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“Does he?”
“I’ve known Treyton since he was nineteen. When I say he does, he does.”
“Okay.” I nod, feeling weirdly intimidated by Kat. I mean, she’s nice enough, but she’s very blunt and matter of fact, in a way that makes me feel a little scared of her.
“Come on, let’s get you a drink.” Without a word she heads toward the bar, slipping into one of the vacant stools. Not feeling like I have much of a choice, I take the one next to her, setting my clutch purse on the bar in front of me.
“Do you ever get used to this kind of thing?” I ask, mainly just to fill the lull as we wait for the bartender.
“What, this?” She gestures around the room and I nod. “Yes and no.” She smiles. “But it does get easier with time.”
“I take it you’ve been to a lot of these things over the years?”
“That would be an accurate statement, yes.” She turns her attention to the bartender that approaches. “Glass of Merlot.” She looks toward me.
“Same.”
The bartender nods, retrieving two wine glasses from under the bar before making quick work of pouring our drinks, sliding each of us a glass before leaving to wait on the next person.
I lift the glass to my lips, taking a long drink in hopes of dulling some of the nerves swimming in my belly, swiveling my stool so that the room is at my front rather than my back. Kat wordlessly does the same and for a moment, the two of us sit side by side watching the scene in front of us.
I recognize two pretty well-known actors, one model, and two singers, but most everyone else I’ve never seen before. I assume this is how most of these things go. You have your stars, and then everyone else. The people who actually do most of the work that no one knows because their faces aren’t plastered across the big screen the way the actors are.
It feels surreal being here, but not because I’m starstruck. In reality, given the company I find myself in, I’m weirdly calm. It’s being here with Treyton that sets me on edge. Because even though I tell myself it doesn’t matter, I worry what his peers will think of me.
I scour the room for Treyton, finally spotting him standing in the far corner talking with an older gentleman with silver hair.
“I take it that’s Jackson O’Hare.” I tip my chin in their direction.
“It is.” I glance toward Kat to see she’s also looking in the same direction. “And that…” she snarls, prompting my eyes to go back toward Treyton to see a slender woman with chin length blonde hair slide up next to him.
“Brandy Hill,” we both say in unison.
“Trey has told you about her?” I feel her eyes on the side of my face but I keep mine glued to the former couple, heat splintering down my spine when I watch her slip her arm around his waist as she too, speaks to Jackson.
“He has.” I smile to myself as I watch him politely remove her arm, his attention still on the older man in front of him.
“So you know what happened?”
“I do.” I nod.
“Interesting.”
“Why is that interesting?”
“He never talks about her, ever.”
I watch them for a long moment. Watch the way she smiles at him. Watch the way he barely even looks at her. And while I should be overjoyed by seeing his reaction to his ex, a tiny part of me wonders if he’s only doing it to spite her, and not for any other reason.
The trio is interrupted by an older woman, perhaps Jackson’s wife. I watch him shake Treyton’s hand then kiss the back of Brandy’s before following the woman, both of which I lose sight of pretty quickly as they disappear into the crowd.
My stomach twists again as I watch Treyton finally acknowledge Brandy. The two share a brief conversation, and when they both look my way, I quickly look at Kat, my skin suddenly heating as if being pushed into a burning room with no way out.
“To be fair, I kind of pried,” I admit, my voice breaking.
“Even still, if you were anyone else, he never would have shared that information.”
“What do you mean, if I were anyone else?” I keep my eyes firmly locked on Kat, uneasiness churning in my stomach.
