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+----- Thread: the sound of music | eira, rosie, cass (/showthread.php?tid=1260)
the sound of music | eira, rosie, cass - Katerina Nikolau - 08-31-2026
august 29, 1923
10 pm
10 pm
Katerina took one glimpse at the crowd before her eyes went back to the keys.
Somewhere in that sea of heads, which she could barely distinguish with all those lights pointing at her, were her friends. She gulped.
There was a time when she wouldn’t have dared to show them this side of herself. Now, as she slowly grew confident in the skin of the woman she had transformed into—away from her father, and away from who she was supposed to be—she could finally let them see the parts of herself that she had deemed embarrassing or not useful enough.
That included her art.
As her long, pianist fingers flew over the keys, the lounge was filled with the most beautiful, melancholic notes. They spoke of heartbreak and loneliness in a way only music could, jumping right over words and straight into the soul.
Her brow creased slightly, focus written all over her face as tight, dark curls fell over her forehead. She was on the last notes of the melody, her heart thudding against her eardrums.
Before she knew it, it was over. She stood up, smoothing the flowy, silver fabric of her beaded dress. Finishing a concert was always bittersweet.
As they applauded, Kate took a bow. Chewing on her lower lip, she looked around. The venue was not exactly big, but it was crowded. For a solo debut at her young age, it was a win. She had put herself on the map. Her lips curled into a bright smile.
Turning around on her heel, Katerina disappeared behind the heavy velvet curtains.
Backstage, everything was full of life. Some of the workers approached her, congratulating her. Katerina smiled, shook hands, and accepted kisses on both cheeks. Yet, who she was really wishing to see was not them—but her friends.
They should be there any minute now, she guessed. She had instructed them to meet her there after the concert ended, after all. Katerina took a deep breath, sitting in front of the mirror. Unable to escape her own vanity, she stopped to check her makeup. As she reached for a lipstick, someone touched her shoulders.
Katerina turned around, just slightly, and then she saw them.
The smile she had been wearing up until that point spread across her face. She rose to her feet and grabbed the first friend she had within reach, pulling them into a tight hug.
“It’s been forever.” She pushed them away. “Thanks for coming.”
RE: the sound of music | eira, rosie, cass - Cassian McCormick - 09-01-2026
Rosie hadn't told him that Eira would be there.
His wife, Merlin and God and everyone else, bless her, had always had her own idealistic streak within her. People liked to say that he was the dreamer and that he sometimes struggled to include splash a bit of realism or temper his expectations. It wasn't a lie, and he wouldn't deny it. Where he could, Cassian liked to see what could be and allow it to motivate him toward those goals.
Rosie?
Oh, her ambitions...her ambitions were equally larger than life when she wanted them to be. Case in point, telling him about Kate's performance, getting him dressed to the nines for the elegant evening, his hair slicked back and his suit sharp, all while...forgetting crucial information. She'd mentioned to him that it might have been important for their friend to have them come and see her perform. Frankly, Cass didn't know Kate had that kind of talent. Not that he thought she was talentless; he'd just never thought that the once abrasive girl might be into something as delicate and whimsical as the piano. Colour him surprised; she was actually good enough to be in concert halls to the applause of a crowd.
What Rosie didn't tell him was who else would be there.
That 'who else' mattered, though not enough for him to ruin the night. In the end, it hadn't been hard to sit on the other side of Rosie and never make eye contact. The performers had done well; many of their performances both beguiled and enchanted him. There were scores he recognised through their use in some of the productions he'd taken part in. It hadn't taken much to forget once the show really got started, but when the house lights came back on and the crowds began to disperse, he was back to sharing his wife's attention with someone who wasn't meant to be there.
What a mature and understanding husband he was.
Approaching Kate, he could see for himself the excitement she held over seeing them again and could...concede that Rosie had been right on that account.
He left the girls to their physical reunion, hanging back with his hands loosely tucked into his pockets.
