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Wendy said nothing as they approached the bar and Frank ordered her a glass of champagne. They both waited for it, but once she had it in her hand, Frank began to steer her further away from Anita and the crowd.
“Listen,” he said, his voice low as they got away from the chatter of the party. “Anita’s going to try to invest in something. It’s going to look like a solid deal. But don’t take it.”
Feigning offense, Wendy let go of his arm and took a step away.
“What are you saying?” she asked, making sure to look taken aback, “That I’m not good enough to do business with you?”
“Not at all,” Frank assured her quickly. “I just don’t want you mixed up in this. I know we’re not friends, but I know you’re a good person. I just don’t want that taken advantage of.”
Deciding to break character, Wendy sat her glass down and took a step closer. “What do
the Strauss sisters have to do with all of this?” she asked boldly.
Frank looked at her startled for a moment, and then a look of pain flitted across his face.
“Just don’t get involved, okay?” he pleaded.
“Frank, Wendy, what are you doing cloistered together so far from the party?”
Frank’s body language closed up as Jimmy Gall approached them, and Wendy backed
away from her questions. She turned to Jimmy, Birgit’s ex-husband, and a primal urge rose up in her to slap the man across the face.
“Good to see you with the better half, Wendy,” Jimmy greeted, his voice annoyingly cocky.
“Which begs the question of why you’re here, Jimmy,” she replied, turning to him with an icy smile.
Jimmy laughed, as if unfazed by her jab, and threw an arm around her shoulders. Immediately, she wanted to shake herself loose.
“Oh, come now, Wendy, we were friends before,” he urged. “Who says we can’t be again?”
“The women you slept with while you were still married to Birgit, for one,” she retorted.
Frank looked at her as if startled by her candor, but he didn’t budge from where he was standing.
“Birgit got over that,” Jimmy replied, his tone a little sharper. “You should, too. Especially since so much has changed.”
“And what’s changed about you, Jimmy?” Wendy asked pointedly.
A slow, overly-confident smile spread across Jimmy’s face, and he pulled her closer.
“I guess you’ll have to wait and see,” he replied, his tone far too intimate for her liking.
“Now Anita is looking for you,” he continued, starting to tug her with him. “She has something she wants to talk to you about.”
Jimmy turned to Frank and gave him a judgmental look. “Frank, your wife wants you to show the servers where the extra champagne is. And could you tell them we’re running low on ice, too?”
Frank’s gaze went hard as he stared at Jimmy, and for a moment, Wendy felt tension building between the two men. Then, his gaze turned to her and turned almost tender as if to sayRemember what I said.He then nodded and walked away from them.
“Now, let’s get you back to Anita, hmm?” Jimmy asked, starting to steer her back toward the party.
Unable to take Jimmy’s oppressive touch any longer, Wendy pulled away from his grasp and started walking away from him.
“Hey now,” he chastised, catching up to her, “you may want to be nice to me.”
“No thanks,” Wendy stated, fighting the urge to scratch his eyes out. “I’ll go find Anita myself.”
She walked away from him before he could say any more, but she heard him laughing at her from behind. Inside, she tried her best to gather herself but was failing. There was something about Jimmy that had made her extremely uncomfortable, and she wanted to listen to her gut.
