I nodded. I’d had too much already and she definitely didn’t need any more. “Drink enough on the way over?”
She studied me again, like she was sure I was judging her. “How much have you had to drink tonight? Or was it just this one?”
“Would it matter if I had more?”
“I happen to think you didn’t have much at all.”
“Why not?”
“Because, like I said, you seem older. Wiser.”
“Morina, don’t you know that just means I could show you a thing or two?”
She stared at me for about five seconds before answering. She took in my suit again, my shoes, probably even my hair before she mumbled to hell with it. “I’m kind of in the mood to see if you can really do that.”
“Meaning what?”
She sighed. “It means, I want to get out of here with you. This isn’t my scene. This”–she waved in front of me and then around the room–“isn’t really living. It’s a boring second to a lot of what the world has to offer. Linny of all people should know that. She’s a travel blogger, you know.”
“Linny is also a woman in love. That seems to trump a lot of things to most people.”
She looked her friend’s way and winced. “Right and I hope it works out. But I’m not here for love. Just a good time and maybe to forget life a little.”
I wouldn’t tell her that I hoped it didn’t work out, that Chet wasn’t a man to be associated with, that I wouldn’t really be associated with him after this deal, whether I closed it tonight or tomorrow.
It wasn’t my place. I was getting out of this town and moving on to tie up the rest of the deals in the state.
She sighed and turned back to her glass. “Maybe I do need a drink to pass the time.”
She was so damn bored.
And she’d lumped me into the boring category with the rest of this club where people thought they were somebody.
Truth be told, I was bored too.
Bored with my life and the fact that I was probably living the same damn life my father had before he died. Sure, I was trying to clean up the dirty businesses he’d invested in and make a better name for the family, but maneuvering numbers and partnerships wasn’t of interest to most.
It wasn’t even of interest to me.
“Do you think Dante knows signs?” she asked quietly, probably more to herself than me.
“He knows just a little of everything.” My friend and security traveled the world, claimed it centered him.
I needed centering too but I didn’t really believe in any of the bullshit that came with deep breathing and yoga and star signs.
“How did you two meet?” she asked, like I was going to sit there and give her tips on how to date my friend.
“We’ve known each other since birth. Our families are distantly related.”
“Huh.” She narrowed her eyes at me and scanned my body. “I don’t really see it.”
“See what?”
“You’re so…” She waved at me like it was obvious. “Unapproachable and… broody, maybe?”
He rubbed at his strong jaw and stared at me like he was trying to figure out how I saw that in him. “I’m neither of those things.”
“In your line of work do people come up to you and talk like they aren’t scared of you?”