Three days later, Gael finally spent a full evening back in the city.
Not neighborhood dinners.
Not backyard chaos.
Not internship updates across the kitchen island.
Actual work.
A venture capital networking event downtown followed by drinks at a rooftop lounge in Los Angeles.
For the first ti in weeks, the suburban rhythm fell away completely.
Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city.
Clean modern architecture.
Quiet expensive enough to feel intentional.
Different atmosphere entirely.
Gael stood near the drink counter adjusting his cufflinks while emails loaded across the phone beside him.
Then his phone buzzed.
Haley:
survive rich people night
A second ssage followed instantly:
and dont flirt with mysterious won in cocktail dresses
He smiled faintly.
Gael:
very specific concern
Haley:
i know how cities work
That pulled a laugh out of him.
Haley had started growing more comfortable with his larger world lately:
events,
investors,
business dinners,
wealth.
At first it intimidated her slightly.
Now she treated it more like sothing she wanted to grow into beside him.
Huge progression.
An hour later the event unfolded exactly as expected:
networking,
startup pitches,
people aggressively pretending not to care about status while clearly caring deeply about status.
Gael handled it easily.
That calm competence people kept noticing around him beca even more obvious in environnts like this.
And suddenly—
Gloria ended up entering the evening.
Near the rooftop bar halfway through the event, Gael heard a familiar voice behind him.
"Well. This explains the suit."
He turned.
Gloria stood near the lounge entrance in a dark erald dress with another couple from Jay's social circle beside her.
Elegant.
Confident.
Completely belonging in the environnt.
But her expression shifted subtly the second she recognized him.
"Gloria."
The older couple exchanged greetings before drifting toward another group nearby, leaving them briefly alone near the railing overlooking the city.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Investor event."
"Of course." Her eyes moved over the rooftop crowd. "You fit this world very naturally."
Unlike the shopping trip, this felt different imdiately.
Because now she wasn't seeing:
Haley's boyfriend,
the neighbor,
the charming younger man around family dinners.
She was seeing him fully inside his own environnt.
And it affected her.
He could tell.
"What about you?" he asked.
"Jay donated money to sothing expensive." A faint smile touched her mouth. "So now we attend events until death."
That pulled a quiet laugh from him.
Then Gloria glanced around the rooftop lounge again:
city skyline,
wealthy professionals,
soft jazz,
glass walls reflecting the lights below.
"You look older here," she admitted.
Not physically.
More like:
settled,
dangerous,
fully adult.
Gael noticed the way her attention lingered slightly too long afterward.
Then another voice interrupted behind them.
"Gael."
A brunette woman in her late twenties approached holding champagne, dressed sharply enough to radiate startup money imdiately.
"We're heading upstairs after the panel," she said before noticing Gloria. "Oh—sorry."
Gloria smiled politely.
The woman looked between them once more before touching lightly against Gael's arm.
"You should co. I want you to et sobody from Sequoia."
Then she walked off again.
Small interaction.
Still enough.
Because Gloria noticed several things instantly:
the familiarity,
the attention,
the confidence of won around him,
and how naturally he belonged in this world.
Not suburban fantasy anymore.
Real adult status.
Gloria looked back toward the skyline for a mont before speaking quietly.
"I think I preferred you next to backyard string lights."
"That sounds safer."
"Yes," she admitted softly. "Exactly."
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