Relief washes over his features and he slips his hand in mine. “Good to meet you.” He nods and squeezes my hand in what I take as thanks for playing along.
Then I turn to my brother. “And you can drop the baby part of the introduction when you introduce me to your girlfriend.” I draw out the word girlfriend the way a kid might if they were teasing.
Finn rolls his eyes. When we hear the clicking of heels on the wood floor, we all turn in that direction.
Emerging from the kitchen is a beautiful black goddess. That’s the only word I can think of to describe her. Her hair is short and pinned at the sides to make a sort of faux-hawk, and her deep-umber skin sets off her amber eyes and red lips that match the red silk jumpsuit she’s wearing. She’s gorgeous and I suddenly feel like a complete frump in the long-sleeve cotton tee and jeans I’m wearing.
“Speaking of…” Finn holds his arm out to welcome her to his side, and she moves into the space, locking herself there as though they’re magnets. “Zahra, this is my sister, Mac.”
“It’s wonderful to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.” She smiles wide and there’s nothing fake about it. It’s welcoming and honest and sets me at ease that the two of us can find a connection despite her glamorous appearance.
I glance at my brother with a look I know he’ll interpret correctly—I wish I could say the same, but I only found out about her a few weeks ago—then smile at Zahra. “It’s really great to finally meet you. Finn has been keeping you all to himself except for the fact that you’re gorgeous, which you are.”
My brother relaxes. That’s right, big bro, I can throw some brownie points your way.
Zahra sets her hand on his chest. “Well, that’s always nice to hear.”
“Let me take your coat for you.”
I remove my jacket and my brother takes it while I hand the bottle of white wine to Zahra.
“I’ll go put this in the spare bedroom,” Finn says with my coat in his hand.
“And I’ll go pour you a glass of this.” Zahra raises the wine bottle then heads into the kitchen, leaving Andrew and me alone.
“What are you doing here?” I whisper with a little more agitation in my voice than I intend.
“Your brother invited me.” He’s still acting cool toward me, for whatever reason.
“A little heads-up would have been nice.”
My brother returns from down the hall, preventing Andrew from answering. “Oh good, you two are getting to know each other. Let’s go sit.”
Finn leads us into his living room, that is exactly what you’d expect from a single Manhattan lawyer in his midthirties—black leather, chrome, giant flat-screen TV. I take a seat on one of the chairs facing the couch, and Andrew sits on the couch on the end farthest from me, while my brother sits on the end closest to me. Zahra returns with my wine in hand and passes it to me.
“Thank you.” I realize they must have been already sitting in these spots when Zahra sits between them and leans forward for her own glass of wine on the glass coffee table in front of her.
“When are you expecting Mom and Dad?” I ask Finn.
“Not until closer to dinner. They had some friends in the city they were stopping to see first.”
I nod and sip my wine, knowing I’m going to need to be tipsy at the very least to get through tonight. There are so many dynamics at play here that it’s hard to keep track.
“How’s work?” Finn asks.
My gaze flicks to Andrew, but when I find his eyes intently on me, I look back at my brother. “It’s good. Busy of course, because of the holidays coming up.”
“Finn said you do event planning?” Zahra says.
I nod. “It’s my own company, and I have a grand total of one employee.” I smile and thumb my chest. “But I love it. I contract out most of the work for an event, so I don’t really need anyone else at this point, but if I continue to grow, I can see bringing on an assistant or something. Someone to make follow-up calls, do the paperwork and billing.”
Zahra smiles. “You’ll have to give me a card before you leave. With the nature of my business, I have all kinds of people coming to the restaurants we work with for events. I can pass your name on, and maybe you can refer some of your clients to check out our spaces for their events, if you think it could work.”
I beam. “That would be great.”
My brother gives Zahra a chaste kiss.
Oh boy, he’s a goner. I can tell just from the way he’s looking at her all doe eyed.