“That didn’t look like feuding. It looked like flirting.”
I sigh and set my glass down. “We were just talking, that’s all.”
“Are you into this guy? Tell me the truth.” Her brown eyes are sharp on mine.
“Tessa,no. No.” I add a third one for good measure. “Nope.”
She narrows her eyes. Apparently denials in triplicate are unconvincing. “He’s beenawfulto you.”
I squirm in my seat. I feel like I’m under cross-examination. “Hewasawful, at first. But he apologized, and I accepted it.”
She looks unimpressed.
“Look, I don’t need to make enemies of the people I’m supposed to be working with. It’s unprofessional, and it certainly isn’t going to help me get this bill passed. It was time to bury the hatchet.”
As I state my case, I track Ben out of the corner of my eye. He’s chatting with a couple of women as he waits to order food, and they’re hanging on his every word, preening and tossing their hair, laughing too hard at his (likely subpar) jokes. I roll my eyes; the mating call of females is so transparent. When I swing my gaze back to Tessa, she’s watching me intently.
“See? He’s over there picking up chicks right now. Plus, I think he’s dating that girl we saw him with in the elevator.” I flash back to Corinne’s crypticamong other thingscomment and shudder.
Tessa sits back and folds her arms. “I feel the need to remind you of what happened to Shannon.”
I groan. “I don’t need to hear about Shannon.”
She continues like I haven’t spoken. “She started dating that guy in Representative Stark’s office even though we all knew it was a bad idea. ‘He’s different,’ she said. ‘It’ll be fine,’ she said. And what happened to her?”
“She got fired,” I answer dutifully.
“Fired for leaking him confidential information! And what happened tohim?”
“Nothing.”
She pounds her fist on the table. “Nothing! And after all that, did their relationship even work out?”
“It did not.”
“No! He cheated on her with some intern from Stark’s reelection campaign. Meanwhile, her career has never recovered.” She leans back again, her expression troubled. “You need to be careful.”
I laugh, but there’s an edge to it. “I can see you’re trying to protect me and I appreciate that, but there’s no need. Ben is just a work colleague. It is purely a business relationship. In fact, it’s not even that, since he’s made it crystal clear that his boss will never support our bill.”
Her eyes soften as she leans in, placing a hand over mine. “I’m sorry if I’m being harsh. And trust me, I get what you’d see in him, okay? I have eyes. It’s just, I know the kind of guy you’re looking for. You want something long-term, like what Luke and I have. And I want thatforyou.”
“I know you do.” I think I know what’ll get her off my back. “How about this. To prove I’mnotinto Ben, I will let you set up a profile for me on Donk—on LeftField.”
She gasps. “You will?” She clutches my arm, Ben all but forgotten. “Yay! I think it’ll besogreat for you, Kate. I’ll help you screen the guys. I’ll find you someoneamazing!”
By the time Ben makes it back ten minutes later, I’m pretty subdued. When he slides me a fresh glass of wine across the table, I can’t hide my surprise.
“Thank you,” I say, meaning it. Maybe there’s hope for him yet.
I listen quietly as Ben and Luke swap stories of life on the field or diamond or whatever the heck Ball on the Mall is referring to—frankly, it sounds less like a sporting event and more like one long argument over who has the best team name: Nasty Pitches versus Fake Boos versus Master Debaters. When our food arrives—wings, nachos, and sliders—a collective cheer goes up from the group, and Ben and I swap nonplussed looks. So much for our dinner.
As we listen to Luke and Tessa perform an elaborate retelling of their engagement story, one of the women Ben was chatting with at the bar sidles up, smiling flirtatiously as she slips him a piece of paper. He smiles back politely as he slides it into his pocket without looking at it.
Seriously?
He catches me watching and smirks. I wrinkle my nose in distaste.
As soon as everyone breaks into side conversations, I nod at him. “Aren’t you going to see what it says?”
