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“It honestly is. It’s just family dinner. It happens once a month, and it’s my mom’s way of making us all check in with each other. My dad’s like never around because of his job, and this will be the first time I basically have to face him since the fight and all that suspension stuff. Because of that, it’ll be awkward as hell, and I need a buffer—you.”
“But don’t they know we’re dating? Your mom and dad?”
He snorted. “Please. My dad is running the town. Doesn’t get in my business, and my mom does her own thing too. It’d be a short dinner, and they probably won’t even talk to us. My dad invites some of his staff too because, you know, they’re family.”
He sounded more than annoyed by that last bit, and though I sympathized with him, I was still skeptical. Seeing this, he got on his knees and actually grabbed my hands.
“Please. Please. Please. You’d be doing me a huge favor. I can’t take another one of my dad’s lectures. He seriously handed it to me when we left the school. Don’t make me go through that again.”
He popped out a lip, and I rolled my eyes. “You’re an idiot.”
“Yes, and a desperate idiot. Please help me. I’m helping you.”
He was helping me, and ultimately, that had me nodding. He got up off his knees, hugging me now.
“Thank you,” he said, and I guess I had another objective.
What did I wear when having dinner with the mayor and his wife?
Twenty-Two
December
Ramses picked me up for family dinner later that evening, and I think the only reason I wasn’t nervous about it was because he said we wouldn’t have to fake tonight. According to him, his dad and mom had other priorities outside of the “little affairs” of himself, his words not mine, but I could imagine that was true. His dad was the frickin’ mayor, and despite coming and going from his house a few times, I’d managed not to meet Mayor Mallick himself. He was always out of town or working, the same with his mom. She had a few businesses around the city, I guess, and seemed just as powerful as Royal’s family if not more. Royal’s family may have been in jewelry and banking, but Rameses’s, well, they were on another level.
Ramses pulled through the gates of his family’s mansion, and though I wasn’t so much nervous, I did have reservations. I stopped him just as we pulled into a five-car garage.
“Principal Hastings won’t be here tonight, right?” I asked, unstrapping myself. I had no problem with our headmaster, but eating with him was just too weird. I was still trying to get over the fact that Ramses was actually related to the guy, and he chuckled upon getting out of the car.
He came around his Mercedes, opening the door. “Don’t worry about that. Uncle Leo never comes to these things. I think he has issues going to things where he has no control.”
Though relieved, I nearly cringed, then shivered at him referring to my headmaster as his uncle. Ick. I didn’t know what it was about it, but really, that freaked me the fuck out. I had a friend in middle school once whose mom was our homeroom teacher, and that was just too close for comfort. If it wasn’t bad enough we had to see our teachers at school all day, then come home to them too? Just… yuck.
Anyway, after that was all off the table, Ramses led us through the garage and inside. I tried not to gawk over the various luxury vehicles that made the ones in Jax’s garage look like Tinker Toys. This was just the town I lived in and the people around me, and I needed to get used to the fact. Ramses pushed open the door to delightful smells, and after saying hello to the kitchen staff, he led me from a room filled with pastries and cooking delectables into the hall. He grabbed my coat from me there, grinning when he opened the closet.
“And don’t worry. The cooks have assured me they made something special for you to eat,” he said, putting my coat in before taking off his own. His broad shoulders and long torso were in a thick wool sweater, an outline to a svelte but muscular frame. He also wore tan dress pants and suede shoes, and seeing that, I felt severely underdressed. I’d worn jeans and a nice top.
What were you thinking?
I was thinking I trusted the bastard who told me this dinner was going to be casual. After lunch today, I’d texted Ramses about what I should wear tonight, and not only had he passed it off, he’d assured me this dinner was totally casual.
It wasn’t totally casual, judging by what he wore, and I hit him.
“Hey. What—”
I pointed to my jeans. “Okay, I’m completely underdressed. Why did you tell me this thing was going to be casual?”
Ramses passed a glance to me, chuckling before rolling his eyes. “You look fine, ’Zona. Always do.”
My face shot up a few degrees when he said that. Mostly because I knew he meant it. Ramses always told things like they were and had confidence about it I’d die for. He was secure in himself and didn’t care about who knew that.
Wishing he could pass me some of that, I let him put my coat away despite wanting to keep it on. After, he framed himself. “Want me to go change so we look like gutter trash together?”
It took all I had not to throw him into the pretty walls of his house and run out of this bitch like there was no tomorrow. I’d admit. I tried to evade when I turned, but too quick, he got me by the arm.
“I’m just joking. You look fine,” he emphasized again, laughing. “Anyway, no one is going to even be looking at you. My dad basically works through these dinners with his staff.”
Something he’d pretty much said before but still.