"Wouldn't have guessed that you had all that in you," he commented, praising the performance as it rightly deserved. "How long've you been practising?"
Must've taken a lot for her to become a featured performance in such a place. It was another testament to the fact that while he and Rosie had run off to start their lives, their friends had gone on living their own and had come out with the products of their own work.
RE: the sound of music | eira, rosie, cass - Liliya Zdravkova - 09-02-2026
Eira was being so incredibly civilised. She had even smiled at Cassian when the three of them had met up, more or less stiffly, but she had. No one could accuse her of not trying. Otherwise, she had ignored his presence entirely.
She wasn’t here for him.
She was here for Kate.
Three years had passed since Eira had last seen her. After their fifth year, before her family had decided to pack their bags and leave for Russia, cutting her off from her old life as though it meant nothing. No Rosie. No Kate. No one. Just her and the Zdravkova, Russia, and Durmstrang.
When they had returned to Britain a year ago, Kate hadn’t been there—off to Paris, studying the piano.
Somehow, life had managed to rip all three of them in different directions, some more brutally than others, but all of them harsh in their own particular ways. Eira didn’t know what life had been like for Kate since she’d left. Had she finished school alone? Had she enjoyed Paris? Where was she living? With her father still? Her mother? Did she have a boyfriend? New friends?
Was she happy?
Sitting in the crowd beside Rosie, one hand wrapped around her friend’s, Eira couldn’t stop wondering. Wondering, hoping and feeling so full to the brim with excitement and pride that she thought she might burst.
All three of them together again. As it should be.
The music drifting through the room was beautiful, flowing like light, achingly sad. Classical music had always been her favourite, but the melancholy woven through every note wrapped the question of her friend’s happiness in a web of doubt. Was Kate happy? Had Paris been good to her?
At least they’d be together again.
When the performance ended, Eira barely waited for the applause to die down before grabbing Rosie and dragging her backstage, paying Cassian no heed as she pushed through the crowd flowing in the opposite direction. Annoyed looks and soft tutting followed in her wake, but Eira ignored them all.
And then they found her.
“Kate!”
Eira was the first to reach her, throwing her arms around her friend and pulling her into a tight hug. She could barely believe it was really happening. It really had been forever, hadn’t it? The moment felt strangely surreal.
“Of course we came,” Eira said as they untangled. Her smile was impossible to contain. “It was perfect!”
"Wouldn't have guessed that you had all that in you. How long've you been practising?"
Eira bit her tongue, doing her best to ignore that stupid comment. Who the hell did he think he was, saying dumb shit like that? Why wouldn’t Kate have ‘all that in her’? She was brilliant. She had always been brilliant.
Eira drew in a slow breath through her nose. Her eye might have given a twitch of annoyance, but she was sure the rest of her face remained perfectly pleasant.
“How have you been?” she asked Kate instead, reaching for both Rosie’s and Kate’s hands and squeezing them tightly. She looked between them, smile widening. “We have so much to catch up on. Are you free after this? Maybe we can go to a bar.”
RE: the sound of music | eira, rosie, cass - Rosalie McCormick - 09-03-2026
Rosalie hadn't told either Cassian or Eira that the other would be here. She'd seen no reason to. It was Kate's big night, and she had been the one to extend the invitations to her friends, not Rosalie. If Kate wanted both of them there, then they should be, and Rosie knew right off the bat if Cass knew about Eira, he'd have opted to stay home.
It was an unnecessary detail that she didn't think he needed. Besides, if he hadn't come, she wouldn't have seen him dressed up like this, and the girl was positively swooning over her husband. He'd always cleaned up nicely, but when he slicked his curls like that? She had half a mind to tell him to start living his day-to-day as though he were always heading out for a fancy event. To match, she was dressed in a knee-length blue cocktail dress, an embellished headband around her forehead, allowing her long blonde hair to remain polished and out of her face.
Now, she sat, pretty as could be, the picture of unbothered, between her two favorite people who just happened to despise each other. The world was at peace.
