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“Let’s go out!” Annie says once she and Bella have their shoes back on. She finishes her glass of wine.
I’m surprised. Other than one night when my dad overserved her Frangelico after dinner, I’ve never seen Annie drunk. Even that night, it made her more like a tired cat than a party animal. Then again, once Annie entered the picture, Enzo and I stopped going out to clubs like we used to do.
“Yeah, I think I’m going home. Long day,” Bella says.
Annie sticks out her bottom lip in a two-year-old pout. “Come on.”
“Babe, it’s Tuesday night, there’s nothing good open,” Enzo says.
I keep my mouth shut because I know there are good clubs open. He knows there are good clubs open so he’s obviously looking for an excuse not to go. Glancing at my watch, I see that it’s only nine.
She falls into Enzo, giving him the eyes. I’ve seen them before. Specifically, any time he’s putting up a fight against her. They work, and it scares the shit out of me because I’m a pleaser by nature. A helluva lot more than Enzo ever was. Which means that if I ever let myself fall for someone like my brother has, she could make me do things I don’t really want to do.
“You’re going to complain tomorrow when the alarm goes off,” he says, but the fight in his voice is gone.
See what I mean? It’s crazy.
“Yay!” Annie claps and sets her sights on Bella.
“No. No.” Bella puts up her hands. “I am not a night owl, and I have an early meeting tomorrow.”
I cross my arms and wait. Annie is a convincer. She just persuaded Ma and Pa to go on vacation to the Caribbean this summer. We all chipped in for their anniversary. Enzo, Dom, and I thought we would rock, paper, scissors on who got to take the trip after Ma refused. But instead of saying no, they accepted the trip after Annie had a chat with them. Imagine two old Italian people on a white beach, fully clothed and criticizing the food, without a kitchen of their own.
“Carm?” Annie says, drawing my attention back to the conversation.
“What Bella said. I’m not into being a third wheel.”
“Perfect. I’ll cover the bill.” Annie steps away.
Enzo places his hand on Annie’s arm to stop her. “I’ve got it.”
“So where should we go?” Annie smiles at me.
I glance at Bella. “You agreed?” My tone is accusatory, and the scowl Bella gives in return says she’s not happy about it.
Bella looks behind her. “Is there some knockout behind me who distracted you from our conversation?”
I grin. “Jealous?”
“You wish.”
Annie’s head swivels back and forth between us as though we’re entertainment. With the amount of wine she’s drunk, she’s bound to get nauseated.
“Maybe I do.” I raise an eyebrow, challenging her.
Bella rolls her eyes.
A stream of people come by to say goodbye and thank Annie for organizing the night. Justin lingers. My assumption is that he wants to talk to me but doesn’t want to do it in front of the enemy.
I step away from everyone else. “What’s up?”
“I wanted to let you know that Mr. Throttle’s assistant messaged me this evening and wants to meet you for brunch at The Cobbler at ten thirty tomorrow.” He cringes because Throttle is moving up our meeting.
I shrug. “Okay.”
“Do you want me to text you in the morning?” He has his phone out, ready to set a reminder.
It’s taken me two years to train Justin into the assistant I need him to be, and I can sense his itch to move on. Having him has allowed me to have a social life for the past year. Not the social life of a normal twenty-eight-year-old, but I get out a lot more than I did before he was around. Pretty soon I’ll have no choice but to promote him.
