She was the honey, and the men she attracted were flies.
Scum-sucking, filthy, lying, cheating flies.
Owlishly, she glanced around the darkened pit of the club and sighed.
A mountain of people was burrowed within the cavernous hall. All cavorting and rubbing up against one another as they danced like their lives were going to end tonight. The heavy beat pulsed through the room, making the hairs on the back of April’s neck tingle. She kind of wanted to dance but was aware that opportunity had passed five margaritas ago. If she did more than stand when she got to her feet, that was going to be a miracle.
As it was, she knew Sarah was going to have to help her out of the club. Considering there was a twenty pound difference between the pair of them, April knew if she went down, she’d probably take Sarah down with her.
Rubbing her temple, then wishing she could rub away the blinding light from the lasers in the club, she complained to Sarah, “My head hurts.”
“I’m not surprised. How many margaritas is that now?”
The lack of sympathy had April huffing.
“Help me, Sarah.”
“Help you what?”
“I need to…” She really needed to not see Mike with a wedding ring on.
With his hand in another woman’s.
With a kid at his side.
A kid.
His child.
She gulped, remembered horror whispering through her. “I need to delete the image of that scum-sucking bastard from my mind.”
He’d made her the other woman. A role she’d never ever wanted to play, not when an ‘other woman’ had been pivotal in splitting her parents up.
Trouble was that just because her brain knew that the man was a bastard, just because he’d made her something she’d never wanted to be, her heart had yet to catch up.
So, she had all the feelings of a woman in love, with all the headaches of someone who knew the person she cared for deeply wasn’t worth wasting a moment on.
Why? April wailed inwardly. Why did these things happen to her?
Sarah said nothing as April lost herself in the quagmire of her thoughts. Then, when April had genuinely forgotten her best friend and business partner was there, so sunk into her pity party that the club could have emptied and she pretty much wouldn’t have realized, Sarah murmured, “Maybe you need to get away for awhile.”
April jolted in surprise at her friend’s voice. “Get away?” She squinted. “Why? I haven’t done anything wrong.” She wasn’t the one cheating on her spouse. Breaking her kid’s heart.
She’d been a party to it. Totally unwillingly. That didn’t mean she had to hide away like she was the one who ought to be ashamed of herself.
Sarah rolled her eyes, and the gesture, so Sarah, defused April’s temper. “Never said you had, sweetie. Just meant, a bit of a break might do you some good.”
April pondered that, then after a few seconds, shook her head. Her brain wasn’t working that great, but she was too much of a professional to know what Sarah was saying was possible. “I can’t. We’re too busy.”
Together, she and Sarah managed a very successful majordomo service.
Where the rich and famous could come to them to have their every whim catered for.
Be it a housekeeping service to keep the Hollywood Hills mansion in tip top condition or to clear up the disastrous aftermath after a launch party, they provided the staff to make things right once more. They had butlers on call, had so many contacts that would help them arrange travel bookings for clients as well as magic up a selection of engagement rings at a moment’s notice…
They were a one stop shop for the rich and famous.
And only last week, they’d signed on Percussion. One of the country’s biggest record companies.