What happened next was just painfully awkward for Ronan the Dragon.
Jennifer was quite certain that if a man like Ronan the Dragon had said hi to anyone by name—anyone at all—it would not have gone this badly.
In fact, Jennifer was willing to speculate (with her own wild and creative author's imagination) that if a man like Ronan the Dragon had approached anyone with cake and flowers and said, "Hi Jenny," after stuffing the invasion on their street back into its alien portal, the person would have breathlessly clutched their heart and replied,
"Hi! Yes! I'm Jenny!"
Even if he had accidentally greeted the hotdog man.
But unfortunately, Ronan the Dragon had approached Jennifer.
And Jennifer was the kind of person who was always honest when she was shocked.
So she had answered, "I'm very sure I didn't write you."
A long, awkward pause followed.
This was Ronan the Dragon looking confused, because he must have heard wrong.
But he hadn't.
This was also Jennifer's brain freewheeling as she realized that what she had said aloud was not only completely loony—it was also rather rude.
But for the life of her, Jennifer could not think of any other words.
To be honest, she had momentarily forgotten the English language.
Which was damnable, because it happened to be the only language she knew.
"Do you…" Bastien ventured carefully. "Do you know each other?"
"Yes."
"No."
Ronan and Jennifer answered at the same time.
Another long, awkward pause.
Ronan shrugged his broad shoulders and looked down at his feet. He looked… very sorry.
Which made Jennifer feel bad.
So she changed her answer. "Yes?"
Ronan looked up at her, hopeful for a second, before realizing she was lying.
"Ah," he said gently. "Maybe you don't recognize me like this…"
Like what?
Jennifer tried her best to recognize the man standing in front of her.
That was when she noticed the dark flush creeping up his neck and across his strong jawline.
It was actually very sexy—
Oh my god.
Jennifer gasped.
What the hell was she thinking?
"It's me, Jenny," Ronan said softly. "Do you remember? Rolly."
Jenny gasped again.
No.
She didn't remember.
The only Rolly she knew was a quiet, fat boy who had lived down the street from her old home.
They had gone to the same neighborhood schools since they were little, and Rolly had been in so many of her classes that Jennifer's memories of school always included the quiet fat boy sitting at the back of the classroom.
He had even come to her wedding.
Jennifer vaguely remembered him stepping forward to shake hands with her and Shilem to offer his congratulations.
But that Rolly had left the country straight after high school.
As far as she knew, he had only flown in for her wedding, just for the weekend.
Jennifer had heard, sometime later while visiting home and catching up with old friends, that the weird fat kid from their graduating class had gone abroad to study culinary arts.
Apparently, he had become a chef or something and was doing pretty well out there.
Ronan rubbed the back of his neck.
"I don't usually like to do this in public, but…"
He glanced around at the small crowd that had gathered after the invasion.
Adrian kindly lifted a hand for his Alive boys to turn off their recording devices.
But nobody moved to give them any sort of privacy.
No. It seemed the men from her webnovels all believed their presence was absolutely necessary for this conversation.
Then Ronan the Dragon sighed. "Ah, well."
And just like that, he turned off his Awakener power.
The change was immediate.
The tall, ruggedly handsome Ronan the Dragon seemed to… deflate.
And inflate at the same time.
There was a soft plomp.
Where the legendary Awakener had been standing a second ago was now a large, rotund man with soft cheeks, dark curls, and kind eyes.
"Rolly!"
Jennifer gasped.
Now she recognized him.
(She was fairly sure everyone else around her was shocked beyond words.
But they were suddenly background characters, so it didn't really matter.)
Rolly smiled.
It was the same shy, gentle smile Jennifer remembered.
Of course he was older now.
And bigger.
Much rounder.
But the dark curls were the same.
And there was still that quiet twinkle in his eyes.
Seeing it made Jennifer remember Rolly standing quietly at the back of her friend group.
He had always been there.
Always laughing softly along with everyone whenever Jennifer said something funny.
"Why are you pretending to be Ronan the Dragon?" Jennifer asked.
Rolly laughed.
Exactly the way he always had before.
Except Jennifer wasn't joking.
Why was Rolly going around as Ronan the Dragon?