Rosie held both their hands as Kate's delicate performance filled the lounge. After years of not seeing her, Kate still looked every bit as beautiful - even moreso - as Rosalie remembered. In some ways, she looked softer, more at peace. Perhaps it was the piano, or the piece she was performing, but there was something ethereal about Kate that hadn't been there before. It filled Rosie with a sense of pride for the girl who she'd always known to struggle more than she deserved.
Losing both of her best friends at the same time had been a hard pill to swallow. When Eira had left for Durmstrang, Kate had left for her private school. It had left Rosalie in a state of limbo, where everything at Hogwarts looked the same, but everything was different. She'd had to learn how to navigate life without them, and when things with Cassian were rocky, she was alone to sort out her feelings and thoughts, with no one she trusted to be her sounding board.
...Not that she would have necessarily told them all the gritty details of her relationship, but the sentiment was there.
Rosalie wondered about Kate. Had she felt the same without her? Had she felt lonely and broken without her friends there to comfort her? Had she felt like she was navigating some of the hardest years of her life on her own? Had she weathered it better than Rosie and Cassian and Eira had?
Things she supposed they could catch up on later.
As applause filled the room, Rosie stood, taking Cassian's arm as Eira yanked on her. She had half a mind to tell the girl to slow down, considering she was also dragging a six foot man with her, but her friend was on a mission.
The reunion came fast, Eira throwing herself into Kate's arms while Rosie hung back a moment with Cassian. When it was her turn, the girl's shy smile rose from her lips, crinkling her nose as she took her friend into her arms with a gentle hug. She rocked her back and forth a moment, before pulling back, cupping Kate's face with her hands, and leaving a light kiss on her cheek. "Where have you been all my life?" she teased, taking a step back again to give the girl some breathing room.
"Wouldn't have guessed that you had all that in you. How long've you been practising?"
"Don't mind him," she smiled at Kate, ignoring the look on Eira's face as she took hold of his arm again, leaning her head on his shoulder. "He loved every moment of it." She knew he was complimenting their friend, and if anyone could spot a well-done performance...well it was the performer himself.
“How have you been? We have so much to catch up on. Are you free after this? Maybe we can go to a bar.”
"Tell us everything. We've missed you horribly. You're back in London for good, aren't you?"
RE: the sound of music | eira, rosie, cass - Katerina Nikolau - 09-03-2026
The first thing Kate’s extended arms found was Eira’s delicate frame. Almost at the same time, they grabbed each other, interlacing in a tight hug that said everything words couldn’t. She squeezed her friend hard before pulling away.
Then it was Rosie’s turn. Her other friend held her gently, rocking her back and forth before placing a kiss on her cheek.
Cass, on the other hand, stood awkwardly beside the girls, allowing them to have their moment.
Just like she remembered. Her smile grew bigger—brighter.
Her gaze shifted towards Cassian, then landed on Eira. Kate didn’t miss the slight sparkle of disapproval in her friend’s icy eyes, and she scowled.
“Since I was really little, actually,” she replied to Cassian, batting her eyelashes as a fleeting memory crossed her mind. “But it’s fine. Before I left for school, I only played for a few people. The last song I played, actually, I initially composed for…”
Her voice trailed off, and she gave Cassian a pointed look. He would know who she meant. Eira and Rosie would, too. There was no need for her to mention it.
Shaking off the uneasiness that had suddenly taken over her body, Kate opened her mouth to, as bluntly as ever, ask Eira why she looked so pissed at Cassian. Her question, however, got lost—perhaps for the best—in Rosie’s words. Kate giggled, covering her mouth with a perfectly manicured hand, her short, almond-shaped nails coated with black polish.
“I know he did.”
She turned around to face both Eira and Rosalie, as the former held both of their hands.
“Well, I’m not sure,” she hummed. “London is not as gentle to artists as Paris is.”
Seeing the change in the girls’ faces, Kate chewed on her lower lip.
