part ways. I’d been bitter over the comment she’d made about Sasha, but as dinner had progressed, I remembered more and more of the things I’d loved about her. Maybe we had different opinions about LeFranc, but I’d hurt her. Abandoned her. And my integrity wouldn’t let me forget that. If there was a way to make it right, I had to at least try.
“Thank you for the flowers,” she said without looking up. “They were beautiful.”
Relief flooded through me. It wasn’t like I’d been dwelling on the flowers all night, but knowing she’d appreciated the gesture and not felt weird about it was no small thing. “It felt like the least I could do. Is your dress going to be okay? It was one you made, right?”
She looked at me, surprise evident on her face. “You could tell?”
I shrugged but couldn’t keep myself from grinning. She’d made a lot of her clothes while we’d been dating; the dress she’d had on that morning had looked particularly Dani. “Is that such a surprise?”
Heat crept up her cheeks, barely visible in the dim light cast from the streetlamps above us. “Chase is getting it cleaned for me. He says he knows a guy.”
“Like a guy that isn’t just a dry cleaner?”
She smiled at the question. “This is Chase we’re talking about. An ordinary dry cleaner would never do.”
I chuckled. “How’s he doing?”
“He’s perfect, as always,” Dani said.
“I’m glad to hear it.” Silence stretched for several paces before I tried another topic. “I don’t think I realized just how different you are from your brother until I started working with him.”
“You don’t know the half of it. Tonight was actually better than it usually is.”
“I don’t remember you guys fighting all that much.”
“We’re really good at avoiding each other,” she said. “But it’s more that we just can’t relate. It’s like there’s this fundamental difference of understanding that we’ve never been able to overcome.”
“Understanding about what?”
“You name it. Life, work, everything.” She ran her hands up and down her arms. The temperature had dropped during dinner and while it was still mild, she was obviously feeling chilled.
I shrugged out of my suit coat and offered it to her. She shook her head no and increased the speed of her step, lengthening the distance between us.
“Dani, just take it,” I said. “You’re cold. I can tell.”
She hesitated, but finally turned back and reached for the jacket. She draped it over her shoulders without slipping her arms through the sleeves. “Thank you,” she said, a definite edge to her voice.
We walked in silence a few more moments before she asked, “Was it really his idea?”
“Was what his idea?”
“The Compassion Experiment. I mean, I don’t mean to discount what he’s trying to accomplish, but Alex, your fingerprints are all over it.”
Before graduating and taking a job working for Alicio in New York, I’d spent a semester abroad in London interning for a nonprofit. I hadn’t been an actual part of the event planning, but we’d been a small team. We had all been involved in every aspect of the organization. Dani knew my history there. She’d see right through me if I tried to deny any influence on Isaac’s event. “Isaac did say he hired me because he knew what his weaknesses were and hoped I could compensate for them.”
“So, what? His weakness is that he’s shallow and self-centered?”
“His weakness is that he has zero business experience and has no idea how to build a positive brand image.”
“So he called you? An accountant? To help him with his image?”
I stopped. “My undergrad degree was in business. I took marketing classes. You know all of this about me. Why does this matter so much?”
She turned to face me. “It just feels so unlike him.”
“Just because a charity event was my idea doesn’t mean Isaac didn’t have a desire to make a bigger difference. He’s the one who has figured out all the details. I might have planted a seed, but he’s doing all the work.”
She scoffed. “That feels even more unlike him.”
“Dani, can I say something as a friend?” The minute the words came out of my mouth, I regretted them. I was asking for more than I deserved.
“No Alex, I don’t think you can,” she said, her voice cool.
“As Isaac’s friend, then.”
She raised an eyebrow, which I took as encouragement to press forward. “I want to preface this by saying that obviously, I am also very different from your brother. We have different opinions on