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“You look ravishing tonight, Elliott,” Delaney said before kissing him on the cheek.
“Me? I do?” He seemed surprised at her choice of words. “I might say that of you, but would hardly call myself ravishing. Seems a little feminine if you ask me.”
Elliott and Delaney’s friendship went way back. Far back enough to say they were probably each other’s oldest friend, definitely each other’s best friend.
“You’re not ravishing in a girlie way. You’re handsome. Just as you always are, only you never seem to see that about yourself.” she told him.
“You speak the truth…I never do think of myself as the man candy you make me out to be,” he paused. “You clean up pretty nice yourself.”
The wink and slimy smile conveyed his thoughts of her in the tight red dress she’d bought just for the occasion.
Delaney and Elliott went to New York University after high school, taking their best friendship on a whirlwind trip to the Big Apple. And here they were now navigating the waters of adulthood still by each other's side. Delaney was an art student who scored an amazing opportunity with a gallery in NYC and easily settled there after finishing her degree. Elliott was still unsure about life and what he was to make of his future, but if the gala they were attending had any indication of what was to come, he would be just fine.
“Why did you invite me to this thing instead of some girl you wanted to impress?” she asked, taking his arm as they walked down the red carpet through the crowd of onlookers.
“Stop that. You know you’re my best girl.”
Elliott had been working at a mid-size technology firm that hired him after a successful internship. He knew the way to go big was to start small and he had quickly been working up the ladder at Steel Tech, LLC. Certification after certification, he was almost as qualified as the firm’s partners, only really lacking their years of experience.
Through the metal detectors and once inside, Delaney picked up her purse at the end of the x-ray machine, while Elliott fished his keys from the bowl that passed from guard to guard alongside them.
“Did your keychain fall off?” she asked as he tightly grabbed the keys and shuffled her in the other direction.
“Oh? Nope. No keychain. Must have been something else in the bowl,” he said, stumbling over his words. Elliott wasn’t one to show nerves, but Delaney had known him long enough to be able to tell when something was off.
“That word you used. Ravishing. You’re ravishing tonight,” he said, quickly changing the subject. Not only was he acting strange, but was leading her around the outside concourse of the ballroom, rather than going inside to find their table.
“Sure everything is okay?” she prodded, hoping he’d be honest with her.
“Everything is fine, I’m just suddenly realizing how beautiful you are and have been all these years as my best friend,” he told her, pulling her close to him as he brushed a fallen hair behind her ear. “Forget this gala thing. Let’s go back to your place.”
Random hookups were common for the two of them when they were in between significant others. And it had been a while since either had found a source of relief. But this sudden strange behavior caught Delaney off guard.
“No way, I bought this dress for this occasion. I’ve got to show it off at least a little before you go ripping the zipper.” The zipper idea made Elliott even harder and want to leave even faster, but he knew he’d need to appease her, at least for a little while, and say hello to his co-workers.
“Compromise? We stay for the dinner portion, but when the speeches start, we’re out of here, ‘K?”
They sifted through the conglomeration of tables, finding the firm’s seating arrangements near the back corner of the room. Elliott seemed pleased, scoping a quick exit close to their turned backs. Strangely, Elliott introduced Delaney to those around the table using her mother’s name, Anne, to which she almost corrected him but stopped herself before doing so.
“My friends call me Annie,” she whispered to one of the wives sitting next to her.
“Tell ya later,” Elliott said in her ear, making it look like he was just giving her a sweet kiss on the cheek.
“Nice to see a couple where the romance is still alive,” the wife sitting to Delaney’s right side said as the waiter placed the salad course before them. “I’m Margo, wife of that one—” she said, pointing to Peter Clarington, managing partner of Elliott’s place of employment.
“What exactly is this gala for?” Delaney continued the conversation with Margo as Elliott spoke to some others on his side of the table.
“I tell ya, I can hardly keep these things straight myself,” she told Delaney—err, Annie. “But tonight is to recognize some social media gurus and then dancing…with entertainment provided by some famous band, can’t remember which one.”
“Ahh, and what’s the firm’s connection?”
“The big social networks have their own stuff in-house, so they hire firms like ours to do side jobs and test securities.” The jobs Steel Tech received this last year were very fruitful and made Peter and the rest of the company a lot of money. All of which boded well for Elliott’s bright future.
The room began to fill and bread and appetizers were brought around the table. Though the night was meant to be fun, Delaney got the feeling that all Elliott wanted was to leave.
“My friend Margo tells me the firm has helped some of these social media networks with security stuff,” Delaney said softly so only Elliott would hear her. “Does that make you my security…guard?”
A sly smile crept across his face and he pushed the nerdy glasses he wore farther up the bridge of his nose.
