Trihn stood to make her phone call.
Stacia turned to Bryna. “Don’t worry. No Pace tonight,” she volunteered.
“Good.”
“He’s still at practice,” she said dreamily. Her love for quarterbacks knew no bounds.
Bryna colored at the thought of football practice. She couldn’t help but think about Eric. She knew he must have dipped out of practice early, so he could wait for her after cheerleading got out. There was no way that run-in had been an accident.
And she…couldn’t believe she had slept with him. She had wanted to. So bad.
No. She needed to stop that train of thought right now. She had made up her mind. She wasn’t going to sit around and give him the opportunity to break her heart. She liked it the way it was.
“Do you hear them?” Stacia whispered.
“What?” Bryna asked. She hadn’t been paying attention.
Stacia nodded her head toward the other room. Bryna strained to hear Trihn’s conversation.
“Yes! I want you to come. I haven’t seen you. I miss you,” Trihn said.
She sounded frustrated, and Bryna watched her pace the kitchen in irritation.
“I know you don’t like partying, but Bri needs me, and we’re celebrating. So, I’m not going to stay in tonight.”
Pause.
“This is a part of my life! God, why don’t you get that? I’m allowed to like going out and drinking as much as the artsy side of me.”
Bryna cringed for her. This was an ongoing argument. She didn’t like that they were still fighting over the fact that Trihn liked to go out and have a drink. It wasn’t as if she was going out to fuck a bunch of different guys.
“Yes, I’m aware it’s a Monday,” she said. The anger in her voice was seeping through. She clenched her hands into fists. “Fine. Stay in then. Only alcoholics go to the bar on Mondays, right?”
Pause.
“Yeah, I’ll see you later in the week. Bye.”
Trihn hung up the phone and stormed back into the room. Stacia and Bryna tried to pretend like they hadn’t heard.
Trihn waved them off. “I know you were listening. Neal isn’t coming. I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s go get a drink.”
They nodded, seeing that she didn’t want another argument, and then followed Trihn out of the apartment.
They drove over to Posse with Chloe Avana’s new single being the only thing to break the silence. The DJ announced her upcoming national tour, and Bryna rolled her eyes. Things were better with Gates now, but she couldn’t stop her aversion to Chloe even though the girl had really done nothing wrong, except for being in the wrong place at the wrong time on her rise to fame.
Posse wasn’t completely dead for a Monday night. It was usually pretty chill, but there was still a cloud of businessmen and college students on the premises. They wandered up toward the VIP lounge in search of Maya.
Maya was standing behind the bar with a group of men in suits in front of her. She was sashaying her hips, making small talk, and pouring drinks like a pro while seemingly flirting with them and keeping a perfect distance. She knew exactly what she was doing.
Her eyes lit up when she saw the three of them walking toward her. She gave them a look like she could use a welcome reprieve from the guys who were surely going to tip her generously. She passed them their drinks and then walked over to the girls.
“Bri!” She leaned over the counter and kissed her cheek. “Trihni! Stacia! It’s good to see my girls. I missed you this summer.”
She was already throwing together drinks for them—a dirty martini for Bri, amaretto sour for Trihn, and something fruity for Stacia.
“I missed you, too,” Bryna said before taking a big gulp of her drink.
“We all did,” Trihn agreed.
“You just missed the drinks,” Maya said.
“Those help,” Trihn said with a wink.
“One of these days, you’re going to have to take a night off and come out dancing with us, Maya!” Stacia said.
“One day,” she agreed. “But not today. Anyway, I think there’s one for you here tonight, Bri.”
“One what?” she asked. Her mind was still elsewhere, and she didn’t catch up with what Maya was insinuating until she tilted her head toward the businessmen.
“I know how you like them.” Maya smirked. “The one on the far side of the bar is totally your type.”
All three girls looked over at the same time. Maya was right. He was completely her type. He was tall with dark hair and an awesome charcoal-gray suit. He had money and power and liked both in large quantities. She could tell that even from this distance, even without seeing his face or knowing anything else about him, other than the cut of his suit and his posture in it. Her body immediately responded to it, and all she could gather was that it was confused as hell. She liked guys like this, but it also made her stomach turn. After Hugh, she couldn’t look at a guy like that the same.
“I don’t know if I’m up for that,” Bryna said.
“What? He’s got your name written all over him,” Maya said.
“She had kind of a…bad summer,” Trihn explained. “Maybe another night.”
Maya shrugged. “Okay, but I think you’re missing out. He’s a higher up for Google.”
Bryna shrugged. “Let’s just dance.”
She placed her drink on the counter, unfinished, and veered for the dance floor. She didn’t want to get drunk tonight. She tended to act like an idiot while intoxicated. She was here to celebrate moving in with her friends and to not think about Eric—at all.
She let her body go free and forgot her struggles. The music was loud. Her friends were close. All felt right. She danced until her legs were shaking and her face was flushed before breaking away from the floor in need of some water.
She tried to flag down Maya, but she was busy with a group of customers who had walked in. Bryna leaned back against the bar and fanned herself as she waited.
“Can I get you a drink?” someone asked from behind her.
She turned around and found herself face-to-face with the hot businessman they had been eyeing earlier. He was even more handsome in person. She was shocked he worked for Google. Are tech guys suddenly getting hot?
“Just water. It’s hot on the dance floor.”
“I think I can manage a water.”
She smiled. “But can you afford it? It’s pretty expensive.”
“Most valuable thing in the world,” he replied.
“Hmm…and I always thought that was diamonds.”
He laughed and nodded at her necklace. “Seems you have that covered.”
She shrugged and glanced away, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.
“I’m Rick,” he said, offering her his hand and drawing her attention back to him.
“Bryna.”
“Nice to meet you.”
Maya returned then and looked triumphant as she saw Bryna talking to Rick. “Dirty martini?” she asked.
“Just water.”
Maya arched an eyebrow but complied.
“Are you sure you don’t want anything else?” he pushed.
“Really, I’m fine.”
She purposely glanced down at his left hand. No ring. Not even an indentation. Maybe he wasn’t a bad guy.
But that didn’t even matter, did it? It wasn’t that she should be looking out for the bad guys. They should be looking out for her.
Maya left her water on the counter and refilled Rick’s scotch glass before disappearing with a smug expression on her face.
“Do you want to dance or maybe go somewhere more private to talk?” he suggested.
She sighed. “I know where you think this is going, but it’s not. I’m not the kind of girl you want to talk to privately. I’m dangerous.”
He raised an eyebrow. She had only managed to intrigue him.
“I like dangerous.”
“I’m a gold digger,” she said flatly. “The jewels you’re admiring me for are from someone else. If you stick around, I’ll manage to get some out of you, too.”