Page 45 of Personal Disaster

“Hot as…” I lower my voice. “Fuck.”

He winks. “Definitely.”

“You’re terrible. Tell me about your friends.”

“You know about them. You have dossiers onthem.”

“Not the official stuff. Tell me what I need to know to make a good impression on them. As your…date.”

“As my girlfriend.”

Now I’m grinning. “Okay. Thattoo.”

“Just be yourself?” He laughs deeply as I mock-glare at him. “Okay, okay! Uh…we all met in Boston. I’m a couple years older than them. Jake and Toby were roommates the first year, in my building, although I didn’t get to know them until the summer. I was a student residence assistant that summer, for the kids who stuck around for summer school. It didn’t take long for me to realize they were a scary smart pair, and by the end of the summer, they had a plan to take over the world. I somehow got tangled up in that. Not that I minded at thetime.”

“When did you meetBen?”

“Two years later? Jake sped through his degree as fast as he could, and he started at Harvard while Toby and I were still atMIT.”

“What were you doingthen?”

“Uh…” He gives me a lopsided grin. “A second Masters degree. I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do, basically. And I was spoiled. I had a small trust fund that allowed me to keep going to school as long as I was down with eating a lot of rice and beans.”

“That’s not most people’s definition of spoiled,” I murmur, searching hisface.

His expression tightens. “Yeah. But it was still a gift many don’thave.”

I nod. “Right. So you were really a guy they looked upto.”

“Or the guy who was willing to buy them beer. Maybe a bit ofboth.”

“BadRA.”

“It was a short-lived career. The first ofmany.”

“Maybe you’re just a nomad. Nothing wrong withthat.”

He scratches his temple. “Yeah. It feels weird when you’re surrounded by hyper-driven people, though. Like Jake—he’s a natural business man. That’s what he’s meant to do, you can just tell.” Marcus’s expression softens again. I really like how fond he is of his friends. “He can solve any problem faster than anyone I’ve ever known. He looks at things differently. Last year, he acquired SwiftEx, and everyone thought that was a terrible move, right?”

I’m not a biz reporter, but yeah, I remember that. And in the last six months, he’s completely turned the business around. “Noted. Never underestimate his ability to see things.”

“Do you know that’s how he met his fiancé? Through SwiftEx? This is good to know before the wedding, although I’m sure they’ll tell the story then, too.”

“Did she work there?”

He shakes his head. “She was a customer. And he went undercover as a delivery driver—which is how he figured out how to turn the company around, by the way. Anyway, she thought he was a relief driver, and they kept talking every time he came to her door…one thing led to another, and here theyare.”

“That’s one of those stories you tell the grandkids.”

“For sure. And you’ll love Jana. She’s down-to-earth. I met her earlier this year when I was in New York for a weekend.”

“And what about Toby and… what’s his wife’sname?”

“Cara.”

I nod. “How did theymeet?”

“Cara is a Russo. Ben’s little sister. So they would have met when we went to the Hamptons the first summer with him, probably. Or maybe on a weekend into New York. Needless to say, Cara wasn’t on Toby’s radar until recently.”

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