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It is what it is. I can’t change the past and everything seems to happen for a reason.
As I walk around to different sections of guests that are standing and mingling, my tray of champagneflutes dwindles until I have to return to the tent to pour more. I fill my tray again and do another trip with a full tray of shining flutes. This time I pay more attention to the other side of the room. There is a man over there that is the epitome of hot. He’s a tall drink of water. I can only see his profile, but he is absolutely gorgeous. I can see a hint of tattoos creeping up the side of his neck, and I wonder who he is. A lot of people seem to be vying for his attention, so he must be someone important. I’m sure he wouldn’t look twice at the help like me, but it doesn’t stop my perusal of him. With that thought, I finish my rounds and take my empty tray back to the tent outside.
Appetizers are next and I have to wait for the plates to be completed before I’m able to take them inside. The man I saw earlier comes out from the back entrance we are using and is on his cell phone arguing with someone by the looks of it. His body language is rigid, and I can tell he’s pissed off about something. For some reason, I feel this pull toward him. I want to go over and help him with whatever he’s upset with. It’s an odd feeling and I’m not sure where it’s coming from because I certainly haven’t had any feelings for anyone since Blaine passed away. He isn’t my type at all and yet, he seems like my perfect type. He’s like a walking oxymoron for me. I love his roguish tattooed style but his tux screams money. I’m not looking for anyone especially entitled pricks. He ends his call, pocketing his phone, then scrubbing his other hand down his face. As I’m about to walk over there, another man walks up behind him and leads him back inside but not before he looks my way with a look of fire in his gaze. His emerald, green eyes could be seen from a mile away.Phew, thatlook could burn me up from the inside out. Why do I feel the need to get closer to him? I don’t have the faintest idea who he is, but hot damn, I’ve always liked to play with fire.
???
Sebastian
I’ve been putting out figurative fires left and right all night. I want five seconds of peace before I’m pulled away again. When I stepped outside earlier to take a call, I could feel eyes on me, but it wasn’t until I got off the phone that I had a chance to see those exotic yellow eyes. The pull between us was electric, but Elijah came to take me back inside. I wanted to keep my eyes on the gorgeous little vixen, but I was thrust back into this god-awful fundraiser.
“Mr. Thompson wants to speak with you about investing in the company,” Elijah says as he leads me back inside.
“Fine. I’ll speak with him. Lead the way,” I mutter, not really caring where I am being led unless it was back in the other direction.
As I sit and talk with Jared Thompson from Thompson and Simmons Investments, my mind trails off to the yellow-eyed beauty. When I look up, I see her long silver hair out of the corner of my eye. I turn my head just in time to see her presenting the last dish on her tray to Mary, the head of HR. As she turns to leave, she catches sight of me, and a slight blush creeps up her cheeks before she is gone again.
“Excuse me, gentlemen, there’s something I need to tend to,” I say to the men at the table. As I rise from my seat, I button my tux, then walk through the throngof people. Quickly, I follow the mysterious woman, while dodging party attendees at every turn. Soon, I find myself exiting the same way she did. Walking across the lawn, I can hear the chatter back in the venue as well as the clanking of cooking utensils in the catering tent. As I turn the corner to the opening of the tent, I see the vixen barreling straight for me balancing a tray filled with pasta dishes. Time slows as I see plates flying through the air toward me. They crash together, leaving a mess in their wake.
“Fuck,” I yell out as I look down at my once crisp white shirt that’s now turned red with marinara sauce. It looks like a murder via pasta took place out here. My anger spirals out of control because this is the last straw of the night. I can’t take it anymore. Instead of walking away, like I should, I let the word vomit flow even though I know I’ll regret it later. “Don’t you look where you’re fucking going?” I shout.
“Excuse me? You were the one that came barging in here. You ran into me!” she growls back at me.
“It’s part of your job to look out for people andnotrun into them!” I exclaim as I take my jacket off and toss it to the ground.
“Yeah, and it’s your job to attend the party,notdisturb the catering,” she volleys back at me. Her once honey yellow eyes have turned dark with anger.
