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After, we found the bar where Alex ordered us drinks. When he handed me mine, there was a floral, pink paper umbrella decorating the glass.
I shot him a questioning look. “Really?”
He held his glass up, with a little blue umbrella hanging over the side. “Yep. Drinks taste better this way. It’s like vacay in a glass.”
I took a sip of my vodka cran, and damn if he wasn’t right. “Okay, I concede.”
He held his elbow out, letting me slip mine through. “Stick with me, Boo. I know all the tricks.”
Alex was a talented mingler. He smiled at everyone, chatted with the waitstaff about the hors d’oeuvres they were serving, and when a few of Unrequited’s fans wanted selfies, he didn’t shy away. It would come as no surprise to anyone I wasn’t the most friendly to people I didn’t know. I had always been that way, not shy but reserved.
With Alex by my side, I found it easy to casually chat. And that was the thing: he never left my side. Even when he was talking music, he included me in the conversation, his hand gripping my hip to keep me tucked beside him.
I couldn’t help but remember the way Harris would abandon me at parties even though I’d told him it made me uncomfortable. He thought if he pushed me into the deep end, I’d swim, but most of the time back then, I’d been sinking.
We were seated for lunch with a few of my acquaintances from college, including Arden. Even though I knew she hadn’t been after my man in college and wasn’t after Alex, I didn’t quite trust the bitch.
“You have room on your dance card for me?” Alex asked.
“You seem to have taken up every slot, you scoundrel. What will society think? They’ll call me a trollop.”
He chuckled. “I don’t speak Victorian English or whatever that was. Just tell it to me straight—will you dance with me?”
“I would, but I am a terrible dancer, and since I don’t want to get smashed enough to make me believe I’m decent at it, you couldn’t drag me onto the dance floor today.”
He smirked and straightened his napkin on his lap. “We’ll see.”
Alex managed to sit through the salad course, but when the band played the Electric Slide, he begged me to go with him. I refused, so he went anyway. He got in line between Allie’s grandmas, clapping and sliding with them.
My heart rattled inside my ribcage. This was ridiculous. I didn’t get heart feelings often, and certainly not abouthim, yet here I was, having them. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t any stopping it.
Alex returned when the song ended, draping his arm over the back of my chair. “Grandma Irene copped a feel, just so you know. You gotta dance with me next time and defend my honor.”
“Isn’t Irene closing in on ninety?” I asked dryly.
“She’s got the hands of a twenty-year-old octopus. Every time I boogie-woogie-woogied, she managed to touch my ass. She tried to act all innocent, but there’s no fooling me.”
Laughing, I shoved his shoulder. “Drink your fancy drink and stop accusing little grandmas of lecherous behavior.”
“Fine.” He’d added a curly straw to his whiskey and soda. “But if I end up leaving this wedding with Irene instead of you, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Through lunch, Alex danced a few more times, but never with another woman—well, besides Irene, and Allie’s other grandma, Norma. I watched and laughed and wished for once I could let go enough to get out there with him.
Arden slipped into Alex’s seat while he and Allie taught Irene and Norma the Macarena. “You know, I saw you with him,” she said.
“What? When?” I wrenched my gaze away to look at her.
“At that party. The one Harris broke up with you after. I saw you and Murray go into the bathroom together.”
Startled, I rushed to the defensive. “We didn’t have sex, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
She snorted. “I should hope not or I’d feel terrible for you. You couldn’t have been in there five minutes before you tore out of there.”
“We were talking.” I had no idea where she was going with this.
“I always wondered what you said to him. He stumbled out after you, and I swear, he was in tatters. Up until that point, I’d never known a broken heart was something you could see, but damn did I see it in him. I guess he loved you then, and I’m guessing it was unrequited, or you hadn’t been able to return it then.” Her fingertips grazed my arm. “For the record, you looked just as torn apart when you left too.”
Sucking in a breath, my eyes narrowed on her. “How do you even remember that?”