“But I’ll make it work.”
She brushed her long, à la mode dark curls away from her shoulders.
“Let’s go get something to drink.”
RE: the sound of music | eira, rosie, cass - Cassian McCormick - 09-05-2026
He was trying; he really was.
But, like with every other time they'd been forced into the same space, Eira had a problem with everything he did. Cassian couldn't honestly say what had earned him her latest display of disapproval. The drawn breath and the oh-so-subtle twitch of her eye surely meant he'd committed another cardinal sin, but if he spent his life worrying over the things that upset that particular harpy, he would never get anything done. He would never live his life. Cass was sure that, if she had her way, he would be locked away in a cellar somewhere that the light of day could never reach. Why anyone thought they all had to meet at the same time was beyond him.
His wife owed him when the night was over and he intended to collect. For now, he was fine hanging back while they hugged it out, carefully pushing aside the PTSD that came with seeing all three in the same place. Frankly, he'd been happier when the group went their separate ways, remembering how toxic they could be together. Back at Hogwarts, before life grabbed each of them, shut its eyes and threw them, he'd had to sit Rosie down and explain why they weren't necessarily good friends for her to have.
Now they were all attending Kate's performance, and he really was willing to overlook most of it. He hadn't actually ended on bad terms with that one. She'd apologised, and they'd even talked. In some ways, when she dropped her own bad company, Kate had become pretty cool.
And Eira remained Eira.
Couldn't have it all.
“But it’s fine. Before I left for school, I only played for a few people. The last song I played, actually, I initially composed for…”
The pointed look took over where her words ended. Ah. Him. As if they needed more unpleasant memories for the evening. He scratched awkwardly at the back of his head. "We couldn't have known it wouldn't have worked. Can't live our lives not doing things just 'cause we're scared they won't work out either. Besides, you get a fresh start now – unless you've already got someone sorted?" he asked, raising a cheeky brow as his arm fell.
Eira, he knew about, and it couldn't have happened to a more deserving person. Kate? The jury was still out on whether she'd gotten herself entangled since they all parted ways.
“Let’s go get something to drink.”
A drink.
It had been a while since he'd had one of those and he wasn't sure he was interested in changing that, but the night was still young enough and he wasn't trying to put a premature end to the reunion.
"We can go somewhere, yeah. There's a place not far from here. Eira's golden feet have never graced such grimy streets, but she might have to make an exception."
RE: the sound of music | eira, rosie, cass - Liliya Zdravkova - 09-07-2026
Kate’s and Rosie’s replies to Cassian’s question had been far more graceful than anything Eira would have opted for, which was precisely why she had said nothing at all. She wanted to. Merlin, she really wanted to. But she also wanted to maintain at least some semblance of peace and composure instead of letting the evening spiral into an argument before it had fully begun, drawing on her restraint to keep the fickle truce they had wordlessly agreed upon alive until the end of the night.
She could do that. Totally.
All Cassian had to do was keep his mouth shut.
"We couldn't have known it wouldn't have worked. Can't live our lives not doing things just 'cause we're scared they won't work out either. Besides, you get a fresh start now – unless you've already got someone sorted?"
Well, so much to that. What wonderfully solid advice. Thank God, he was here.
Eira continued to ignore his presence, swallowing every nasty comment that rose to the tip of her tongue. Besides, beneath all the irritation, he raised a question she was rather keen to know the answer to herself. Did Kate have someone? They all knew her history with boys hadn’t been successful, let alone healthy, but perhaps Paris had been kinder to her. Eira certainly hoped so. Although one look at her friend was enough to make her question that in the same breath.
Kate’s eyes looked too dull to suggest the sort of undying love and happiness one would expect from someone hopelessly smitten. Perhaps it was merely the effects of a long day endured, though. Or perhaps she was simply overworked.
“Well, I’m not sure. London is not as gentle to artists as Paris is. But I’ll make it work.”
