Page 76 of Fun Together
On the way to the bar area, we run into Alexis and her husband, Brian. She’s wearing a floor-length sequined gown and bright red lipstick. He’s intently looking at his phone, seemingly oblivious to his surroundings.
I put on a bright smile. “Hi Alexis!” I turn to her husband and nod politely. “Nice to see you again, Brian.”
He nods at me before looking back at his phone. Alexis smiles, huge and fake. “Faye! You look lovely this evening.”
I smooth the front of my dress, the only semi-formal thing I own and the same one I wear every year. It’s a simple black satin gown that wrinkles when I look at it wrong, but I still feel pretty in it and can’t justify buying anything else.
“Thank you. Have you met my friend Rett?” I ask, knowing good and well they haven’t. But that’s just the kind of bullshit you ask at parties like this.
Alexis shakes her head. “I don’t believe I have. Rett.” She lets the name linger for a moment. “What an odd name.”
Rett gives her the most fake saccharine smile I’ve ever seen. “I really love this self-care initiative Faye’s told me about. It so rare these days to see a company prioritize making the office a more pleasurable environment.”
I’ve got to get Rett away from my boss. Bringing her to an event, there’s always a risk of some sort of debacle or unexpected event happening. She has a mesh sieve for a filter and gets off on antagonizing people, especially people like Alexis. She’s fiercely loyal to her loved ones and it’s nice to have her in your corner, but I need to make sure I leave this party with my job still intact.
Alexis lights up. “Yes! It is spectacular, isn’t it? We really care about our employees, as you can see.” She holds her arms up to gesture around her, fur stole slashing through the air as she polishes off her glass of champagne. “Maybe you should come work with us.”
“Unfortunately, I already have my own terrible boss, so I’m not currently on the job market,” Rett says with another grin.
I don’t allow enough time for Alexis to get the gist of that comment before I guide Rett along to the bar. “We’ll let you two get back to mingling,” I say to Alexis.
“You’ve got to behave,” I chastise Rett.
“Sorry, I just can’t stand that woman. Do you think that’s real fur?”
“It’s faux mink. I ordered it for her last year when she was going through a vegan phase.”
The bartender places a couple of napkins down in front of us. “What’ll it be, ladies?”
“Riesling, please,” I say. Wait, is that the one I like? “Sorry, actually make that a Chardonnay.” I can never remember which one is dry and which is sweet.
“Sure thing, and for you?” he asks Rett.
“Cab Sav, please,” she says.
I lean against the bar, already regretting my shoe choice, a pair of strappy black heels currently making permanent indentations in the sides of my feet. “We’ll stay for an hour, tops, just so I can say I was here before we go.”
“Fine by me. Hey look, Eli’s over there.”
She points toward the buffet line, and sure enough, Eli is loading up his plate with a pile of bacon-wrapped shrimp. He wears his simple black suit well, the bright white shirt sharp against the tanned skin of his neck.
He puts some fruit on his plate, and I watch as he tosses a grape into his mouth. He licks the end of his thumb, and I feel . . . hot.
“When are you going to admit it?” Rett asks, handing me my glass of wine.
“Admit what?”
“That you want him,” she croons.
I will admit that I wanted to look good tonight. That, as I curled my hair and put on my lipstick, I was thinking about him. That, while I was zipping up my dress, I thought about what he would think when he saw me in it.
I wanted to look good tonightfor him.
She squints her eyes at me. “What happened after I left the other night? You’re not telling me something.”
I should have told her about what happened already, but part of me liked having this little secret rolling around in my head for a few days. “He hung out for a little. And then he stayed over.”
She gasps and clutches my arm.
