Menacingly✔️

Chapter Twenty-One

"Happy birthday." Angela remembered to say just before she slurped her coffee. She was sitting at the breakfast bar, Adriano standing across from her. He stirred the spoon in his cup and grinned widely at her.

"Did you almost forget?" he joked and ran a hand through his dishevelled hair. The pair had just woken up a couple of minutes ago and done what they had done every morning since Christmas: got up, made coffee and talked over breakfast.

"So... what is this party going to be like tonight? Will there be many there?"

"If my mother's involved then yeah, there's going to be a shit load of people that I've probably only met once in my entire life." Adriano snorted and made her giggle a little.

"Don't you like parties?" she asked.

"Yeah sure, but sometimes my mother's parties can be a bit- overwhelming." He thought about his words for a moment. "She likes to plan. A lot."

"So why did you let her plan your birthday then?" Angela laughed and then covered her mouth as she yawned.

"She insisted. I couldn't do anything about it once she got hold of the idea. Nothing could stop her." He made her chuckle again and smiled back at her. She liked his smile, it was something she had only thought about recently. He had straight teeth, and when he showed them, his eyes crinkled at either side. It made him look warm and friendly which was what he was to her most of the time recently, but she knew he couldn't be like that with everyone else.

"Aren't you excited?" Angel asked between bites of her toast Adriano had put in front of her a moment ago. He just shrugged. He had been to many parties like what tonight would be like before. There would be lots of people which meant that there would be distractions, meaning there could be danger. He had always watched out for himself at events like tonight but that wasn't what had him slightly anxious, it was Angela.

She still didn't have a clue what kind of world he was slowly bringing her into, as much as Adriano didn't like to think he was doing it, he knew it was the truth. The more time he spent with her trying to keep her safe, the more danger there would be to keep her from. On Christmas night he was just about ready to crack, to let her go but he was too selfish to do so right now. He wanted her there, she was the only thing that made him happy or smile or laugh sometimes. Having her in his company, having her to come home to instead of an empty apartment was wonderful. Adriano didn't know what he wanted from her or why the thought of her leaving scared him a little, but there was this pull towards her, he needed her around.

"A little I guess. I've been to a lot of these things before." He finally said, grabbing a slice of toast from her plate and taking a bite out of it.

"What? Your own birthday parties? I should hope so Adriano." She said and sniggered. Adriano guffawed loudly for a moment, surprising her.

"You know what I meant." He rolled his eyes.

"No actually, I didn't." she smirked.

"Well, big events. The whole venue, dinner and socializing thing."

"Just exactly how big is this thing going to be? And where is it going to be? By the looks of my dress, it must be fancy." Angela really didn't know much about what was happening later tonight, Maria had just pushed her to buy a very formal and expensive dress but then again, Angela trusted that Maria knew what she was talking about it.

"Huge." He said sarcastically and smirked at her. She rolled her eyes. "It's going to be a quite big yes." He added. Angela just nodded slowly and looked at him. He checked his watch and then put Angela's empty plate and both their mugs in the kitchen sink.