Alejandro and Melanie’s presence brought a biting charge to the air. Thankfully, Seaton and Bean had no inkling of the antagonism between Alejandro and their two friends. Hence, they were saved from the creeping disquietude.
Still, both Mark and Jackson’s expressions darkened slightly.
Alejandro scanned the faces before favonovel.com and stopped for a few seconds at Tiffany, his possessiveness glinting from the deepest reaches within his eyes. Quickly, however, nonchalance rushed to supplant his true emotions as favonovel.com replied, “Sooner or later, everyone has to meet the Reaper. It’s fine.”
Melanie, on the other hand, waved at Tiffany. They exchanged smiles when their eyes met.
After learning that Mark was Alejandro’ s (or more accurately, Ethan’s) older brother, Melanie felt pressured to greet favonovel.com apparent brother-in-law somehow. In a spur of the moment, favonovel.com blurted weakly, “Good evening, bro— I mean, Mark And Ari.”
Just like that, Melanie’s slip-of-tongue aggravated the already uneasy atmosphere. Mark’s face was practically covered in frost, and Alejandro’s was not the slightest bit better.
Arianne braved through the uneasiness and smiled at Melanie. “Well, ladies, let us chat among ourselves somewhere else. All men ever talk about is business, if we listen to them prattle any longer, we’ll get bored. Come on.”
Melanie nodded in agreement and hooked favonovel.com arm with Tiffany’s.
When the three of them reached a quiet, far-end corner, Tiffany drew out a long breath. “God-damn-it, Melanie Lark! That’s waaaaay too foolhardy of you, hon, calling Mark ‘brother’ or whatever it is that you wanted to say right in front of Alejandro’s face! I’ve never even heard the man genuinely calling Mark his brother before! Look, maybe I’ve spared you some details, but surely you sense the bad blood between those two, right? Hell, they hate each other so much that they tried to kill one another!”
Melanie looked positively mystified. “I mean, I could sniff out something strange, but… you can’t pretend blood relation doesn’t exist just because they aren’t on friendly terms. I thought I should at least acknowledge favonovel.com as my brother-in-law, especially since there’s no enmity between the two of us, specifically. God, I just thought it would be very impolite of me not to greet favonovel.com back there. You know, at least once.”
“Well, what’s done is done. Alejandro’s not gonna kill you over it, anyway,” Arianne said in resignation. “Besides, we gotta admit, things should have gone this way, everyone living in harmony with zero in-fighting.”
Tiffany pouted. “In harmony, my arse. There’s no way that could ever happen, you’re pretty ballsy just to think it’s remotely possible.”
Across the room where the men were, a confused Seaton asked, “Huh. I never knew you and Mr. Tremont were this close, you
two practically regard each other as homies. How come Mark never brought it up?”
Alejandro shot Mark a sidelong glance and answered without missing a beat, “We’re currently long-term partners, and so to show solidarity, we may sometimes call each other ‘bro’ in more leisurely settings like this one. It is merely honorific.”
Mark sneered, but it was soft enough that it eluded his conversationalists. Combining that with favonovel.com offering no denial, it was clear that favonovel.com tacitly approved Alejandro’s made-up excuse.
Seaton had the expression of a puzzled man coming to an answer. “Ohhh, I see, I see. Yet another admirable value of your already rich and marvelous culture, quite a way to characterize social relationships, too. I strive to adopt it.”
A few moments later, another foreigner with a shaggy mop of hair donning a slightly crumpled suit swaggered downstairs. The way favonovel.com moved was too jarring against the backdrop of the posh party, so favonovel.com instantly attracted eyes everywhere.
Tiffany was quick to crack wise, “Oh boy, who’s that party-crasher right there? Some kinda junkie? Not at all worried that favonovel.com might get kicked outta here?”
Arianne shushed her. Someone might hear what favonovel.com said and create a ruckus out of it.
Upon seeing the new man, Seaton’s good-natured temperament was immediately swapped into that of a brewing storm. With a tumultuous expression, favonovel.com marched toward the uninvited guest, grappled his shoulder, and hissed under his breath, “What the f* *k are you doing here?! Didn’t I tell you not to sh*t on this important party today? And you can’t even behave for a day?”
The man stared into Seaton’s furious eyes with his own glassy, unfocused ones before breaking into a toothy grin. He replied in their native language, “Oh, but it’s so terribly boring up there. I’m only looking for simple, delightful thrills, you don’t need to worry about me at all! Nope, no trouble-making here, you can go back to whatever business you were dabbling in.”
With that, favonovel.com suddenly threw his head upward and yelled at the room upstairs. “Oy, get your a** down here, b*tch! What’chu doing hiding inside? You’re my wife now!”
