For a while, neither David nor Mmeso spoke.
It wasn't an awkward silence.
It wasn't the kind filled with pressure or the need to perform. It was the kind that existed naturally between two people who did not feel the need to rush into pretending they knew each other.
Below them, the party continued with its usual rhythm—music rising and falling, laughter breaking out in waves, glasses touching, voices overlapping in endless conversation. But up here, the distance softened everything. The noise became background instead of atmosphere.
Mmeso rested her hand lightly against the glass railing, her fingers relaxed, her posture unforced. She wasn't standing like someone who wanted to be noticed. She stood like someone who didn't need to be.
David found himself studying her without meaning to.
Not in the obvious way most men studied women at parties like this. He wasn't looking at her to evaluate or compare. He was trying to understand her.
She had been quiet since their introduction, but not withdrawn. Present. Observing.
Comfortable with stillness.
"You're Skywhite's friend," she said after a moment.
It wasn't exactly a question, but he answered anyway.
"Yes."
She nodded slightly.
"He talks about you sometimes."
David raised an eyebrow.
"He does?"
She glanced at him briefly.
"He says you're different."
David exhaled faintly, almost amused.
"That could mean anything."
"It usually means he respects you," she replied.
That surprised him more than he expected.
Respect was not something people said openly. Not in their circles. Not among people their age. It existed silently, or not at all.
He didn't know how to respond to that, so he didn't.
Instead, he asked, "How do you know Skywhite?"
"Gift is my cousin," she said. "I came with her."
He nodded.
That made sense.
They fell quiet again, but it didn't feel like the conversation had ended. It felt like it was building slowly, layer by layer, without forcing itself forward.
Nearby, Ada and Divine had settled on the low couch, their heads close together as they spoke in the serious tone children used when discussing things adults wouldn't understand. Every few seconds, one of them would react dramatically to something the other said, their expressions shifting between shock and laughter.
Mmeso noticed him watching them.
"She seems very attached to you," she said.
"She is," David replied.
He didn't elaborate.
He didn't need to.
Mmeso watched Ada for a few seconds longer.
"That's rare," she said quietly.
David glanced at her. "What is?"
She hesitated briefly, choosing her words carefully.
"That kind of trust."
He understood what she meant.
Trust without doubt.
Trust without condition.
Trust that existed simply because love existed.
"You have it too," he said before thinking.
She looked at him, slightly surprised.
"With Divine," he clarified.
Her expression softened.
"Yes," she admitted. "I do."
There was something in her voice when she said it. Something protective. Something deeply rooted.
He recognized it because he carried the same thing.
He leaned back slightly against the railing.
"Do you like parties?" he asked.
She shrugged lightly.
"They're loud."
He smiled faintly.
"That's not an answer."
"It is," she said.
He looked at her more directly now.
She wasn't trying to impress him.
She wasn't trying to be interesting.
She wasn't trying to be anything except honest.
And that alone made her more interesting than anyone else in the building.
"Why did you come?" she asked.
He considered the question.
Because Skywhite invited me.
Because I didn't want to disappoint him.
Because I didn't want to be the person who always stayed away.
But none of those felt like the real answer.
"I wasn't sure if I should," he admitted.
She nodded, as though that made perfect sense.
"But you did," she said.
"Yes."
She tilted her head slightly.
"Are you glad?"
The question caught him off guard.
He hadn't thought about it that way.
He looked around briefly—the lights, the people, the city beyond the glass.
Then he looked at Ada.
Then back at Mmeso.
"Yes," he said.
And for the first time since arriving, he meant it without hesitation.
She didn't smile widely.
She didn't react dramatically.
She simply accepted the answer.
"I'm glad too," she said.
Not in a romantic way.
Not in a dramatic way.
Just truthfully.
And somehow, that carried more weight than anything else she could have said.
Behind them, Skywhite watched quietly, Gift standing beside him.
Gift leaned slightly closer to him.
"They look comfortable," she whispered.
Skywhite nodded.
"Yes," he said.
He had invited David because he respected him.
He hadn't expected this.
He hadn't expected David to find someone who saw him clearly without needing explanation.
And he hadn't expected how natural it would look.
Skywhite exhaled quietly, tension he hadn't realized he carried finally easing.
For the first time that night, he knew he had made the right decision.
Back near the couch, Ada suddenly looked toward David.
Their eyes met.
She smiled.
Not a teasing smile.
Not a childish smile.
A knowing one.
As if she understood something he hadn't said out loud.
David didn't look away.
And in that moment, standing above the noise of a world that measured everything incorrectly, surrounded by the few people who saw him without distortion—
He felt something unfamiliar.
Not power.
Not destiny.
Just peace.
And he didn't know yet how rare that feeling was about to become.