“It’s my responsibility to see to all areas of this fundr—” I am cut off mid-sentence when the chef comes out and sees the mess between me and the girl.
“New girl, get this shit cleaned up at once,” Gina lays into the woman before me. Her eyes stay trained on mine for a moment longer, the anger growing, then she looks to Gina.
“I was just about to get on that, but this gentleman decided to prolong my standing here, in pasta sauce, instead,” the little vixen responds to Gina, and I can see figurative smoke coming out of the chef’s ears. I would chuckle at the scene if I weren’t covered in tonight’s dinner.
“Don’t you dare talk to me like that, you little brat. You’re fired!” The saucy woman rolls her yellow eyes and storms off around the corner. I’m left standing there with Gina. “I’m so sorry, sir. I will have this cleaned up in no time, and I will personally make sure that your tux gets laundered as soon as possible,” she blurts out when she sees the extent of the damage by coming closer to the crime scene.
“That won’t be necessary. I shouldn’t have been back here to begin with. It was my fault that this incident occurred.” I try and reason with Gina. I don’t want the stunning woman to get fired over this. I knew I should have just walked away instead of making the scene worse, but that’s my pattern. I always make a scene when I shouldn’t. I look around, hoping that no one is wiser about this event, but I see Mary watching from the entranceway with a scornful look on her face. My mother would look at me the same if she’d heard how I’d just spoken to a lady.
“Please, sir, I insist. It was that insolent girl’s fault that you’re wearing tonight’s dish. It was her first night. I shouldn’t have hired her in the first place,” Gina remarks.
“I’ll have my assistant take this tux to the cleaners as soon as possible. You don’t need to do anything further. I’ll leave you to get the rest of the entrees out,” I say as I turn and walk over to Mary, picking up my suitjacket on the way.
“My, my, my. I never thought I would see the day when I was so disappointed in you. You know that incident was all your fault. What were you even doing out here to begin with?” Mary inquires, I sense the underlying fury toward me. Before I can answer, Marcy, our PR representative, is outside trying to do damage control.
“I’ve got a new tux on the way. Elijah left as soon as he saw and informed me what was going on out here,” Marcy states.
“Thank you. I suppose I do need a new tux.” I glance back over to the mess across the lawn, and I see the woman I wanted to get to know on her hands and knees picking up the pieces of the plates that broke on contact with the ground. I hear her yelp and my heart pangs at the thought that she cut herself on the glass plates. I’m about to go over to her when Mary catches me by the arm.
“Don’t you think you’ve done enough? I’ll go over and make sure she’s okay. I heard the way the chef was speaking to her, as well as what you said. At least she held her own when you were spewing verbal garbage at her. The girl has a backbone,” Mary announces as she trots over toward the woman now wrapping her hand in a towel. The more I see her in pain, the more I want to go to her and apologize for being such a dick. She didn’t deserve that. I should have just waited until after the event to find her, but now I’ve gone and fucked everything up. I knew tonight was going to be a total shit show.
I leave Marcy while she works on her phone, typing away, and walk behind the venue to the river. Itake my phone from my pocket and throw it into the Hudson. I take a deep breath of fresh air and stare off into the distance.Fuck, what a mess I made. Never did I think I’d be the one to cause the problems tonight.
Chapter 5
Stormy
What a total jackass. I should’ve known that his looks were too good to be true. With the way he treated this mishap, I would hate to see what happened if a real problem arose. I don’t even know why he was coming back here to begin with. Guests haven’t found themselves back here all evening, and then, all of a sudden, there he was coming into the tent where I had a tray full of entrees. Where is Lana when you need her? I hate that I went and got myself fired on the first night. Hopefully, this won’t affect her employment. Gina is a massive bitch, just like I suspected, and she seems like she would retaliate against her, even though she did nothing wrong.
“Hello, dear. I saw what happened. Are you alright?” I startle at the sound of a voice because I was too deep in my thoughts to realize anyone had walked over. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I am Mary,” she explains.
