Page 33 of Watching Ames

“Thanks guys. Really, it means a lot.” And it did. Dev and Wren didn’t know me, but they were still willing to help me, and it didn’t miss my notice that Alex had asked them to do this, knowing how hard it would have been for me to go back to the apartment to gather my things.

“Eh, you’re part of the group. It was no big deal,” Dev shrugged, clapping his hands as he asked, “Now what’s for dinner?”

* * *

We atedinner at the island, Dev and Wren seamlessly including me in conversation that didn’t make me feel out of place in such a tight-knit group.

“Are these new plates?” Wren held up her empty salad bowl, inspecting the curves with a critical eye. “I’m pretty sure last time we ate off of paper plates.”

“Ames made them.” Alex sent me a smile, a real one that I cataloged and tucked away with the rest. It must have been just as rare for Wren and Dev to see, because the two looked at each other with wide eyes at the expression on Alex’s face. I thought I even saw Wren mouthingOh my goddess!in Dev’s direction, but Alex’s smile drew me back in too quickly for me to be sure.

Wren recovered from her shock quickly, asking with genuine curiosity, “You’re a potter?”

“Yeah, I work part-time atJuniper Potteryand then run my own business on the side.”

“She designed plates forMorel,” Alex threw out, his proud voice sending a ripple of pleasure down my spine, unused to anyone bragging about my success so publicly. Dev and Wren exchanged impressed glances, and I assumed they’d both heard of the restaurant’s success.

“You guys didn’t know?” I looked between Dev and Wren, who looked equally surprised and impressed at the news. “Sorry, I’m just not sure what exactly you guys know about all…” I waved my hand between Alex and me, not sure how to describe our situation besides saying, “...this.”

“We know a lot about the mechanics,” Dev explained between bites of his meal, “Just not a lot of details about you. Xan here has been frustratingly tight-lipped about you. Wouldn’t let me look you up or follow you or anything.” He threw out the less friendly aspects of his job description without shame, just rolled his eyes like Alex not allowing him to tail me was a huge inconvenience. I expected Dev’s mention of their job to cause my slowly-lowered walls to rise back up, but his casual demeanor did the opposite, relaxing me and making me feel more at ease with the way they so easily included me in the darker parts of their lives.

“What’s up with Xan, by the way?” Wren and Dev had thrown the nickname around a few times during dinner, and each time the nickname had grated, making me feel like the outsider on an inside joke.

Dev laughed at the question, eyes brightening as he looked toward Alex. “The floor is yours, my friend.”

“Thanks,” Alex said dryly, looking toward me as he explained, “My full name is Alexander, which probably isn’t a surprise. And I’ve gone by Alex my whole life; it’s what my friends and family always called me. But when I got a little older, around college, I decided I wanted to sound a little more grown-up, so I decided to start going by Xander.”

“He thought it sounded badass,” Dev interjected with a laugh, causing Alex to shoot him a glare that did nothing to dim the smile spreading across Dev’s face.

“I was going by Xander when we first started our business.” Alex put air quotes around the wordbusiness, and I realized that was his reference to the less-legal side of their job. “So when things started going well, the name that was passed around was Xander. And once I started going by Alex again, it just made sense to keep that part of my life separate, so I kept Xander as a thinly-veiled pseudonym. Dev just calls me that outside of work to be an asshole.”

“So that’s why you signed your cards with XO?” I finally put the pieces together, connecting the dots to a mystery that had haunted me for weeks.

“I’m so used to using those initials, since I rarely sign anything with my own name anymore. But when we first met at the concert, it didn’t feel right to give you a fake name.”

“So you gave me the real one.”

Alex nodded, the admission unraveling another knot of tension that had been in my stomach since I realized he was my admirer. But his next words tightened a different knot of tension, one that started in my stomach before dropping to my core. “I wanted to hear you say my name.”

“I’ve been calling you by a fake name this whole time?” Wren’s shocked voice broke the mounting tension between Alex and me, her hand pressed to her chest in mock outrage.

“I didn’t think we’d become friends when we first met, Wren. I thought it would be a one-time business transaction, that’s all.”

“But?” Wren narrowed her eyes at Alex, giving him a chance to dig his way out of the hole he’d found himself in. He glanced at me for help, but I shook my head, not wanting to get dragged down with him.

“Smart girl,” Dev whispered to me across the table, eliciting a small snort of amusement from me as Alex shot him a glare before turning back to Wren.

“But…your winning personality won me over?” The compliment came out as a question, but it was accompanied with a small curve of an almost-smile, the combination enough to bring out a wide grin on Wren’s face in return.

“Aww, you’re so sweet to me,Alex.” She said his name slowly, as if getting the feel for it in her mouth, and smiling when she found it to her satisfaction.

After that, dinner turned into dessert, the four of us gathering around the fire pit as the temperature dipped along with the sun. We sat in a loose circle, sitting on pillows since Alex didn’t have any patio furniture, for which he received constant complaints from Wren and Dev. I had the feeling this was a recurring conversation, but they continued to pester him until he finally confessed in an agitated voice, “I wanted to let Ames pick out the furniture.”

Silence took over the group after his admission, Alex’s eyes flicking up to mine for a moment to gauge my reaction, but Wren and Dev easily broke the tension as they doubled over in laughter, leaning against each other in an attempt to stay upright.

“Sorry, sorry,” Wren apologized, wiping tears from her eyes as she straightened. “It truly is so romantic. You’re really setting the standards for my next girlfriend.”

“How’d you all meet?” I interrupted, the curiosity that had been itching at me all night finally bursting forth. It was strange, hearing the subtle references Wren and Dev made to Alex’s stalking efforts, as if buying me a house and waiting to fill it with furniture until he had my input was a normal thing to do. As if it were a normal romance, one to aspire to.

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