POV: VIVIAN
The gala is for ocean conservation, which I know because I read the briefing materials my publicist sends before every event and because the centerpieces are elaborate coral arrangements that I'm fairly certain are not real coral, which is its own irony at an ocean conservation gala but one that no one seems to be addressing.
Ryan has been beside me all evening in the way he is always beside me, present without being attached, attentive without being possessive, the specific quality of a man who is secure enough not to need to demonstrate his security through behavior that announces itself. I find this quality easier to be around than I find most things and have been finding it easier for the past year, which is either evidence that I'm becoming a person capable of appreciating ease or evidence that I've been running a very long performance of that person and have gotten good enough at it to fool myself some of the time.
