Drowning

Chapter Forty-Five

The night has been going smoothly, and after dinner, everyone stood walking towards the room meant for talking, dancing. I went to talk to Amanda about closing the dining room. When I go back to the main room, I spot Mariana and Mark dancing and many of our guests joining them on the dance floor. I smile to myself glad that things have turned out good and they seem to have enjoyed it, at least this far. I continue scanning the room, settling on a table and a waitress comes by asking for my order. I spot Aiden talking to a couple, their backs facing towards me but Aiden is looking directly at me, and I just smirk and raise my glass in the form of cheers. Eventually someone nears my table, Angela and Sam, thank god. I've been having unwanted conversations all day, I have one more and I think I will rip someone's head off.

"Hey babe," Angela says standing beside me. "It's getting late, we should get going," No matter how much I told Angela she didn't have to come this afternoon, she still insisted on coming. I wanted her here of course but she's gonna give birth to that kid any day now, and the last thing she needed was going into labor here. Lidia also came by, she sat with us at our table even and we ate together but as soon as the clock turned to ten thirty she retired. Lidia is not a fan of events like these; she only came because of Mariana, but no one can blame her, I can't stand them much either.

"Enjoyed yourselves, at least?"

"Absolutely, you outdid yourselves with this one. And those two look incredibly happy. I dont get how they enjoy this type of event so much, they are just business men and women here," Sam responds, moving his head where I see Mariana and Mark standing now talking to a man, a tall, looks kind of young man, I can't really tell as his back is towards me.

"Yeah, well, you know us. Work is our lives," I say, moving to give both of them hugs for goodbyes. Alice and Mark are the only real friends besides each other Mariana and I have. Even though we're not the closest, we love them. The rest are just acquaintances, or people you have to be nice to and sadly pretend you stand, because someday they may end up being your clients, or they know people who you want as clients. We live in the world of fake smiles and manipulation. It's not as bad as it sounds though, because we're good at what we do and in the end it is worth it.

"See you soon? I know you're leaving for Europe but you need to be back by Christmas," Mariana, Lidia and I usually spend christmas eve together since it's in their culture to celebrate christmas eve not christmas day, so I just go along with it. And on christmas day Mariana goes with Mark to his parents house, while I stay home reading the new books I treated myself for christmas. Usually later that night we meet up with Angela and Sam to enjoy Christmas as friends, together.

"I'll try," I tell them with a small smile. "You better be here," Sam tells me with a look and kisses the side of Angela's head, "I'll go get the car," and leaves us both.

"You know I saw you two, being all couply and everything and I have to say I never thought I would ever see you that way," Angela says giving me a smirk. Is couply even a word?

"Who?" I ask, even though I know she's talking about me and Aiden.

"Don't act stupid when that's the last thing you are Valentina, but it makes me happy that you finally found someone that you clearly like?"

"Who says I clearly like him? Maybe we're just having fun?" I clear my throat. I don't want us to just be having fun, but I don't like the idea of everyone knowing I clearly like the guy either. I'm not ashamed of anything, I don't have to be, it's my life and my business, and that's exactly my point. I don't like anyone meddling in my business. These people like to think they know everything about someone when they don't, and try to give their opinion about everything.

"You didn't even fool yourself asking that, and don't worry I noticed it because I know you and I know you don't act that way towards a guy," wait, what?