//I'd like that,// Jono replied without missing a beat. Of course he wanted Didi there. She was like solid ground for him, when the rest of the world was bent on crumbling away.

He wanted to be able to smile for her, too.

//I'll ask her to be there, then. I can't really imagine her saying no, after all.//

The request would probably come with an apology for going ahead and making her birthday gift for him unnecessary, true, but that hardly seemed to matter overall.