By the time Noah reached the threshold of the balcony with all the subtlety of a minor national incident, Cecil had already seen enough to know that whatever had happened between Arik and Natalie had not belonged to the category of ordinary social complication.
That much had been obvious from the slap.
It had become even more obvious in the aftermath.
Not because of the mark on Arik's cheek, though that had certainly been informative. Not even because Natalie looked like someone who had just barely managed to pull herself back into her own skin before witnesses arrived. But because Arik had let it happen in the first place and because Natalie had remained on the balcony afterward instead of walking back inside and setting fire to the evening in spirit, if not in fact.
Cecil noticed these things.
He had always noticed these things.
