“Better now that I’m looking at you.” She smooths one eyebrow with her left ring finger. Her bare ring finger, making it obvious she’s unattached. “Actually, I was looking for you. I thought we could bail on this whole affair and go somewhere more private.”
I blink. Forget Cinderella with her arms full of her stepsisters’ mending, I feel more like I’m sitting in a pile of stringy pumpkin innards.
She turns and smiles a very stepsister-like smile. “Could you be a doll and find a quiet corner for Benji and me?” To him she says, “I noticed you didn’t bring a date. It’s like we both knew.”
Oh no she didn’t. I’m fairly sure my face is turning the same color as my dress. Even my ears are hot. I’m not sure where to start, but telling her to go to hell crosses my mind. I tried to compartmentalize. This is too much.
Before I can speak, or explode, Benji wraps his arm around my waist. Unlike with Marla, his palm slides around my hip and he tucks me against him.
“My quiet time is spoken for. I have a date tonight. You’re looking at her. It should have been obvious I’d be with the most beautiful woman in the room.”
I’m not sure which of us you could knock over with a feather but judging by Marla’s expression, and a strange effervescent sensation in my chest, maybe both of us.
“Oh.” Her smile twists into something less lecherous but more sinister. “I had no idea you were seeing each other.”
“It’s an honest mistake. We’re finding our way, aren’t we, Firecracker?” He hugs me close, and the nickname has me taking my finger off the red button. Marla shall live to see another sunrise.
“We are,” I tell him, soaking in the warm intent lurking in his eyes.
“That’s… How great for you. Both.” Marla sounds a bit breathless. I know I shouldn’t delight in shocking her but, well… Is a little delighting too much to ask for? “You two have fun tonight. The dress ended up being lovely.”
By the time she walks away, I feel the weight of Benji’s gaze on the side of my head. It’s not hard to guess what he’s thinking.
“What did she mean by ‘ended up’?” he asks and then answers himself correctly. “You bumped into her earlier.”
“In the elevator before I met you at our suite door.”
He nods slowly, maybe coming to the correct conclusion that she was the reason I considered returning the dress in the first place. Or maybe not coming to any conclusion at all.
“Let’s take our seats and find out what bizarre, minuscule exotic foods we’ll be served tonight.” Arm snuggly at my waist, he leads me across the room to a table teeming with Owens. Lainey and William, Nate and Vivian (she’s not an Owen yet, but close enough), and Archer, whose attention is on the other side of the room. As I take my seat, I casually look over my shoulder and notice that, surprise, surprise, he’s checking out a certain long-haired woman wearing a loosely knotted tie.
Talia flips her hair and doesn’t look over, but I can tell she knows he’s looking.