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Two of the valets approach. “Everything okay here?”
Derek backs up. “Nah, I’m leaving.”
I turn to go inside when one of the valets stops me. “Do we need to worry about him?”
“I doubt he’ll come back. But let me know if he does.”
Back inside the ballroom, I stick to the walls, making myself as unobtrusive as possible while I head to the bar. I need a fucking drink.
I know I shouldn’t give Derek’s words any thought, but they’re picking at the doubt I’ve been feeling since Frankie walked away from my apartment last weekend. I put myself out there, told her I wanted this to be real. Once again diving all in and being rejected. How many more times will I put myself through this before realizing the common denominator in all this is me? I’m the problem.
I order a beer and make my way around the perimeter of the room, stopping when I see Frankie, Sophie, and Lauren sitting at a table not far away. I slide along the wall, parking myself in an alcove a few feet away, where I can make out their conversation.
“…once they put the idea in my head, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. If I had a date, he would leave me alone, right?”
“That is actually a pretty solid plan,” Lauren points out.
“I thought so. But then Derek caught us coming back from lunch the day we agreed to it, and he was being a dick—”
A chorus of snorts at the table tempts me to peer around the corner, but I stay where I am.
“Anyway, it just kind of escalated from there. Derek was a dick, Julian did his protective thing…” She fades off into something too quiet for me to hear. Dammit, what did I do? Was it good or bad, that’s all I need to know.
“Girl, I would have dropped to my knees for him right there and then.” Lauren’s laugh and Frankie’s shushing have me smiling. Okay, I guess it wasn’t bad then.
Something muffles Lauren’s voice before Sophie speaks up. “What about the movies? Emma was convinced you guys were dating. Granted, she’s still talking about how cute Derek is—ugh.”
“A series of unfortunate coincidences.” Frankie’s sigh is audible even over here. “Emma and Liam arranged to bump into each other, which meant that Julian and I ran into each other…”
The DJ comes over the mic, drowning out their conversation. I growl under my breath. Who cares about the fucking “Cupid Shuffle”? He just keeps talking, and I grow more and more impatient, desperate to hear the story from Frankie’s side.
I know how I feel. It started the moment she made extra space for me in the movie. That little thing, that tiny bit of unasked for consideration. That’s the moment I started falling for her.
There’s no way for me to get any closer without them seeing me, so I grit my teeth and pray that this stupid song finishes before they finish talking. Snippets of their conversation float my way above the music, unfortunately they only make it worse.
“…I was so mad. Who does that?”
“But why did he…?”
“I don’t know how you…”
“…hates me!” The song ends and moves on to something slow, Frankie’s last words finally audible again.
“Hates you? Girl, you are crazy. He does not hate you.”
“Did you see the way he looked at me tonight?”
“You mean like he wanted to throw you over his shoulder and spank you? Fuck yes. It’s so hot.” Lauren’s voice drips with envy, and even though her observation makes me want to squirm, she’s not wrong. I did want to throw Frankie over my shoulder and smack her ass.
“Are you and I looking at the same man? That’s not how he usually looks at me. Tonight he looked, I don’t know. Mad?”
“How does he usually look at you?” Sophie asks. I lean close, curious.
“Like he wants to pat me on the head and call me a good girl.”
Lauren makes a strangled sound, and I worry I may have to go do the Heimlich. “Good girl? Soph…uhhhhhh. Jesus Christ, Frankie, how are you not fucking that man every second of the day? Do you even bother wearing underwear? Because I wouldn’t. Give that man access when—” She’s cut off again with a gurgling noise. I chuckle to myself and my dick gives a little twitch at the idea of Frankie letting me have her whenever we wanted.
She never would—my girl is too nervous for that. But a man can dream, right?
