Page 53 of Drunk on Love

Margot laughed.

MARGOT

Never. Be there in ten

When she slid onto her seat at the bar, Sydney raised an eyebrow at her.

“Wine kind of night, or cocktail kind of night?”

Margot let out a sigh.

“Cocktail kind of week, more like.”

Sydney poured something or other in a shaker, along with ice, and then strained it all into a coupe glass.

“Here. And food is on its way, I’m sure.” Then she inclined her head slightly to Margot’s right. “Also. I got you a present.”

Margot took a sip of her cocktail—ooh, tart, and very strong, just what she needed—and then shifted her eyes to her right, certain what she would find.

A man. She shook her head.

“Why not?” Sydney asked. “It worked last time. Plus, you need a palate cleanser. You told me that you did!”

Margot picked up one of the arancini that landed in front of her.

“It workedwelllast time?”

Sydney laughed.

“I guess that depends on your definition of ‘well.’ It absolutely worked well until you got to work the next day, didn’t it?”

Margot just looked at her. Sydney sighed.

“Fine, just throw my present away like that. But haven’t you been saying that this is what you need to get over the last time?”

Sydney walked away without giving Margot a chance to answer.

“I’m notunderthe last time,” she muttered. At least Sydney hadn’t been able to call her on that lie.

“What was that?”

The man next to her turned to her, a curious, friendly expression on his face.

“Oh.”Shit. “I was just... chatting with the bartender.” Shesighed. “She’s a friend of mine—she likes to push my buttons in the way that friends do.”

He laughed.

“I get that.” He hesitated, then turned to her all the way. “I’m Matt.”

She swore she could hear Sydney cackle. She held back a sigh. Fine.

“I’m Margot.” She’d at least ask this question right off the bat. “What do you do, Matt?”

He smiled at her.

“I’m a lawyer. I live in San Francisco, but I’m in town for a conference. I had to escape the conference hotel, you know how it is.”

A lawyer. Thank goodness. And he was definitely not the lawyer who occasionally did work for Noble—that lawyer was a woman.