I Don't Date Dragons

Chapter 6

Tiblisi entered the party finicking over Ryan's embroided blazer. "honey, you really are too much, I look fabulous" Ryan cooed to her, not used to this sort of hyper interest in his immpecable grooming standard. "Always room for improvement darling" she cooed back, smiling at him. He tightened his grip around her waste and outer arm. He was playing Bond, a secret crush of his. "Don't comment on the purple would you. I'm not appropriatly dressed to be straight, I'm trying to get into character." he looked at her and smirked, "but darling in that dress you're helping me along" she slapped him harder than he would of liked "oh honey" putting a hiss in the word "you really are too much" then she faked laughed, not knowing if Tom and Isabella were watching them yet. He decided his best defence was to be the perfect gentlemen. "Two flutes of champagne please, my wife here hasn't had a drink since breakfast and you know how they get" he guffawed, and the moustached waiter look at him in polite bewilderment handing them their champagne. "Hey, If I'm ruining my reputation I'm bringing you down with me" he whispered in her ear then eyed her with amusement. "Well jokes on you because I did drink at breakfast" she barked back.

Finally, behind them, "Tibby, is that you?" 

Her ex, Tom was coming towards her with his blonde, Isabella in tow. He smiled at her and his newly whitened teeth glimmered in the moonlight. 

Her feathers immediately were ruffled. "You know I never liked that nickname" she was speaking with her lips almost touching as if the cool night air was about to ravage her insides. 

Ryan took notice and stepped in pulling her even tighter into his side. "Well well well, look what the cat dragged in" Ryan eyed Tom up and down, "you must be Tiblisi's ex, what's your name again? I want to say Tim." 

He was playing dumb, not wanting Tom to think he was talked about too much. Tom was taken aback and flashed his 1000 watt smile anyways, without any ease this time, it was definitely forced.  "It's Tom. Tibby and I go way back isn't that right?" She smiled at him coolly after hearing him use her much hated nickname yet again. 

"I'm sorry I'm being rude, Ryan you spoke out of turn, the cat didn't drag him here, this fetching creature did." Tiblisi was trying to be nice but her patience with Tom and the entire evening was wearing thin. "Who might you be?" she asked the person she already knew to be Isabella. 

Tom interjected "This is my fiancee Isabella Duncan, you may of heard of her.  She's the most successful and the most well known art collector in Ottawa." If Isabella was perturbed with Tom speaking for her she didn't show it. She just checked her lacquered finger nails and sighed looking bored as if this crowd was bringing down her social status by the minute.  

"Well this is my fiancee Ryan, he just actually proposed tonight isn't that right honey?" She eyed  Ryan then Tom and hoped her eagerness to divulge this information wasn't too obvious. "He's quite the catch, knows how to cook deserts and has a background in architecture and design." She wasn't entirely making this all up, he had shown her the coffee cake in the freezer and dressed her in this beautiful dress. When she glanced over at Ryan he looked cool with it. Hopefully he could run with it. "Architecture neat," Isabella admitted, "anything we might know of that you designed?" 

Ryan looked perturbed, "I'm more of an abstract architect really. You may not be familiar with the term, I sort of created the job, sort of like Sherlock Holmes creating the job of consulting detective." He looked like the wind was taken out of him and stared down at his now empty drink.  "Ohh fabulous" Isabella was impressed. Idiot, Tiblisi thought, or maybe she was just being nice, she didn't want to throw this woman into the fire just because she was Tom's latest squeeze. 

"He's really fabulous at what he does." She hugged his chubby arm and smiled. Tom was watching all this with a smile on his face. "So, Ryan you didn't say what your last name was?" Ryan was thrown and made a classic mistake when you're telling a lie to a stranger, lie about everything to protect your identity, especially in such a small town as Ottawa. "Sanders" he answered, and realized his mistake immediately, especially because he had a blog under his name of what it was like to be gay in Ottawa.