Chapter Forty One
"Are you almost done?" the sound of Lucy's cranky voice filters through the bathroom door. My eyes stay trained on the clock on my phone. I'm going to eventually have to leave the bathroom at some point tonight, but that doesn't make me feel any better about the situation.
Since Nathan confirmed Alex's presence at dinner, my stomach has been on edge. I'm so consumed with nerves. All I can think about it the awful scene unfolding if he recognises me without my mask on.
"I'm almost finished," I yell back.
Half way through taking a deep breath, the golden door handle starts jiggling – I internally groan, why is Lucy so impatient?
"Riley, we are running late, you need to come out now," she says in a panicked voice. I nod my head and then realise she can't see me. I undo the lock and rip the door open.
Lucy stands there with a panicked expression on her face. Although it should have worried me equally, I couldn't help but focus on her outfit. She'd chosen a beautiful white dress that hugs her slim figure. The thin material finishes halfway down her thighs, shorter than my dress. Lucy also managed to spend time applying her makeup - something I couldn't be bothered with. Her large eyes are framed with a thin coat of eyeliner. There is a minimal amount of light pink eye shadow which makes her appear soft.
"Let's go." She nods her head and offers her elbow for me to take. I sling mine through and we walk out. Mom and Hannah are standing by the front door already to go. Just like Lucy, their appearances are somewhat perfect and a feeling of doubt sets into my stomach; maybe I should have put more effort into my appearance tonight?
Mom's in the beautiful red dress I brought her. The fabric is thick and hugs her body; it's also got a small v line cut and finishes just above her knees. Her chocolate brown hair has been straightened so it looks like sheets falling around her face. There's a small red flower hair piece clipped into her hair which pushes her hair out of her eyes.
Hannah has taken a bold approach to her look. Her hair is in tight bouncy curls with smoky eye makeup. The top of her dress is a black corset with a netting sort of fabric that puffs out underneath. She's sort of rocking the gothic chick look.
"I feel so normal right now," I whisper to Lucy as I look at Hannah.
"Agreed!" I'm wearing the dress I bought today with a pair of heels that were shoved at the bottom of my case. I hadn't put much effort into my hair or make-up. I'd washed my hair, brushed it and pushed it over my shoulder. I'm fortunate enough to have natural loose curl. I applied mascara and a deep red lipstick since I'll have to re-do my make-up later.
"You look beautiful," my mother says.
"Thank you." I smile.
"We're running late," Lucy everyone.
"Since when did you start caring about our arriving time?" I ask. This girl has never had any sense of time or consideration when it comes to arriving at a place. You could organise to meet up at a particular time and she would be late! What had changed now?
"It's not every day that you get to have dinner with a famous person." She smiles giddily, almost bouncing on her toes, "and I don't want all the time to be wasted in this hotel room," she adds.
"Fine, let's go," I groan.
Lucy races off, dragging me along with her. I have to run to keep up with her fast pace.
"Could you walk any quicker?" I ask, but I soon realise my mistake. As we run around the corner, I briefly catch a glimpse of Hannah and Mom walking this way. At least they aren't too far behind us.
Out of pure luck, the elevator doors spring open and we enter. They start to close, so I put my hand out and stop it just in time for Mom and Hannah to climb inside. Hannah is quick to hit the ground floor button. As the doors close in front of me, the nervous feeling in my stomach continues to grow at a rapid pace. If I'm feeling like this now, I hate to know how I'm going to feel before stepping out on stage tonight.
Within minutes, we arrive on the ground floor and the doors ping open. The first person my eyes land on is Alex. Of course they had to land on him. The four of them are standing around in a group talking. Marina and Michael look happy, Nathan slightly disinterested in the conversation and Alex extremely bored and about to fall asleep.
I'm surprised Alex is even here. He's supposed to go on stage before me, and usually he's more obsessed with time. Perhaps he only came here as a favour to Nathan? Or is he still trying to work off the debt to the hotel?
For whatever reason he's here, I can chose to look on the bright side of things. I will finally get to see if Alex is consistently the guy I know, or if he's someone else to my face. If he's not who he is around me; perhaps I should start questioning the people around me. Is everyone not who they say they are?
Lucy tugs on my arms so I follow her out of the elevator. As we approach the group, Marina's the first person to greet us.
"Hello," she says in a cheery voice.
"Hey." I smile.
"It's nice to see you again, Riley," Michael says.
"You as well, Michael. This is my mother Marline and my sister Hannah and that is my best friend Lucy," I say, "And, this is Alex, Nathan, Marina and Michael," I say in order of who's standing in front of me.
"We are just having the cars brought around," Michael explains. Marina edges closer to Mom and engages in a conversation with Michael joining in soon enough. With the grown up's talking, it leaves the rest of us to talk, unfortunately.
