red solo cups floating in her pool. She needed a nap after that melodrama staged in her very own living room.

"That was—that was about what I expected." Ravi met her with a glass of white wine, which she took gratefully.

"Welcome back to the family where dysfunction is our middle name."

"And your married name," he chimed in.

"My former one, thankfully. I have higher hopes for the next one I take on."

Ravi pulled her to his side as the crossed the living room to reach the couch.

"What's that again? Refresh my memory."

She cuddled up to his side. "It sounds like 'missing,' which I admit is a bit concerning, but I think the man makes up for it." He rubbed her back, gentle and strong.

"That could be all right. He anybody I know?"

"Mmm, maybe. The name's Kamran, I think, and I hear he's single."

Ravi's grin deflated into a confounded glower.

Sora's leaned up to kiss his offended confusion away.

"Kidding. There's only one Misra for me and he happens to be the sexiest one in the bunch."

"I like where this is going, but then I liked where the last one was going until..."

"You can't take a joke."

"Not about losing you to Kam. I've seen how he looks at you." Younger sibling of the golden children tended to gravitate toward each other. It was old news, high school stuff. Sora was embarrassed about how flattered she'd been at his attention, so hungry was she to be noticed as something other than the sick one, the bookish one, the one nobody saw.

"We have history. It's ancient, boring, not like what we have." She and Ravi could set wildfires with a look. Kamran and Sora had been nothing like that, and would never be.

"Let me know when hearing how much I love you gets boring."

"Don't hold your breath."

They kissed. The cleaning and the melodrama, they could definitely wait till tomorrow. They had other things to celebrate tonight.