“What does she do?” Matthew asks.
“She’s a rocket scientist.”
“You’re fucking with us.” Jack voices what all three of us are thinking.
“Afraid not. Delores is a chemist. One of her clients is NASA. Her lab works on improving the efficiency of the fuel they use in the space shuttles.” She shudders. “Dee-Dee Warren with access to highly explosive substances…it’s something I try to not think about every day.”
After a beat, Matthew speaks up. “Brooks, you’ve got to hook me up. I’m a nice guy. Let me take your friend out. She won’t regret it.”
Kate thinks a moment. “Okay. Sure. You seem like Dee’s type.” She hands him a business card. “But I have to warn you. She’s the love-’em-and-leave-’em-with-bruises type of girl. If you’re looking for a good time for a night or two, then definitely call her. If you’re looking for anything deeper than that, I’d stay away.”
We’re speechless. And then Matthew rises from the table, walks up to Kate and kisses her on the cheek. I suddenly have the urge to put my hand down his throat and rip his tonsils out.
Is that wrong?
“You…are my new best friend,” he tells her.
Kate misreads the scowl on my face. “Don’t pout, Drew. It’s not my fault your friends like me better than you.”
She means Steven too. A few days ago, he was frantically trying to find the perfect place to take The Bitch for their wedding anniversary. Apparently, Kate’s neighbor is the maître d’ at Chez, the most exclusive restaurant in the city. She was able to get him a table for that evening.
Alexandra must have done things to Steven that night that I don’t even want to contemplate. Because ever since, Steven Reinhart would happily take a bullet to the chest for Kate Brooks.
“It’s the boobs,” I tell her. “If I had a set like yours, they’d like me better too.”
A few weeks ago, that comment would have pissed her off. Now she just shakes her head and laughs.
The night before Thanksgiving is officially the biggest bar night of the year. Everyone goes out. Everyone is looking for a good time. Usually, Matthew, Jack, and I start the night at my father’s day-before-Thanksgiving office party and work our way out to the clubs afterward. It’s tradition.
So you can imagine my surprise when I enter the large conference room and see Matthew’s arm around the woman who I can only assume is his date for the evening-Delores Warren. Since he met her two and a half weeks ago, Matthew’s been MIA on the weekends, and I’m starting to suspect why. I’ll have to talk to him tomorrow.
Beside them are my father and Kate.
And for the second time in my life, Kate Brooks leaves me breathless. She’s wearing a deep burgundy dress that hugs her in all the right places and strappy heeled shoes that send my imagination spinning into X-rated territory. Her hair falls around her shoulders in soft shining waves. My hand twitches to touch it as I walk toward her.
Then someone in the middle of the room moves-and I see that she’s not alone.
Fuck me.
Everyone brings their significant others to these kinds of things. I shouldn’t be surprised that the dickwad is here. He pulls at the tie of his suit like a frigging ten-year-old, obviously uncomfortable in it. Pussy.
I button the jacket of my own perfectly tailored Armani and make my way over.
“Drew!” my father greets me. Though things between him and me had been tense for a few days, they’d quickly gone back to normal. He never can stay pissed at me for long.
Look at this face. Could you?
“I was just telling Mr. Warren,” he says, “about that deal Kate closed last week. How lucky we are to have her.”
Have her? The word lucky doesn’t even come close.
“It’s all an act,” Delores teases. “Beneath her corporate suit and that good-girl persona beats the heart of a true rebel. I could tell you stories about Katie that would put hair on your eyeballs.”
Kate turns stern eyes on her friend. “Thank you, Dee. Please don’t.”
Cum Stain smiles, puts his arm around Kate’s waist, and rests his lips on the top of her head.
I need a drink. Or a punching bag. Now.
Words fly out of my mouth like well-aimed bullets: “That’s right. You were quite the little delinquent back in the day, weren’t you Kate? Dad, did you know she used to sing in a band? That’s how you supported yourself through business school, right? Guess it beats pole dancing.”
She chokes on her drink. Gentleman that I am, I hand her a napkin.
“And Billy here, that’s what he still does. You’re a musician, right?”
He looks at me like I’m a pile of dog crap that he just stepped in. “That’s right.”
“So, tell us Billy, are you like a Bret Michaels kind of rocker? Or more of a Vanilla Ice?” See how his jaw clenches? How his eyes narrow? Bring it, Monkey Boy. Please.
“Neither.”
“Why don’t you grab your accordion, or whatever you play, and pop up on stage? There’s a lot of money floating around this room. Maybe you could book a wedding. Or a bar mitzvah.”
Almost there.
“I don’t play those types of venues.”
This should do it.
“Wow. In this economy, I didn’t think the poor and jobless could be so picky.”
“Listen, you piece of-“
“Billy, honey, could you get me another drink from the bar? I’m almost done with this one.” Kate pulls on his arm, cutting off what I’m sure would have been a brilliant retort.
Are you feeling the sarcasm?
And then she turns toward me, and she doesn’t sound nearly as friendly. “Drew, I just remembered I have some documents to give you about the Genesis account. They’re in my office. Let’s go.”
I don’t move. I don’t answer her. My eyes are still locked in a staring contest with Shit For Brains.
“It’s a party, Kate,” my father says, clueless. “You should save the work for Monday.”
“It’ll just take a minute,” she tells him with a smile-before grabbing my arm and dragging me away.
Once we’re in her office, Kate slams the door behind us. I straighten my sleeves, then smile benevolently. “If you wanted to be alone with me that badly, all you had to do was ask.”
She doesn’t appreciate my humor. “What are you doing, Drew?”
“Doing?”
“Why are you insulting Billy? Do you know how hard it was for me to get him to come here tonight?”
Poor Billy. Stuck in a room with the big bad successful bankers.
“Then why did you frigging bring him?”
“He’s my fiancé.”
“He’s an asshole.”
She looks up sharply. “Billy and I have been through a lot together. You don’t know him.”
“I know he’s not good enough for you. Not by a long shot.”
“Please stop trying to embarrass him.”
“I was just pointing out the facts. If the truth embarrasses your boyfriend, then that’s his problem, not mine.”
“Is this a jealously thing?”
For the record? I have never been jealous a day in my life. Just because when I see them together I can’t decide if I want to puke or punch his fucking lights out-she calls that jealousy?
“Don’t flatter yourself.”
“I know you have this thing for me, but-“
Wait one goddamn minute. Let’s back the fuck up, shall we?
“I have a thing for you? I’m sorry, was it my hand grabbing your crotch in my office a couple months back? Because I remember it the other way around.”
And now she’s pissed. “You’re such a bastard sometimes.”
“Well, then we’re a perfect fit, ’cause you’re a first-class bitch most of the time.”
Fire dances in her eyes as she raises her half-filled glass.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.