“We’ll pay,” Eira nodded immediately and decisively. She was about to ask where they should go, but Cassian seemed to have already decided for everyone.
"We can go somewhere, yeah. There's a place not far from here. Eira's golden feet have never graced such grimy streets, but she might have to make an exception."
And they had been doing so well.
Eira slowly turned to look at him, her expression one of pure exasperation. Her hands lifted in a small, incredulous gesture, as though asking, Really?
“Try again, Cassian.” She managed to keep her voice even, though irritation was already spreading beneath her ribs. She shoved it down. “I have walked the grimy streets of Cardiff for twelve years. I’ll be fine.”
And because she was being cordial, Eira swallowed the rest of what she wanted to say, offering only the mock smile that would have accompanied it.
RE: the sound of music | eira, rosie, cass - Rosalie McCormick - 09-07-2026
Hammersmith Palais de Danse
11:00 PM
Lazy notes of jazz filled the building, beckoning its guests to the enormous dance floor.
Young people from all over the city had flocked here, dazzled by the ideas of music, romance, drinking and revelry. It was where the disenfranchised youth of a post-war world gathered, eager to forget the hard labor they endured by day, and the pressure of a world on the edge of a new age.
Closer to the entrance, were numerous tables, all adorned with long, tapered, vase-enclosed candles, typically able to seat a group of six. Rosalie had forgone her own chair, for the much more comfortable lap of her husband. One arm slung around his shoulders, she held up her glass. French 75, a cocktail made from champagne, gin and fruit. One drink, she'd promised, and no more. She wasn't trying to get drunk, nor did she want her husband to feel like he had to babysit her, sacrificing his own good time.
She glanced across the table to Kate, a small smile creeping across her lips. It was easier, wasn't it, to ignore the sarcastic quips and comments that Cassian and Eira had exchanged earlier, leaving Rosalie hopeless that their first interaction in years could possibly be friendly. She had half a mind to knock their heads together and tell them both to hash it out for the sake of everyone, but with drinks flowing, she doubted doing so would be helpful.
Maybe a little alcohol would ease them up a bit.
"To Kate," she toasted, indicating for the others to raise up their glasses as well. “May your return to London be long on champagne and short on virtue.” She laughed, her voice drowned out against the sounds of the evening, as she tipped her glass back to her lips for a long sip.
As loyal as Rosie was to her own relationship, she was never above encouraging a little mischief amongst her friends. "And if you prefer virtuous," she continued, setting her glass down on the table, "may you find a man who makes you feel a little less so." She winked, her fingers twirling absently through the back of Cassian's curls.
RE: the sound of music | eira, rosie, cass - Katerina Nikolau - 09-17-2026
Katerina glanced at Cassian, shrugging slightly. He was right, after all. He couldn’t have known. Neither could she. Young, deeply in love, and terrified of her own monsters, it was a recipe for disaster. She knew that now.
At his question, she raised her eyebrows at him, shaking her head. “No. I’m too busy with my music.”
Oh, what a tragedy those words would have been for a younger Kate. Now, she was content. She wouldn’t deny that, deep down, she still wanted to be loved. But she had learned to make the most of what she had, slowly growing into her own persona—instead of becoming whoever her current lover wanted her to be. It was as scary as it was thrilling.
The heartbreak felt fresher than it was, the bruises on her heart not entirely healed. Katerina was not looking to rip open her barely stitched wounds.
Cassian’s next remark, however, snapped her out of her self-reflection. She looked up, eyes going back and forth between the two, with a barely concealed expression of surprise.
“Are you—”
Just before she could bluntly ask something in poor taste, Rosalie caught her and motioned for all of them to leave.
The place was busy, and Katerina’s lips curved into an easy smile. Music was playing in the background, people were hitting the dance floor. She lit a long cigarette, putting it between her full lips and taking a drag as they searched for a table.
Rosalie, of course, was seated on Cassian’s lap. Katerina watched them for a moment, blinking. A small knot of jealousy twisted in her chest as she observed the kind of companionship she had given up on finding. Her friend caught her eye, and Kate quickly concealed her feelings behind a gracious wink.
