by Eden O'Neill
And then there was how he’d helped Ramses.
It was something Ramses would never know, as I didn’t have the courage to tell him. Royal protected Ramses and had obviously done so for me.
“I think you know why, Em…”
He’d said that to me too, keeping Ramses from that other haze for me. Knowing that information may or may not hurt Ramses’ pride, and I didn’t want to make things worse. I’d kept all this from him, talked to Royal instead of him, when initially, we’d been in all this together. I didn’t want to lose our friendship. It was something that was important to me and kept me out of a lot of hard times in the past.
Ramses sighed, his large shoulders sagging. Balling up the chip bag, he tossed it in the trash.
“What do you need from me, then?” he asked, surprising me. He really was that friend I believed, completely there for me even though I didn’t deserve it. He didn’t owe me anything.
Maybe that’s what made him better than me.
I snuck a glance over. “You still wanna help?”
He shrugged. “I don’t trust Prinze as far as I can throw him, but if you believe in him. I’ll help you.”
Relieved by that, I threw my arms around him, I think surprising us both. I’d hugged him before when I thought he was dying. And really, that time hadn’t counted because I was just trying to get him warm.
Unlike that last time, he was able to hug back, his arms no longer bound. Laughing, he pulled away, and when he looked at me, he was smiling. “All right, but I didn’t say this wouldn’t come without a cost. You’d owe me. Seriously, I can’t stand that guy.”
Chuckling, I sat back. “Okay, how would I owe you?”
This got that Ramses to grin. He crossed his legs at the knee. “Nothing too big. Just a break from our double lives for a night. You game?”
Was I game? Seriously, I’d be owing him. I laughed. “Duh. What do you want to do?”
The alarm sounding the end of lunch flooded over the campus, and after tossing away the rest of the trash, we got our coats back on.
“It’s really nothing major,” he said, handing me mine. “Just dinner.”
“Dinner?”
“Yeah, um… with my family.”
That gave me pause, but before I could protest, he put up his hands. “Okay, so it’s so not really a thing.”
“How is it not a thing, and how is that a break from our double lives?”
“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.
I tugged on my shirt. “Fine.�
�
He tilted his head. “Anyway, ready to go do this?”
Not really. Especially considering how I looked, but I’d get past it, letting Ramses throw his long reach around me. He led us out of the coat hall and into another, this place seriously a manor with how big it was. I’d only seen so much of it in the times I’d been here. When Birdie, the others, and I were usually here, we tended to stay to Ramses’ section of the house and his game room, of course, in the basement.
“Oh, and I asked around about your sister’s ex,” he said, dropping his arm and putting his hand on a doorknob. “Haven’t heard anything yet, but I’m sure we will.”
The fact I hadn’t bothered to ask the new king of Windsor Prep sooner to inquire about who my sister had been seeing before she died floored me. I’d been so quick to try to do this on my own when I clearly had friends.
I started to thank him when I was accosted from the front by, frankly, an amazing-smelling blond woman. She grabbed me, hugging the crap out of me.
“Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. She’s here. Why didn’t you tell me, darling?” Yeah, she smelled good but was also gorgeous. Glittery green eyes stared down at me when the woman pulled back. And when I say stared down at me I meant it. The woman was easily over six feet tall and even bigger than my basketball-playing friends.
Standing next to the woman, Ramses’ height was put to the test, but he still had a few inches on her. He merely chuckled while she accosted me. “Ma, let her go, please.”
Ah, yes, his mom. I remembered seeing her at his family’s Christmas party but only from a distance. I recalled her being glamorous then, but standing there in a shimmering gold top with mid-rise pants and pumps, I reevaluated my fashion choices again. Standing next to each other, Ramses and his mom looked like a fucking Christmas card, and then here I was. Yeah, looking like gutter trash.
She grabbed him. “Oh, Ramses. She’s so adorable. So nice you have a little girlfriend.”
Uh…
Ramses and I exchanged a glance, his eyes just as bugged out as I felt mine were in that moment.
What the fuck?
I shot Ramses a look, to which he responded with a frazzled, “I don’t know.” He mouthed it beside his mom, but when she grabbed me again, I couldn’t say anything.
“Now, tell me all about yourself, December.” She patted my hand. “My son has been keeping everything about you under lock and key.”
“Uh, not much to me.” As Ramses was next to me now, I grabbed his arm, squeezing tight. I hoped to cut off his goddamn circulation, but I couldn’t get much grip with his stupid fucking sweater. Maybe I had because in the end, he guided me away from his mom by my arm.
He released my death grip, bringing me in to stand casual beside him. “What’s with the interrogation, Mom? December is only here for dinner.” He said this with a chuckle, but I think maybe only I noticed it was dry.
It made his mom’s smile only frickin’ widen.
What the hell?
She really thought we were together, how or why I didn’t know. Ramses wouldn’t just sideline me with something like this. At least, I hoped he wouldn’t. In any sense, the doorbell rang, and waving her hands, Mrs. Mallick backed away.
“That oughta be Liam and his wife,” she said, prancing away in her little pumps. This woman was the epitome of the Real Housewives of Maywood Heights and did it so well. She lifted her hands. “I’m going to make sure they get in okay, and, Ramses, please take December to the dining room. So nice you have a date for once.”
Ramses studied the floor, and I eyed him. His mom cleared herself, and no sooner had she left the hall than I punched him.
“Uh, ouch.”
“You jerk.” I shoved him again. “What the fuck?”
“Honestly, I have no idea how she knew. She never keeps up with me. Doesn’t have time.”
