The Capodecinagot up, glancing at the girl desire still written all over his face. "Don’t move," he ordered and headed towards the door.
"Actually, it won’t be that easy to sort this out. I don’t think you will be back anytime soon. Layla’d better get to work," Alberto advised. She didn’t need to be told twice and shot up immediately, running off to the main dance floor. She looked around for Amanda but couldn’t find her. Instead, she walked to the bar where Julian was talking to two girls. They didn’t really look old enough to be there, let alone drink alcohol.
As the man saw her, he smiled and excused himself to talk to her. "Water?" he asked.
"Yes, please."
"You were great out there. Even better than the other day," He praised setting a big glass of water in front of her on the bar. Inéz took a big gulp.
"Thank you. It was really stressful," she commented, however, she was almost certain that people had been able to see her legs shaking at the very beginning.
Julian laughed, waving it off. "It’s natural. You’ve just started. You’ll get used to it sooner rather than later."
Inéz really hoped so, because this feeling before getting on stage wasn’t pleasant. Standing in front of the whole school and welcoming everyone at the beginning of a new year, announcing prom king and queen, and even reading out loud the rules for the annual fundraiser weren’t a problem. Showing off too much skin and pole dancing with so many strangers watching was a whole different thing. Going from one extreme to the other wasn’t easy for her at all. It was challenging and disconcerting.
"Have you seen Amanda?"
"As usual, she’s probably somewhere close to the twins," Julian drawled. Inéz regarded him, noticing his anger. There were several reasons that she could think of. One was jealousy, however, from what Inéz had read in the files, Julian had a girlfriend, so it was unlikely. Amanda was quite privileged which was probably because of her friendship with the twins, so she felt at home while working. Simply because she wasn’t doing it a lot. Maybe the bartender felt the same and it irritated him. But it wasn’t Inéz's place to say anything, so she just nodded, drank the rest of the water and moved through the dance floor to get to the booth.
Noah was still there with Isaac, Drew and the twins, while Flavio was nowhere to be found. As she shouldn’t acknowledge the men, she waited for Amanda who was standing by their table, talking to them. It wasn’t, however, allowed for her to just stand in the background as Elio spotted and summoned her with a breezy wave and a wide smile. Everyone caught his gesture and turned their heads to her.
Her head immediately bowed with the embarrassment of being in the center of attention. She felt Noah’s eyes on her but tried really hard not to look his way. With her luck, she would give something away. Sighing deeply, she came up to them. Amanda glanced at her.
"Layla, meet my friends," Elio began, introducing everyone one by one.
She went with that and greeted them shyly. Her eyes lingered a little bit longer on Noah. She couldn’t help herself when the man wasn’t lowering his gaze for a second and if not for Drew, the twins would have surely caught up on it.
"That was a great performance. How long have you been dancing?" he asked taking the attention off the Capo.
Inéz smiled, knowing her best friend very well and realizing that this need to intervene exasperated him greatly. There could be only two reasons behind this. Either he saw the spark between the two, or he hated being the one to rescue a mission that he wasn’t even particularly in favor of. Perhaps both at the same time.
He was a wonderful friend to Inéz. Always so respectful and protective of any woman, especially his younger sister Sophie, and her. He cared so much it was hard to believe that such men still existed. It seemed impossible to find someone like him. That was why Inéz was happy that he and Isaac were there for her. They made everything better, and every day a little brighter.
In high school, people always thought that they were mostly Francisco’s friends and she was just an addition to the group, but not as close to them as her twin. They were completely wrong. Inéz was just as much of a best friend to them as her brother, if not more. Especially to Drew. Their conversations had the tendency to become very deep and he was the only one she could talk to like that.
"A few years," she answered.
"How was it?" It was Amanda’s turn to ask. However, she meant the meeting with Gastone, rather than dancing. "Was he..." she started.
"I’m fine." Inéz didn’t want to talk about it, so she didn’t let her finish. She shut down the topic, considering it done. The girl could think whatever she wanted.
Fabro stood up from his seat and left the booth, phone in his hand. "Have to go. Got a job to do," he said before disappearing from view.
Elio smirked and tapped the empty seat next to him, looking at Inéz. "Come, sit."
"I should go back to work."
The twin laughed. "Well, since I’m the last one left from my family in the club, I am your boss for now so you don’t have to go back to work right away."
There was no arguing with him, she knew better than that. Sighing, she perched in the booth as Elio slid his glass with whiskey toward her.
What’s with mobsters and their alcohol?
She shook her head. "Thank you. I don’t drink," she repeated. It was like deja vu since she had already told Elio this.
"Right, I forgot. Sorry, doll," he grinned. "It’s hard to get used to someone so different."
A frown flashed on her face. "I’m not that different."
Elio glanced at her as if she had three heads and laughed.
