"Okay, if you're sure," Rae looked at David's lump of a sleeping bag, wondering if he was sleeping yet. Rae was pretty drunk, but David? He was probably a little bit drunker than she was. It wouldn't take him long before he was out, she wagered. "He does have the right idea though," she said. "It's been… a really long day." Infinitely longer for Rae or Eli than it had been for David, though she'd never say so much aloud.
Judgment calls had not ever been Rae's strong suit. But right then, seeing Eli so happy, seeing the easy smiles that he was giving off? She felt like her heart was going to burst. Maybe it wasn't all her or maybe it was just liquid confidence. Or maybe it was the easy smile on Elliot's face but whatever it was, it compelled her to get up onto her knees and move from her cocoon of blankets and move slowly over to Eli's side, hugging him one last time.
"I'm so happy that you're happy," she whispered to him as they hugged, then pulled back and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "I mean it. Seeing you smile like that? No one deserves it more, Eli."
She didn't falter, didn't show the surprise she would have, had she been sober, instead she just smiled at him one more time, before making her way back over to her blanket cocoon and wrapping herself up again. "No one does," she repeated as she leaned her blanket cocoon down and lay her head against her pillow.