Page 98 of The Great Dating Fake Off
“What is so scandalous that it’s worth slashing tires over?” she asks, and I’m fairly confident her eyes are on my mouth.
No. That’s just the liquor talking.
“Let’s just say Sebastian’s favorite animal back then was a cougar,” Alessia says.
The table erupts in laughter as I consider the financial ramifications of a retaliation, should I key her car.
Nella shakes with laughter. “That’s the Rossi men for you. Charmers, the lot of them. Your grandfather would be proud.”
I groan. “Please stop.”
“I’m going to run to the restroom. Then I’ll top off our glasses,” Nella says, her house shoes dragging on the tile.
I throw a poker chip at Alessia. “Really? In front of my grandmother?”
She shrugs a bony shoulder. “You’re thirty years old, Sebastian. It’s not like she thinks you’re a virgin. Plus, she lives for my stories about you.”
“What makes you think I won’t start spilling your secrets, eh?”
“Because I don’t have anything to hide. El already knows everything about me, and Enzo couldn’t care less.”
Enzo nods, hands steepled. “That is correct.”
“Wait.” Nora gives me an urgent look I can’t decipher before she subtly nods past me at Enzo. “I’m the newcomer here, I want to know more about everyone. We should all take turns telling a story or something. Maybe how we met the people we’re with?”
Yes.
She’s a pretty genius. This is the conversational segue we need to get Enzo talking about his relationship, and I almost missed it.
No more shots.I need to be sharp.
“How’d you two meet?” Nora points between Eloise and Alessia, wading into the topic slowly.
“Eloise catered an event in the building where my clinic is located.” Alessia picks up the cards Eloise just dealt her. “She was very good at her job, and that’s very hot.”
El—a notoriously sentimental drunk—sighs happily in her seat. “And I wanted to kiss the hot girl pacing in the lobby. Then I wanted to date her. Now I get to marry her.”
Nora gets cartoon-eyed over this. “That’s so sweet.” She turns back toward me, an innocent smile on her face. “And Sebastian, how’d you meet your cougar?”
Alessia laughs so hard it turns into a hacking cough, which makes Enzo and Eloise laugh even harder.
“Clever girl.” I nudge her leg under the table with mine, just to see her react.
She nudges back, tipping her head sideways. “Go on, then.”
“I was the server to her private cabana. She was a twenty-nine-year-old divorcee whose husband cheated on her.” I shoot Alessia a look. “Hardly a cougar. And she was nice enough, I guess.”
“Wow, what a glowing review,” Alessia deadpans. “You should look her up.”
Nora’s mouth pulls into a line.
She does not like that.
I smile in spite of myself. My fingers drift over the hem of her dress and settle on her thigh. “Something wrong, Nor?”
“Nope.” A blush lights up her cheeks as she shifts to look past me, her chest practically lying on my arm, to drop the bomb we’ve been waiting for. “Enzo, how are things going with Rosalina? You two talking again? Heading toward reconciliation?”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
