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“Great, she was studying,” I tell him just as my phone beeps. “Oh, my Uber is here! Don’t wait up!” I say over my shoulder.
“Be safe. Call me if you need me,” he calls after me just before I shut the door behind me.
Marissa’s pregame consists mostly of the people who work on our floor and a few people from other departments.Beckham Securitiesis headquartered in a twelve-story building with over four hundred employees taking up the top six floors, and it seems like there are at least thirty of us here at her townhouse.
“Oh yay, finally!” Marissa says as she pulls me through her entry and into her kitchen where people are talking and drinking casually. “You hungry?” She points to the finger foods she has out. Marissa really is the perfect hostess and whenever she has people over, she always has multiple charcuterie boards and themed appetizers and drinks. She hands me a glass of red wine with cranberries, apples, and rosemary sticking out of the top. “It’s Christmas sangria!”
“I brought champagne?” I offer and she claps her hands.
“Oh lovely.” She takes it from me and puts it in her fridge. “You really didn’t need to bring anything though. Just your very cute self.” She points at my outfit and gives me an impressed look. “You look great. I have to finish getting ready though. Make yourself at home,” she says, talking a mile a minute before she dashes out of the kitchen and up the stairs. I want to tell her I’ll go with her because I definitely feel more comfortable around my coworkers when she’s there too. I take a sip of the sangria and cough immediately at the strength of it.
“Yeah, it’s strong.” Liam chuckles. “You know Marissa is a little heavy-handed.”
“Did she use the entire bottle of bourbon?” I laugh as I put the glass down, reaching instead for a bottle of vodka to make myself a mixed drink where I can control the amount of alcohol that goes in.
“You look beautiful,” Liam tells me. I tuck a dark wavy strand behind my ear and give him my bestI really just want to be friendssmile.
“Thank you! You look very dashing as well.” Liam always dresses well, and I’ll admit he looks really nice tonight wearing a white collared shirt under a gray cashmere sweater under a navy blazer making him look like he should be walking the runway for some designer winter fashion show. He taps his glass against mine as soon as I’m finished making it just as a girl that I vaguely recognize but can’t remember her name approaches us.
“I thought you were coming right back,” she says without so much as a glance in my direction.
“Morgan, you remember Raegan, right?” Liam points at me and I smile and give a small wave.
“Right, the new girl!” she says and I try to ignore the underlying condescension in her voice.
“Well, it’s been six months, but…yeah!”
She plays with the ends of her pin-straight raven black hair, that’s pulled high into a sleek ponytail. “How are you liking it?”
“I love it; everyone is really nice.” I smile and she returns it with one that seems more fake than polite before turning back to Liam.
“We’ve been waiting for you to start the next round of quarters.”
“Oh, start without me.” He shrugs and I see the flash of hurt on Morgan’s face before she looks at me and then nods. I don’t think he meant to be dismissive, but I can feel the sting nonetheless.
“You should come play too,” she says to me as an afterthought and I realize that she might have a little crush on Liam and thinks I’m the problem. I want to tell her that I’m not and more importantly, not interested in being more than friends. She walks away, back towards the living room leaving us alone, and I almost wish she would have pressed harder for him to join her.
“Do you want to play?” He asks and nods towards the living room.
“Actually, I’m going to go check on Marissa,” I tell him. “I’ll be right back,” I say before moving up the stairs towards her room. I’ve only been up here a few times, so I hope it’s okay that I just come up here. I knock on her bedroom door. “Hey, it’s Raegan.”
“Oh, come in!”I hear called from the other side.
I push through her door just to see her come out of her connecting bathroom curling her eyelashes. I note she’s wearing a burgundy lace long-sleeved dress that comes just above her knees, making me grateful I changed so that we weren’t wearing the same color.She’s wearing a lipstick that is almost the same color and it looks gorgeous against her brown skin. “I’m almost ready! You okay?”
“It’s just a little…overwhelming. I’m used to drinking with people I know. I’m an extrovert but to an extent. Plus, I’m sober.”
“Drink more!”She tucks a hair behind her ear.
“I don’t want to be sloppy drunk at our office party. Besides, it’s only seven thirty!” I hold my drink up. “This is vodka.”
“Oh good.” She takes a long sip of her sangria before setting it down.
“I think you’re right about Liam, by the way. How do I let him know I just want to be friends? Preferably before Morgan pushes me down a flight of stairs?”
“Ooh yeah.” She winces as she begins to brush her mascara over her lashes. “Well, to be fair, Liam shouldn’t have slept with her.”
My eyes widen in shock as I mentally go over that interaction the three of us just had through a new lens. “He has?!”
