“Whatever,” she shot back at him, taking his hand.
“We’ll meet properly later, I hope,” she told me.
“Sure,” I replied.
As the siblings left, Anya was standing next to me again.
“You’ve met Becca; Polina is next,” she said. “How come you’ve not had a drink?”
Just then, a waiter passed by and she claimed two champagne flutes from his tray, muttering a “thanks.”
As she handed me the glass, she asked, “So, what do you think so far?”
“Of the party? Or your potential in-laws?” I joked, taking a sip of the champagne.
“Everything, come on,” she pointed out, twirling the drink in her glass.
I chuckled. “It’s beautiful, even though it’s nothing like the small affair you tricked me to believing it was…”
“Tricked? I meant it! I mean, it’s only family and a few friends.”
“Oh?”
She held my questioning gaze for a few seconds before she looked away with a playful, resigned sigh. “Okay, okay, I over-simplified… it’s a Lobanov affair. But this is relatively small on the event scale, trust me.”
“I think I’m done doing that,” I answered, scrunching up my nose.
“Mila!” she uttered, laughing.
I took another sip of my drink. And then another. And just as the rim of the glass left my lips, my eyes landed on Alexei. But that wasn’t what made a jolt of electricity run through my spine. It was the fact that his eyes moved from the young man he was talking to and met mine. And he didn’t look away.
“You would have started your needless worrying if I had told you, you know I’m right,” Anya went on, calling back my attention.
“The drinks have to be the best part of elaborate events, though,” I admitted, feeling Alexei’s eyes on me.
“Let’s see if you still feel that way at the end of the day.”
My eyes moved across the room before I could think about it. He was walking away from the men he’d been talking to. I watched as people instinctively made space for him, like he was a storm they could sense.
“End of the night, more appropriately put,” I corrected, not wanting my friend to catch me staring.
“Same thing,” she answered, grabbing my arm again. “Time to mingle.”
We had only walked past two or three people when Anya called, “Elena!”
“Elena? As in your Russian friend?” I asked under my breath. At the same time, the lady turned away from the young man she had been talking to and faced us.
“Hm-mm,” Anya confirmed.
“Anya! I thought I’d find you first, bride-to-be,” she remarked, pulling Anya into a hug.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” Anya said as their hug ended. “This is Mila, my best friend. We’re doing our master’s together here in New York, and she’s also freelancing on the side.” Then she turned to me, “Mila, Elena. We’ve been friends since forever. She’s an attorney.”
“Lawyer, please. Attorney sounds pretentious,” Elena joked. In a lower tone, she added, “Unless I’m in the mood to intimidate.”
Chuckling, I said, “It’s nice to meet you, Elena. I’ve heard so many good things about you.” I extended a hand for her to shake, but her arms came around me instead.
“It’s nice to finally put a face to the name, Mila,” she replied after the hug.
