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With a deep breath, I surveyed the room before me.
Over one hundred people had showed up to a dinner to celebrate my fiancé’s new position running Roe Real Estate West Coast. It was the first work event I’d been to with him, and I was terrified. I didn’t know a soul outside of Jason’s parents.
The dinner was extremely fancy. Or, more so, it was a gala. Everything was so over-the-top for truly no reason at all except Jason could afford it.
Wecould afford it.
Jason hated when I called it his money, but at the end of the day, it was his. He was the extremely successful businessman, and I was the junior editor his mother had met two years earlier then introduced to her son.
A whirlwind romance set up by Marie.
True, we’d only been dating for a year and a half, but it felt like longer.
“Cucumber bites?” a woman asked, shoving a tray in my face with literally just pieces of cucumber sprinkled with paprika.
My nose obviously wrinkled up. “No, I’m good.”
The problem with galas was the lack of food and the abundance of liquor. Everyone around me was drinking, except for me. But I was a big believer in using carbohydrates to soak up the alcohol sitting in my gut, and I was sure some of those individuals could’ve benefited from a bread bowl or two.
Cocktails and truffle fries.
Whiskey and pizza.
Beer and cheese fries.
Oh, my gosh…
Did I mention fries? What I wouldn’t have given for a big plate of french fries right then, but none of that was on the menu at The Lily that night. There was hardly any food to be found, just overpriced bite-sized appetizers.
Maybe that was how rich people stayed rich—they didn’t eat, so no need to spend money on food.
Two hands landed on my hips, and my body melted into the touch. I knew it was him before he even spoke. Jason always smelled like smoky rosewood dipped in sex appeal. I turned to face him, and my heart skipped a few beats when I found his frown, which in turn made me frown.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Your hermit crab vibes are strong tonight,” he whispered, leaning into me. “People are talking, saying you seem uppity.”
“Sorry. My brain’s shutting down. I can’t survive on air.” I placed my hands against his chest and gave him my best puppy dog eyes. “Can we just ditch and find some real food?”
Before he could reply, a woman with a tray of some kind of raw meat walked over to us. “Would you like one?” she asked.
“Sure, after you cook it,” I replied.
Jason laughed, but it wasn’t his amused laughter. It was his annoyed laugh. He said no thank you to the person before turning back to me. “You’re so extreme, Aaliyah.”
He wasn’t wrong. At times, I could be dramatic. “Other than the lack of food, everything else is pretty great, yeah? The event turned out well. I’m so proud of you.”
Jason smiled. “Yeah, if only you’d actually talk to some people other than me.”
“I’ve talked to your parents all night long!”
“I think we both know that doesn’t count as putting yourself out there. Aaliyah…you have to talk to people.” Jason sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was tired. How could he not be? Lately, Jason’s default mode was tired. He’d been working nonstop for the past few months trying to get the real estate company running in Los Angeles. He was beyond stressed, and I wasn’t certain I’d fully understand the answer if I asked him what all his job entailed. All I knew was that he was always busy. Therefore, that meant early mornings and late nights. Early-bird flights and redeyes. Intensely brewed coffee and painfully strong whiskey.
I worried about him sometimes. I worried about the burnout all great businessmen experienced. Still, he always told me he was fine, even on the days it was clear he wasn’t.
Fun, free-spirited Jason hardly came out to play lately, and I was somewhat kicking myself for not latching on tighter when I felt it slipping away. When we had first started dating, he’d been so energized and full of life. Yet after we moved in together, it felt as if I was living with a stranger. He was short with me a lot but then he would apologize, saying it was due to his workload.
“You know how I feel about socializing,” I explained, fiddling with my fingers.
