He stared at me, clearly frustrated. “What does ‘finally having fun’ mean?”
“What do you think it means? You go out all the time. I never go out. And the one time I’m having fun, you have to ruin everything and drag me home.”
“We made a deal.”
“I kept my end of the deal.”
He stood there staring at me, clearly considering his options. The music throbbed around us, and I suddenly felt alone even though I was surrounded by people.
I tried again. “Please don’t make me leave.”
He looked conflicted. And then he said words I never thought I’d hear him say. “Fine. Let’s go meet your friends.”
I froze. “Together? You’re not leaving?”
“Those are my terms.” He hadn’t actually stated his terms, but I knew what he meant. He wasn’t going to let me out of his sight again after I had deliberately let myself get lost in thecrowd. I didn’t want to leave the party, but how would I explain Axel to my friends?
“My friends don’t think we’re married, remember?”
“What does ‘something else’ mean?”
I winced, trying to be as delicate as possible. “They think I’m in a situationship. So I can’t introduce you as my husband.”
He didn’t react, and that almost made it worse. “What’s a situationship?”
This conversation was making me nervous. “Hooking up without commitment. You know, casual.”
“So the opposite of our marriage.”
I put my hand over his mouth. “Don’t use that word.”
He pulled my hand off his mouth, but he looked amused, not pissed. “Lead the way.”
I was nervous, but I wasn’t left with too many options. “I warned you.”
On the wayback to our table, he stopped briefly to talk to Anton. And when we stopped in front of my friends, the entire table stared back in wonder.
Selena’s eyes were wide, but her smile was huge. “I’m the birthday girl. Who are you?”
Axel spoke with a smooth charm. “Happy birthday. I’m Axel, but you might know me as Mila’s situationship.”
Tanya screamed in delight.
His smile was magnetic. “Do you mind if I help you celebrate a bit?”
“Have a seat,” Tanya instructed.
“The more the merrier,” said someone else.
The next ten minutes felt surreal. I watched in disbelief as Axel laughed and chatted with my two friends until they were both blushing and giving me strong nods of approval when they thought he wasn’t looking. He was ridiculously charming as he asked them both about school, their interests and their lives.
Axel looked around the table. “Anyone interested in some drinks?”
Selena smiled ruefully. “We can barely get a waitress to come over here, and it’d take you an hour to get to the bar and back. We’re not going to make you do that the first night we meet you.”
Everyone laughed.
“I took the liberty of ordering some,” Axel said as he motioned to someone. “I hope you don’t mind.”
