That Summer In The Country

Twenty-seven:

Twenty-seven:

The restaurant that Mal took her to was in the college district of Os Alta. It was one of those hot spots where celebrities went and there was a red carpet, complete with photographers. Mal gave his car keys to the valet then helped her out of the car. He looped her arm through his, and the two of them pressed through the crowd. A few photographers called after Mal, but not many. After all, he was just a rich kid of Ravka. Not anyone particularly famous. But he was popular enough on the party scene some people still knew him.

When they got inside, they were led to a private room in the back. Alina was surprised when the waitress closed the door behind her after leaving the menus for them. "I thought the point of this date was for everyone to see us out in public?" Alina asked. "Why the private room?"

Mal smiled up at her from across the table as he looked at his menu. "Because I'm not just going to be eating food tonight, Alina. I'm going to be eating you. Why do you think there were photographers here? I called them, so that they could get the pictures that they needed. But tonight is just about you and me, Lina. The way it should have been."

She blushed. Her heart hurt at his words. What if she had never met Aleksander in Novyi Zem that summer? Would they have had a chance at being normal? Or would Aleksander still have demanded that she be shared between the two? It didn't matter. She couldn't dwell on things. Alina had agreed to be with both of them, and she loved both of them.

She couldn't give both of them up. She wouldn't.

"Have you figured out what you want to eat?" Mal asked.

"Yes," she said.

He pressed a button that was on the side of the table, and the door opened revealing the waitress again. She slipped inside. "May I take your order?" she asked.

They gave the waitress their order, and as they waited for the food, the two of them talked. "You pushed me into the pond!" Mal insisted.

"I did not!" Alina chided. "Those are all lies, Mal Morozova. Vicious, vicious lies."

"You pushed me into the pond because you were mad that I had put a tarantula in your bed."

"Well, maybe don't put a tarantula in my bed," Alina said.

He grinned. "So, you admit that you pushed me into the pond?"

She smiled at him. "I admit absolutely nothing."

The door to the room opened, and the waitress came in with their food. They ate and talked, and it was exactly like Alina had always dreamed her first date with Mal would be. He was sweet, and charming, and he made her heart race whenever he touched her. Even if it was only the briefest of grazes.

"Are you having fun?" he asked. "I know I'm not the god like billionaire, but...."

She smiled at him. "What makes you so sure that I'm going to be his? You talk about it in such a fatalistic way."

He shrugged as he took a drink of his wine. Eighteen was the legal drinking age in Ravka. "I'm used to it. I know how this game is played. We'll get a couple of months together, and that's if we're lucky. I'm just glad I had to lie to your aunt about us dating. At least that way, we get to be a little normal. I'm not an idiot. I know the pull that my brother has over people. If Aleks told you right now that he wanted to go public, that he wanted to make you his, would you say no?"

Alina hesitated. The Morozova's were her home, her family, as much as anything else. What right did she have to hurt their son if he fell in love with her? "If it were only me...it might be different. But it isn't only me. Aleksander controls my aunt's livelihood too. I couldn't.... I couldn't risk that."

Mal took another sip of his wine. "Then you see, we know the answer, don't we? Either you end up with someone else, or you end up with him. That is the only way that this ends, Alina. Besides.... would you hate it, being with him?"

She shook her head. "Part of me wishes that I could say that I would. But being around him.... I don't know. It's like I'm an addict, and I want to stop, I know that I should, but he asks me to do something, and I become an entirely different person. I want to be with him, all of the time, and I don't know what I would do if I weren't able to be around him."

"That's Aleksander," Mal replied, "which is why, if my brother wants you.... I will have to give you up, and this thing between us will come to an end. So, I'm going to make the most of it while we can and get my taste of you, little Lina."

She smiled at him. "I'm not so little anymore, you know. Or innocent."

He reached out and stroked her cheek. "You're always going to be innocent compared to everything else in the Morozova world. You're like sunshine. You make everything brighter. That's why Aleksander needs you. He doesn't have much brightness in his world."

"And you don't need me Mal?"

He sighed. "I'll always need you, Lina, but not in the same way that my brother does. He'd probably go mad if you weren't there. I've seen it in his eyes when he looks at you. Now that he's had you, I don't know if there would ever be any going back or letting you go for him."

"What about what I want?"

He smiled softly at her. "We've got right now, Lina. Let's just enjoy that." Then, he leaned across the table and kissed her.