Well, she seemed to have the time now, and quick on my feet, I reached into my turtleneck. I wore the Kept necklace as a backup just as case. Seeing this, Ramses’ eyes widened.
“You wore that?”
I only took it off really in the shower. Ramses and I hadn’t talked about what we were doing in regards to our fake relationship yet, so it’s a good thing I did. Getting it adjusted, I threw my hair out over my shoulders. “I usually keep it on just in case.”
Looking relieved by that, he pushed hands into his pockets. “Well, that’s good. Good thinking.”
“Does your dad think we’re together too?” I’d hate to have to lie to the mayor, and Ramses raised a hand.
“Doubt it. But if he does, we’ll play it off. I got you.”
I hoped so, and opening the door, Ramses let us into the dining room, but really, it looked like a catalog feature for Better Homes and Gardens. Large white flowers on the table and chairs and tulle on the back of the chairs like this was a goddamn wedding. Then there was the spread, all kinds of frickin’ food as white-gloved attendants stood against the walls in wait of assistance.
“This is family dinner?” Ramses pulled my chair out, and I sat down.
He sat beside me. “Mom gets really into it.”
“Apparently.”
A door behind us eased open, and Ramses’ mom clicked in with a new arrival, a thirty-something man in a business suit. She introduced him to me as Liam, the mayor’s chief of staff, and after I shook his hand, his mom seated him at the end of the table.
“Gets to sit next to the big man,” Ramses edged in. “He’s obviously not family, but might as well be. Dad sees him more than anyone else.”
A bit of spite came with that comment, but another arrival came in, and we pulled apart. The woman was dazzling in her silver gown and immediately hugged Ramses’ mom.
“Thanks for letting me use your hand lotion, Evelyn. It’s just so dry outside right now.” The woman rubbed her hands, then noticed me. Like stopped right in the conversation. I knew her too; I just didn’t know which one of her I knew.
She and her sister were twins after all.
Either Mrs. Hastings or her sister stood in front of me right now. I assumed Mrs. Hastings since she was married to Ramses’ uncle, but when Ramses’ mom introduced her to me as Daisy, the wife of the mayor’s chief of staff, Liam, that cleared everything up.
“Oh, we’ve met,” Daisy said, her smile warm on me. She stood back. “I had no idea you’d be here tonight.”
“Well, I think it’s new,” Ramses’ mom edged in. “I believe they’ve just started dating. I heard from some of the girls downtown when I mentioned who Ramses said he’d be bringing to dinner tonight.”
So apparently Ramses and I were the talk of the town. My eyes averted, and Ramses palmed his face.
“Mom, seriously?”
She waved him off. “Oh, you’ll stop and let me gush. She’s gorgeous, and you never bring any girls home.”
“For good reason.” Ramses’ look was apologetic as he stared at me. “I’m sorry.”
It was cool, but it wasn’t. It was what it was and something we’d ultimately decided together so it wasn’t his fault. We knew what we were getting into when we decided to pull this.
I just didn’t know how big it’d get.
It was big, the whole room staring at us. Even the mayor’s chief of staff, Liam, had his eyes in our direction. All focus on me, no one realized when the mayor came in, and I believed only I had because he stared right at me.
He stopped, an older man of maybe forty or fifty. He had a bronze shade to his skin, his hair a salt and pepper. He looked a lot like Ramses, but didn’t. Obviously older. His family’s attention on me, the mayor’s eyes narrowed. “What’s going on here?”
We all looked at him, Ramses’ mom going over. She put a hand on his arm. “Darling, this is the friend Ramses brought. December Lindquist. She’s his girlfriend.”
She whispered that last bit, giggling, but the mayor didn’t giggle. He frowned, and looking at Ramses, his thick, dark eyebrows narrowed only harder.
“Is that
true?” Mayor Mallick asked. He panned to me. “Are you two dating?”
Ramses said nothing, his hand on his face. Dropping it with a sigh, he chose to nod, and his dad came over.
He put out a hand. “Nice to meet you.”
Immediately standing, I put a hand in his. “Nice to meet you, sir.”
I didn’t know whether I should call him “sire” or even “your majesty.” All in all, I felt neither was appropriate, and we all sat but only after the mayor did. He was royalty in his own house, and placing his hands on the table, his attention transferred to me. Liam immediately began chatting off his ear, business things from what I heard, but the mayor wasn’t hearing any of it. He kept looking at me, and feeling awkward, I stared at Ramses.
“Does your dad not like me or…”
“It’s time for grace.” The mayor’s proclamation cut my question off, his hands out. Ramses took one while Liam took the other, his wife Daisy across from me holding her husband’s hand. Evelyn sat on the opposite end of the table, and together, everyone sat quietly while the mayor said a few words. After, the staff came in, plating salads and assisting. I started to go for mine, but once again, I noticed the mayor. He was talking to Liam but kept looking over at me, and I assumed because Ramses really didn’t bring any girls around here. Eventually, the mayor noticed me noticing, and waving Liam off, he shifted complete focus to me.
“There’s always time for business, Liam,” he said to him, then folded his hands over his salad. “But it isn’t every day my son brings a girl home. Please, December. Tells us about yourself—”
“Dad, come on.” Ramses sat back. “When have you ever cared about who I’m dating?”
“Since now, and you don’t talk.” He directed a finger. “Not right now, and what you’ve been getting into. You’ve been disgracing this family, so it’s the least you can do to let me talk in my own house.”
Ramses’ nostrils flared, but his dad must have had something there, so he stopped talking. Ramses pulled his napkin off his lap, apparently no appetite when he placed it on the table. The room suddenly silent, everyone’s eyes averted. Everyone but the mayor’s.