She grabbed her glass, raising it for the toast. Rosalie’s words made her burst out laughing. She shook her head again, this time with more conviction.
“Oh, no thanks,” she replied, a smile in her voice. “I don’t have it in me to put up with another pathetic bloke.”
Kate glanced at Eira, a mischievous grin curling up her lips. “I’ll leave that to her.”
RE: the sound of music | eira, rosie, cass - Cassian McCormick - 09-23-2026
It was a familiar scene...a little too familiar for Cassian's liking. He'd been there many times before, not necessarily at that particular establishment but at the bars, the dancehalls, and the frequent haunts of revellers trying to forget. For a while, he'd been one of them, hyped on music that quelled the noise inside his head, so drunk out of his mind that he could scarcely remember who he'd danced with. Had it been fun? Had it been terrible? He didn't suppose he knew the answer. It simply...was. It had served a purpose and had kept him busy when all he had to look forward to was a house without Rosie.
That, mercifully, hadn't been his life in a little over a year, and while he could feel the recognisable thirst itching in the back of his throat, Cass wasn't inclined to indulge it. He'd been going good so far, but that came with its own price. The better he appeared to be, the more perilous relapse became for him.
Sparkling lemon juice was the safer alternative while he continued to mind his manners and house his wife on his lap.
"To Kate," he echoed, lifting his own glass.
“I don’t have it in me to put up with another pathetic bloke.”
"There's no saying the next one will be pathetic. That's the beauty of the 'big world' as they like to call it." He and Rosie had met a number of people since they'd first run from Hogwarts. Some of them were downright terrible, but, no longer staring calamity in the face, he could admit that many of them were decent, hard-working folks who were just trying to live. Granted, there were unlikely to be the sort of people Kate ever ran into, but it didn't mean they didn't exist.
"The next one might be the Romeo you're ready to swallow poison for."
Not literally, he hoped. Cassian liked to think his friend had more sense than that. He leaned in to plant a quick kiss at the back of Rosie's neck. "Whatever you choose, life's a little too short to be doing it alone." He'd been forced to imagine going at it without his best friend and understood very well that he wouldn't be very long for the world on his own. Too many vices, too few of them with adequate safeguards. Far too many willing accomplices.
Kate's jab had his gaze settling on Eira. He lowered his own glass, slinking one arm around Rosie's middle and using the other to prop himself up by his elbow against the table.
"Oh yes, how is that going, Eira? Is it time to break out the suit? We hearing wedding bells yet?"
The most invested. A saint, really.
RE: the sound of music | eira, rosie, cass - Liliya Zdravkova - 09-24-2026
Angling herself so that Rosie’s elevated shape covered Cassian’s outline, Eira raised her own glass when the former motioned for a toast. This way, it practically felt as though it really were just the three of them.
Kind of. Almost.
With one eye squinted, Rosie’s unusually tall silhouette could be attributed to some secret third thing rather than the fact that she was sitting on Cassian’s lap, and for now, that had to be good enough. It felt too nice to be out with both of her closest friends again, enjoying music, drinks, and each other’s company, to allow her mood to be dampened. Strangely, it felt freer than it had before, and that didn’t really make sense, but Eira was in no mood to analyse the sentiment further.
Her glass held aloft, Eira chuckled at Rosie’s words. “To Kate,” she echoed, taking a sip.
“I don’t have it in me to put up with another pathetic bloke. I’ll leave that to her.”
Eira rolled her eyes as she set her drink down, a playful smirk curling at the corner of her mouth. She and Kate had both had their fair share of pathetic blokes to deal with at Hogwarts, and Merlin knew who else the brunette had encountered after their paths had parted. Nothing good, by the sound of it, and Eira’s own two years at Durmstrang hadn’t exactly been blessed in that department either. It was safe to say neither of them felt any desire to repeat any of it. Besides, Eira didn’t have a choice anymore anyway.
