Page 10 of Alpha Bait

"Bullshit!" Ames said, "you would have never agreed if it were just me."

"Correct."

"It's the Hamptons, losers," Selena replied, "if you can't have fun, you're the problem."

"What's the dress code?"

"Masquerade," Ames answered, scanning the invitation for the answer.

"A masquerade?" I chuckled, "These people are out of it."

"Remember Jamal's Princeton graduation bash in '08? They throw good parties. You boys will be fine," Selena replied, walking over to me and leaning her weight on my shoulders.

The party was only in three months. By then perhaps some of the caustic bitterness would have died down. Plus, a yacht party was a great way to start off the spring party season. I considered it for a moment.

"We'll sail over to the beach house by that Friday then."

"Great," Selena sprung up, "I'm going to get a new dress."

"And masks," Ames replied, "don't forget the masks."

"Should we RSVP?" Selena replied.

I shook my head, "Don't bother. Whether they like it or not, the Carmichaels are coming to the Hamptons."

Seeing Natalia again was motivation enough for me to go. Natalia... Her parents were tech billionaires who had adopted herfrom Thailand. We'd had an on and off affair for a few years, but I hadn't seen her since our last breakup, which had been our worst.

It wouldn't take much for me to lure her back in, but since she wouldn't take my calls, showing up to a Hamptons party was my best chance of getting back in touch with her. As Ames said, Natalia was crazy, and man, did I love crazy...

We sailed over to the beach house in East Hampton. Father left that house to Ames and he'd done work on it with his designer to update the place from an old-school beach house to a modern, minimalist bachelor pad. Selena hated it, dismissing the place as "cold", but I enjoyed it.

Our staff arrived shortly after we did and prepared dinner for us before the party. Ames brought out casks of aged champagne from the cellar and our chefs prepared a hearty meal of steak, potatoes, and asparagus. Selena refused to touch any carbs but she drank copious amounts of champagne before the party and called some girlfriends over from the city to get ready together and crash.

When our driver pulled around to take us to the Holloway party, we dripped in jewelry and excess. I wore a white linen suit and Ames wore a seersucker suit. Both of us wore our white gold cufflinks and pastel neckties. Selena and her girl friends wore tight white cotton dresses and diamonds -- so many diamonds.

We approached the dock and the Holloway security guard eyed us skeptically in the car.

"Go ahead."

Perfect. We had ten minutes until the yacht would leave the port. We showed our invite to another guard and he pulled back the ropes to let us onto the Holloway boat. The luxury yacht had to have been one of Jamal's newer purchases. The fresh scent of white boat paint hit us as we boarded.

Selena pointed to the name on the side of the boat.

Juliet.

"Who the hell is Juliet?" She whispered.

"Dunno," I shrugged.

I was already distracted and my eyes scanned the crowd, desperate to catch a glimpse of Natalia. Did she still have that waist length black hair or had another foray into academia caused her to shave it off again. Either way, I didn't care. I'd fixate on her regardless of what she was wearing. Natalia had that allure to me.

Selena split off with her friends. We weren't friends with any Holloway but naturally, our social circles involved some overlap. Plus, Selena wasn't only a Carmichael, she was a Carter. The Carter family had no interest in our feud. Her cousins, Skip, Marty, and Chaz lingered around the bar, passing around a fragrant Cuban. Selena waved and disappeared in their direction, leaving me with Ames.

Ames combed his hands through his hair and glanced around.

"See Jamal?"

"No. You won't try to find him, will you?"

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