“Not a fan of asparagus, hm, Shawn?” Bellamy’s voice asked from behind my shoulder. And I hadn’t been prepared enough not to jolt and stiffen. So that was exactly what happened.
Then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, the bastard reached from around me to snag an asparagus spear and ate it himself.
The familiarity of that had Nasir’s gaze boring into the side of my face, so I went ahead and looked toward my aunt and uncle instead.
“This is Bellamy,” I introduced, knowing my aunt and uncle would never be okay with me not doing an introduction. “Bellamy, this is my aunt and uncle—Rusul and Ayaneh.”
There were the traditional hand shakes and well wishes before my darn uncle had to blurt out, “So we heard you and our niece here ran into each other on vacation.”
“It was fate,” Bellamy declared and I swear I saw my aunt’s mind working, trying to imagine me settling down with a ‘nice boy’ finally, what kinds of flowers there would be at the wedding, who she would want to invite to the reception. My aunt was a modern woman in most ways, but she was still a die-hard believer in marriage and babies.
If only she knew the truth.
He wasn’t so nice.
“We actually didn’t get to spend as much time together as I would have liked,” Bellamy added, making my aunt’s face light up. “Isn’t that right?” Bellamy asked.
“It was more than enough time for me,” I said, shooting him a smile so fake that my cheeks hurt as my aunt slammed her toes into my shin under the table. Across from me, her eyes were full of chastisement as I ruined the fairytale wedding she was creating in her mind.
Bellamy, because he was tone-deaf and an asshole, charged right on.
“We only got to share a few meals together. A swim. Oh, and some coffee,” he added, and I couldn’t help it, my gaze slid toward him. “Though that got cut short,” he said and it took a lot of work to keep my lips from curving up as he sent me this dopey grin like two kids keeping a secret from the grown-ups.
“Oh, no. What a shame. What happened?” my aunt asked, pressing a hand to her romantic heart.
“Boat theft,” I supplied, and I watched as Bellamy struggled to school his lips into a straight line.
“Come again?” my uncle asked.
“Someone stole Bellamy’s boat,” I supplied again. “I can’t imagine who would ever want to steal from such a fine, upstanding citizen,” I added, voice dripping with sarcasm. Which made Bellamy’s brow quirk up and his eyes filled with challenge.
“It seems the people who visit the Maldives have all sorts of dark secrets, wouldn’t you say?” Bellamy asked, looking right at me.
“Oh, I would. They keep all sorts of nasty tricks up their sleeves. Commit all sorts of international crimes,” I added, chin raising.
“Oh, my,” my aunt said, looking taken aback. “How cynical you two are,” she added, frowning. Then, she brightened as she added, “It must be why you get along so well.”
“Speaking of, I was going to ask the lovely Shawn to dance with me again,” Bellamy said and I swear my aunt beamed at him.
“I can’t,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not done with my dinner,” I added, waving toward my asparagus. I would rather eat dirt than asparagus. But if it meant avoiding more close contact with Bellamy, I would do what I had to do.
“Oh, by all means, love, finish your meal,” Bellamy said, smile devilish, like he knew what I was doing, like he was going to enjoy watching me choke down the food I hated before he inevitably came up to me again.
“He called you love!” my aunt said, eyes huge after Bellamy said his temporary goodbyes.
“You hate asparagus,” my uncle said, brows pinched.
Oh, I did, alright.
But I sat there and cut the goddamn spears into the smallest bites imaginable.
Then set to eating them. One by one. Taking long drinks in between. To wash down the rancid taste of them, but also to drag the whole thing out.
Twenty minutes later, everyone else’s plates in the entire banquet hall were gone except for mine. My aunt and uncle headed off to catch up with old friends. And even nosy Nasir eventually gave up on catching some other snippet of information to use against me later.
Leaving me all alone.
And vulnerable to another invasion.
A wicked smile pulled at Bellamy’s lips as he made his way over toward the table again.
“I’m almost impressed, love,” he said, looking down at my plate where I still had two tiny pieces of asparagus left.
“I have a whole list of reasons I want to cut off your balls and shove them down your throat. But making me eat this fucking asparagus might be at the top of the damn list,” I grumbled. “You’d think it would hurt your pride that I’d rather make myself sick than dance with you again.”