Page 34 of Excess

“Well, yes, of course. But… I don’t know. You could have made more of an effort,” Ivy hedged. “Hugo is a really great fit for you, Inika. Those don’t come along very often.”

“Oh, don’t fuss, Ivy,” Brigitte chided. “Inika looks lovely. Doesn’t she, Miranda?”

Brigitte’s mate nodded once, drumming her nails on the tabletop and looking bored. They’d met while they were at the same elite university, and ran in similar social circles before Brigitte had invited Miranda into her nest. The rest of us never spent much time with her—Miranda had some sort of high-flying finance job, and I suspected she found our social gatherings beyond tedious, though she politely never said.

She never said much of anything.

“Well, Hugo will be here any minute,” Ivy continued, smoothing down her navy silk dress as she fretted. “Spencer is bringing him. He’s just messaged and said they’re around the corner.”

“Lovely,” I replied, accepting the glass of Amontillado that Stasia’s mate, George, handed me.

“I ran into your parents, Inika,” Stasia said, managing to hold a conversation while still tapping away on her phone. “Did they say? They had no idea about Hugo! Imagine. You must have been busy if you hadn’t had a chance to mention him.”

“Yes, well, they’re certainly all up to date now.” I gave her a tight smile that she didn’t see, taking a sip of my sherry. I wanted to go home. My make-up was making my skin itch, and my heels hurt, and every time my earrings brushed against my neck I wanted to rip them out and hurl them across the room.

Part of it was pre-heat symptoms. A larger part of it was my personality.

“They’re here! They’re here!” Ivy whisper-shouted. “Sit down, Inika. Look natural. No, not there— Around the other side, there’s an empty seat there for Hugo too.”

“Very subtle,” I murmured, moving around the table and taking my allocated seat. Not only would I have Hugo on my left, but Miranda had been assigned the seat to my right. There was no way Ivy hadn’t planned that. Even if Hugo was miserable conversation, I’d be forced to speak to him because the alternative was Miranda, who barely said a word.

“You probably should have eased up on the Om-Guard tonight,” George volunteered helpfully from across the table. “Let the bloke have a good whiff of unmated omega. That’s the best way to nab an alpha.”

“George!” Stasia hissed, her face flaming red. “Can you be civilised for once, please?”

He shrugged disinterestedly, taking a long swig of his beer. George was from a new-money family, and had bailed out Stasia’s family business—their mating seemed to have been thrown in to sweeten the deal. Of all the couples here, I suspected Stasia and George liked each other the least. There was no missing it in person, though Stasia was always effusive in her praises of him on social media and when he wasn’t around.

I pasted a polite smile on my face as a laughing Spencer walked in, clapping the man who could only be Hugo on the back.

He was pretty, I’d give him that. Tall and lean, with brown curly hair that flopped endearingly over one eye, and a warm, friendly smile.

Kind, I decided. He looked like a kind alpha. And more personable than Spencer, who wasn’t a bad person, but struggled to make conversation with anyone who wasn’t like him. I searched my brain, trying to think if I’d ever met Hugo before, but if we had, the interaction hadn’t stood out.

“Everyone, this is Hugo,” Spencer announced, gesturing unnecessarily at his friend. “Hugo, this is everyone. I’m sure you’ve met some of them before, but I’ll go around the room, just in case.”

That made the first introduction significantly less awkward, though the true test came when Hugo rounded the table to take his seat next to me.

Brigitte kindly started a debate with Stasia about nail technicians, which pulled at least some of the focus away from Hugo and I. The two of them could be loud when they wanted to be, and Ivy couldn’t resist being drawn in on that particular topic.

“Hello again,” Hugo said, getting comfortable and shooting me a charming smile that probably had alphas, omegas, and betas alike swooning in his presence. “I hear these are the designated seats for singles.”

“So it appears,” I agreed with a laugh. “Though it’s hard to be entirely sure. Everyone is being so subtle about it.”

“Aren’t they just?” Hugo smiled, pouring himself a glass of water from the jug at the centre of the table. He leaned in, dropping his voice low so he wouldn’t be overheard. “I hate to bring this up because I don’t want to make dinner awkward, but I’m not interested in any kind of relationship right now. I’m tragically hung up on an ex who thinks she knows what I need better than I know myself, and it would be desperately unfair to inflict my current emotional state on anyone.”

I gave him a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry to hear it. And thank you for being honest with me. I’m a little hung up on someone myself at the moment, but Ivy and Spencer got the idea in their head…”

Hugo flicked a hand dismissively. “No further explanation required. Spencer has always been like a dog with a bone when he gets an idea in his head. I did try to tell him that tonight wasn’t the best idea, but he insisted that there was no harm in a casual dinner. And look—perhaps he’s right. We can be friends, can’t we?”

I smiled into my glass. “Of course.”

As far as company went, Hugo could have definitely been worse.

“Are you pining over an ex too?” he asked, still keeping his voice quiet so the others wouldn’t bother us.

I shook my head. “A friends-with-benefits arrangement.” I paused for a second, taking another sip of my sherry. “Actually, I’m not sure we’re close enough to be friends.”

Hugo laughed, which had the unfortunate side effect of making Ivy look almost giddy with excitement. Spencer leaned back in his seat, smug and satisfied, probably planning out future holidays that the four of us could take together.

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