“Touché,” she said, half-snorting as she glanced at Rosie before settling her eyes back on Kate. “But I only have one more pathetic bloke to put up with now. The rest I’ll leave for you.”
Cassian, of course, had to unpack his philosophical nonsense again. Bad advice dressed up in optimism and positivity, the sort that made her want to vomit all over the table. God, he was such a dreamer.
“Don’t give her ideas,” Eira muttered into her glass. If there was one girl in the world who would willingly take poison for a man she was madly in love with, it was Kate.
"Oh yes, how is that going, Eira? Is it time to break out the suit? We hearing wedding bells yet?"
Her eyes flicked to Cassian. Somehow, he had managed to weasel his way around his wife enough to look at her, elbow propped against the table, pretending as though he gave a shit. Eira considered not replying, but thought better of it.
“Not yet, Cassian,” she said, keeping her voice nice and pleasant. “I’m assuming it will be another year, but you’ll be the first to hear. I know you’re dying to attend.”
She bit her tongue, cutting off the rest of her reply.
Cassian was probably the last person on earth who cared to see her getting married, and besides, Eira doubted he’d be there either way. She was sure she could convince Lev to let her invite Rosie and Kate, but Cassian—the halfblood?
God forbid.
And not to speak of Oleg. The man would probably smack her to pulp if she even dared suggest such a ludicrous thing.
RE: the sound of music | eira, rosie, cass - Rosalie McCormick - 10-03-2026
“I don’t have it in me to put up with another pathetic bloke.”
Well, thank Merlin for that. Pathetic was definitely the right word to describe the boys Katerina had associated herself with over the years, save for her and Cass's mutual friend that had only found himself in an impossible situation. Rosie would never voice it to Kate of course, finding no villain between her and the former Ravenclaw she'd called her good friend.
But the others? Rosalie was glad to know her friend wouldn't entangle herself with yet another person who didn't appreciate her or treat her like the treasure she was.
"There's no saying the next one will be pathetic. That's the beauty of the 'big world' as they like to call it."
The kiss at the back of her neck made her shoulders rise and she smiled, turning her eyes to her sweet theatre boy. Ever the romantic optimist, wasn't he? Rosalie was a romantic as well, but her optimism had strangled itself over the past few years and now lay healthy skepticism in its place. Could Kate find herself a great guy and have a smashing time with him? Sure, she supposed her friend could.
Would she bank on it? Not if Kate had the mindset that she didn't want it.
"The next one might be the Romeo you're ready to swallow poison for. Whatever you choose, life's a little too short to be doing it alone."
Her smile softened as she dropped a kiss on the top of his head and ruffled his curls. "Listen to you," she teased, "trying to convince these girls about the magic of love." It was a nice thought for her friends of course, and she admired Cassian for forever believing in love, but Kate was downtrodden - and had been for years - about romance, and Eira was as cynical as they came.
She didn't say so but she knew Cass could save it all for her when he got her home that night.
"Oh yes, how is that going, Eira? Is it time to break out the suit? We hearing wedding bells yet?"
Rosie sucked in a breath, but her smile never dropped. She pinched his leg under the table, a playful little reminder to behave himself, but it was too late. She'd caught the spark in Eira's eyes. She was game.
“Not yet, Cassian. I’m assuming it will be another year, but you’ll be the first to hear. I know you’re dying to attend.”
Rosie shared a look with Kate, cocking her head slightly in a request for her to save them both from wherever this was going to spiral. Rosie knew Cassian wasn't dying to do anything of the sort and would probably put up a fight if she told him he was accompanying her to the wedding....which he would.
As much as Rosie loved Eira, she wasn't going to attend without her husband. They were a package deal, and if her husband wasn't good enough to be invited somewhere, then neither was she.
"I already told you to run away," she teased lightly and looked at Cassian. "I told her surely you had a bloke or two at your theatre we could set her up with."
He'd love that.