“Olivia!” Marv called out as we neared the group. A tall, thin, blonde woman turned towardsus.
“Marvin?” The tone of her voice was tight and nasally. “How lovely to see you!” Her lips stretched across her face. She took one look at me and the smile dipped into a grimace. “Who do we havehere?”
“This is my girlfriend, Harley.” Marv introduced me with a wave of his hand before asking about the woman’s business and her sons. She shot irritated glances at me throughout the entire conversation for reasons I could not understand. After several minutes of monotonous dialogue where Marv introduced me to Olivia’s associates, and they tipped their noses at me, only nodding my way in acknowledgement, I was ready togo.
“Alright, well, we’ve taken up too much of your time, Olivia. It really was good to see you. I think Harley and I will make the rounds before headingout.”
As we turned, my heels caught on the floor and I stumbled. Marv’s hands grasped me around the shoulders and my free hand went out to catch the table nearby. I set the glass down a bit harder than I meant to. But Olivia was so focused on my misstep, smirking and whispering to her friends that she wasn’t paying attention to the glass that I left behind. I almost hoped the boys caught her doing or saying something she shouldn’t. I had the feeling she wasn’t a very nicelady.
“Are you okay?” Marvasked.
“Perfectly fine.” I smiled, feeling accomplished. “Let’s go make those rounds. I’m ready to get out ofhere.”
No matter how ready I was to go home and crawl into bed, Knix had us drop two more glasses around the room where certain groups were congregating. I pushed back more than a few yawns as it grew closer and closer to midnight. We were standing near one of the windows arching over the left side of the ballroom, Marv rubbing the middle of my back, and I was attempting not to fall asleep right there in his arms – rich people parties were quite boring – when a familiar sounding voice barked out a laugh to ourright.
“I would have never guessed it!” Golden locks brushed the back of his neck and his smile was the sincerest one of his little posse. He looked so familiar. Blue eyes. Tan skin. Where had I seen himbefore?
My eyes settled on Grayson, standing just to his side and I realized that I had never met this boy before. Grayson looked strangely odd dressed up, but not in a way that detracted from his handsome features. The top button of his dress shirt was undone and he wore no tie. The boy at his side was obviously related to him, probably closely –a brother?I thought. Standing side by side, they could have been twins. The other boy, however, was just a smidge shorter, with hips more slender and narrow than Grayson’s. His face was rounder as well, his chin dimpled. Grayson watched him with a hint ofboredom.
“Josh,” Grayson muttered, pulling the other boy closer. “I think you’ve had enough. It’s time toleave.”
“Nonsense!” Josh said, slinging Grayson’s arm away. “We’re just getting started.” Josh moved away from Grayson and slung an arm around a younger girl with plump, rosy cheeks. “I think we should head to one of the clubs after this. Go have us a real party, get some fun in before the night’sover!”
“That’s his older brother,” Marv whispered, confirming my suspicions. “Joshua Caruso. Twenty-five, lives off of his father’s money. The parents split two years ago. Grayson lives with the mother.” It seemed likely that Knix had ordered Texas to look up all sorts of information about Grayson and while a part of me felt a little bad that they all thought Grayson was not to be trusted, I was actually grateful for the information. I wanted to know more. Like why was Grayson babysitting his older brother at his father’s companyfunction?
Marv tilted his head in the other direction and I suspected either Knix or Texas was telling him something. He slowly straightened and moved around me as though to block me from view, nudging me towards thedoorway.
“Time to go,” hesaid.
“What’s going on?” Did Grayson spot us? Did someone start checking out the glasses we had been placing all over the ballroom? Were we in trouble? My mind raced with all of the horrible things that could have gone wrong. I was sure I had messed up somewhere. I thought I had been so clever, but maybe I was just foolish. My ego took a dive and my heart beat an impatient rhythm to know what I haddone.
“Nothing,” Marv said. “We’re just done. I’m tired. You’re tired. Let’s go get some sleep and regrouptomorrow.”
I could have pummeled him. That was it? He had put on that serious face and I let my thoughts jump to all sorts of confusion because of it. I imagined that Knix had told him we had done enough, and the moment he had been given the go ahead, he was rushing me out. I huffed in irritation as he led me out into the hallway and back towards the lobby. The same valet waited just outside in the hot summer air, a bead of sweat trickling down the side of hisneck.
“Give me just a few moments, sir.” He smiled, revealing a row of slightly crooked teeth. It made him appear younger and rather charming. “I’ll be right back with your vehicle.” Marv nodded, and the young man strodeaway.
Cars drove past the front of the hotel and couples walked by, hand in hand. The lights from the buildings blocked out the stars and no matter how hard I squinted at the sky, I couldn’t see them. Marv bumped my elbow withhis.
“What did youthink?”
“About what?” My hand dropped to sift through the layers of fabric around mythighs.
“Theparty?”
“It was…” How did I put it nicely? “Intense,” I finally decided on. “Not really what Iexpected.”
“What did you expect?” Marv leaned against the side of the building, crossing his arms over his chest with an interestedsmile.
“I don’t really know,” I admitted. “But it’s not really my scene. Ifelt…”
“Different?” he supplied as I trailed off. I blushed, looking at the ground. He wasn’t wrong. “Yea, I get that. I’m not really a fan of the parties myself. You did a good job tonight, though, with thejob.”
I lurched, my head rising, my eyes glancing around. “Are we supposed to talk about that outhere?”
He shrugged. “No one’saround.”
Lights flashed and Marv’s dark BMW stopped in front of us. The young man stepped out of the vehicle and made his way around to open the door for me. I smiled and thanked him as Marv handed him a bill that made his eyeswiden.