Nicolai threw a quick frown at him. “I’m still dehydrated from last night. I probably should’ve taken IV fluids this morning.”
John laughed at him. “That Ringer’s stuff is magic, isn’t it? I took two liters this morning to sober up. Plus an oxygen cannula.”
Nicolai began introducing me around, and I tried to look at each person and repeat their name over and over and over in my head while I stammered, “So nice to meet you.”
These were his friends. These people would talk about me behind my back. They’d talk aboutNicolaibehindhisback because of me. “Lovely to meet you.”
Dozens of people.Scoresof people. All of them were beautiful and tall with unusual names that I’d never heard someone called before in real life, and I wasn’t good at remembering names in general.
I’d never had to memorize new names. I hadn’t met anyone new since Scottsbluff’s two elementary schools had merged into the high school for ninth grade. Even then, I’d still known most of the girls from softball league, and everybody had small-town Midwestern names, anyway.
Forhours,I chanted exotic names in my head: Ernst, Rasmus, Chalerm, Octavia, Lakshmi, Peregrine, Rose, Clemente, Edith, Algernon, Livinia, Jung-youn, Hubertus, Zahan, Mathonwy.
I was just smiling and nodding by that point, trailing in Nicolai’s wake as he meandered through the crowd, greetingeveryone. “Greatto meet you.”
Everyoneknew Nicolai.
Everyone seemed excited to see him, hugging him and slapping his shoulders.
Nicolai seemed vaguely pleased, but set apart, as if his mind were on loftier thoughts.
Everyone tried to make plans with him over the next few days for suppers or insisted he visit them in other countries: Austria, Thailand, York, Edinburgh, France, Wales, India, Italy, South Korea, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Nicolai’s demeanor while he talked to them was passivelyamused, occasionally caustic if someone was snippy, and subtly sarcastic, especially when anyone demanded he come to them.
Looking into getting a passport went on my mental to-do list.
But maybe Nicolai wouldn’t want me to travel with him. These werehisfriends. I didn’t need to tag along and crash on their couches. Extra guests were an imposition.
If he could advance me some money, I could get a little apartment somewhere cheap, where I wouldn’t be a bother to anyone.
Nicolai called over the thumping dance music and gear-grinding chandelier, “Magnus! Magnus, this is my wife, Lexi.” He unfurled his hand toward me. “Lexi, I’d like you to meet my school chum andveryclosefriend, Magnus Norway.”
I looked up,far, farup, because all these people were all inhumanly tall, into Magnus’s blue eyes that turned pale when the strobe lights flashed over us. I yelled over the pounding music, “Lovely to meet you!”
He smiled big at me and threw back another shot before he choked out, “Nice to meetcha, Lexi.”
Magnus was blondly cute with pale, unfreckled skin and a normal American accent, unlike everyone else’s kingly British-clipped words.
I was so disarmed that I opened my big mouth and let it run. “Wow, interesting last name! Norway? Like the country?”
He glanced at Nico, laughing a quick burst, and then yelled over the thumpy-thump techno beat at me, “Yeah! Weird, huh?”
Nicolai rolled his eyes at Magnus and turned me to meet another one of his friends: a white guy, brown hair, blue-hazel eyes, and cheekbones and a jawline like a manosphere avatar. “This is Ryan von Prussian, my cousin.”
“Ryan!” Finally, a nice normal name I wouldn’t have to make a flashcard for. “So great to meet you!”
Ryan was drinking a beer from a tall, curvy glass. He’d been watching me over the circle of people the whole time, his light eyes not missing a move. “Lexi, lovely to meet you.” He turned to his date and squinted. “This is, um—Zita, right?”
Probably-Zita rolled her huge, dark eyes, spun on her heel, and walked away.
“Damn,” Ryan said. “Lost another one. Nice to meet you, um, Lexus?”
“Lexi!” I yelled, holding out my hand to him to shake.
“Right, Lexi. Smashing of you to take on old Nico, here. Are you going to push me down the line of succession, then?”
“What?” I yelled over the music.