"Hi," I awkwardly say, trying to stir up a conversation between us.
"It's nice to see you again Riley," Nathan says, he comes over and wraps me in a tight hug.
"You're Riley!" Alex says in recognition.
"I was trying to describe you to him before, but it appears he couldn't quite remember meeting you," Nathan explains.
"I meet so many people a day! It's hard to remember who's who. Most of the time I'm in a rush or running late for something," he explains, shaking his head.
"It's fine." I smile.
"So you're Hannah and your Lucy?" he questions, point to each of them as he says their names.
"Yeah." Lucy smiles happily.
"I'm sorry about this morning! I know it's no excuse, but I had a rough night and a few problems to deal with," he apologises, "I remember Lucy from this morning."
Lucy's already has a big smile which seems to double in size. She starts blinking her eyes rapidly and edging closer to Alex. I feel like I should be jealous of Lucy cuddling up to Alex, but I'm glad she's taking the focus away from me and freeing it up for Nathan.
Michael summons us and we walk out the front of the hotel. Two large black cars are parked in front. Marina, Michael, Mom and Hannah climb into the smaller one while the rest of us climb into the second car. Because only three people can sit in the back, I volunteer to sit in the front - away from Alex.
The drive to the restaurant doesn't take long, not that I was watching the time. We climb out of the car and find the rest of the group already walking inside the building. Just as we get inside, we are able to tag onto the end of them and follow them to a nearby table.
I pull Nathan to the opposite side of the table while Lucy and Hannah drag Alex to the opposite ends of the table. Mom sits in between Hannah and I, while Nathan's parents sit in between Lucy and Nathan.
When I see we are some distance away from each other, the nervous feeling inside my stomach begins to cool down. I know the night has barely begun, but the chances of him discovering who I am is lessened. If those two manage to distract him for the rest of the night, then he won't have enough time to sit and look my way or talk to me.
"What brings you guys back to New York?" Michael is the first to start up a conversation.
"Riley has been following her father around for the summer. This weekend he's out and the girls desperately wanted to see The Masked Singer, so we decided to come and say for the weekend until he comes back," she says smoothly.
"That sounds lovely," Michael says.
Before he can dig any deeper into the conversation, the waiter comes over to take our order. We go around the table and give our orders - most people seem to get the same pasta dish.
"What did you get up today?" Nathan asks. I turn in my chair so that I am able to directly face him.
"I went shopping with my family, check out some more sights." I shrug my shoulders.
"Sounds like an interesting day." He smiles. Nathan's boyish smile makes my heart flutter in a love sick kind of way.
"It was probably better than yours." I wink.
"Most likely." He nods his head. "I had work, again, nothing interesting."
"Work could be interesting," I try to say but he chuckles and shakes his head.
"Work is never fun."
"Depends on your job," I tease. Nathan's jaw drops and then turns into a sulky pout before he lightly shoves me.
"I can't agree with you there." If you had my job, you might consider yourself lucky, I think to myself.
As the night progresses on, Nathan and I continue to talk about ourselves, and small things about each other. From time to time, I keep my eyes trained on Alex and those two. Every time I turn my attention to them, he seems to be saying something that sends them into fits of laughter.
The look of aw on Lucy's face and the way her eyes light up makes a string of jealousy float through my stomach. I shouldn't be jealous over his actions, I'm currently sitting here with Nathan.
As the waiter comes around to clear the table, Alex suddenly calls the table to his attention. Both Lucy and Hannah have their body's facing him. I've never seen these two so focused on a person before.
"I'm sorry to leave the dinner early. But I have a concert to perform. It was lovely meeting you all," he says as he stands up. Alex gives both Lucy and Hannah a hug and a small kiss on the cheek - I can only imagine the two have just died of happiness. I just died of annoyance. How can he kiss those two in front of me like that?
He pushes his chair and comes around the table to us. Nathan stands up and gives him a bro hug slash hand shake - one of those technical gestures that move too quickly to really understand what's happening. When he stands in front of me, I stare up at him, unmoving. Alex frowns, taken back by my gesture.
"Come on, give me a hug. I'm Alex Bray." He chuckles.
That comment makes me internally roll my eyes. I don't want to draw any more attention to myself, so I get up and hug him. His arms wrap around me tightly, and I feel so comfortable and at home. The nerves from dinner float away.
I have to remind myself I'm Riley and we're nobody to each other. As he pulls away, he pauses and staring at me intently. My heart is about to explode as his deep blue eyes search mine for something. He goes to make a comment, but instead he shakes his head and quickly learns in to kiss my cheek.
"It was nice meeting you again Riley," he slowly says, drawing out my name. My heart continues to race away and I begin to feel sick - did he notice me or not? Why didn't he comment what he is thinking? Does Alex Bray know something? YV