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"When's the wedding?" asked Fedyor, while taking a bite of an eclair.
"Whose wedding?" I asked, curious.
"Yours and the Darkling’s, silly!" Marie answered in a shrill voice.
My eyes nearly bulged out of my socket as the drink the I was in the process of swallowing came spurting out of my mouth. A spray hit the other side of the table where Sergei sat. A droplet or two may have even hit Marie and Nadya from the seats beside me.
I was coughing so hard that my face turned cherry red. I couldn't speak at all.
"Oh Fedyor, I think we might have broken her." Nadya teased, laughing along with the rest of Grisha in our dinner table.
"What are you all laughing about?" asked a voice from behind me that I recognized as Ivan.
"Oh, you know. The wedding," answered Fedyor, immediately and thoughtlessly as he turned around to face Ivan.
He stilled. My coughing subsided as I glared daggers at him. I wanted to tell him off but I hesitated because of his current reaction.
His face was white. His laugh frozen in the air.
"Whose wedding?" a deep voice asked. Heat coursed through my veins, whether from embarrassment or something else, I will never know.
Everyone stopped laughing all at once.
I turned to find questioning gray eyes. An eyebrow hitched up, waiting for an answer.
Dear saints! Please send someone to save me from this embarrassment!
"Alina, whose wedding?" The Darkling repeated.
My mouth opened slightly as I tried to prevent myself from hyperventilating in front of everyone. Why is he asking me anyway? This must be some kind of a joke that the Saints are playing on me.
Almighty powerful Saints, what did I do to deserve this?
"Alina?" he took a step towards my seat. I was losing the battle with my lungs.
Then a choking noise broke the awkwardness of the moment. Sergei was choking on a piece of grape that he must have accidentally swallowed whole.
Everyone started panicking as they diverted their attention to Sergei.
Everyone, except him and I.
He took another step towards me. Just us two. Forgotten by the panic at the other side of the table.
"Answer my question Alina," he commanded huskily. "Whose wedding?"
We were so close. If I so much as sneezed, our bodies would touch.
"Uhm..." I was lost in his stormy grays.
How are his eyes so beautiful, so entrancing, so enthralling? I could stare at them for days.
A small item hit me not to gently at the back of my head. My hadn't reached out behind my hair as I turned away from him.
Sergei was no longer choking. In my hand was the grape that was lodged in his throat mere moments ago.
"Ewww!" Marie yelled. "Gross!"
Everyone started laughing as relief washed through.
'Sergei was fine now,' everyone seemed to think.
I, too, was relieved but not for the same reason. The Saints might be looking our for me after all.
I walked over to the group of Grisha that were patting Sergei on the back. The disgusting, slimy grape stayed in my hand as I attempted to laugh at whatever joke was being said.
Truthfully, I didn't even hear what everyone else was saying. I was just thankful, that I averted a very awkward, and doubly embarrassing conversation with the head of all of Grisha.
I set the grape down at the table and wiped my hand with the white napkin embossed with gold thread. I could still feel his burning gaze on me.
I looked up.
He was nodding at something Ivan was saying to him, but his eyes stayed with mine.
Despite our physical distance, the air was thick between the two us.
He gave me a half grin that seems to say, 'This conversation isn't over.'
His eyes roamed to whatever or whoever was behind me as if checking to see if anyone was looking.
He looked back at me. And then he winked.
This fucker winked! And my heart stopped. Literally, it stopped!
He turned and walked away with Ivan to return to whatever business they were heading to before they got distracted.
Everyone continued with their conversation as they began to walk back to their seats around the dinner table.
And I was just there, mouth gaping. Heart stopping and fluttering all at the same time.
"My bet is on the Winter fete," Marie said.
"Hmm... I'll go with three months," Nadya added.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk..." Fedyor chuckled. "It'll happen in a month. I just know it."
I picked my mouth up from the floor and huffed while making my way back to my seat.
Saints! Will they ever let me live this out?