I knew something was off the second the car slowed down.
I frown, leaning slightly toward the window, expecting maybe a gate, or security, or something small and controlled.
Not this. There's lights so many lights it didn't even look real at first. Like someone had dropped a piece of daylight into the middle of the night. There's People everywhere with their voices overlapping. Cameras already raised like they'd been waiting.
My stomach drops.
"This is not a small dinner," I say under my breath. Beside me, Alex doesn't answer immediately.
I turned to look at him, and he was already watching me. Not the crowd, not the chaos outside.
Me.
That steady, unreadable expression on his face. The one that always makes me feel like I was being studied and handled at the same time.
"You didn't think it was," he says calmly.
I stare at him.
"I thought it was jst a … normal gathering."
His mouth twitches slightly, not quite a smile.
"This is normal."
My heart picks up.
