Page 76 of Some Kind of Forever
Straightening my vest, I stand and smile. “Oh, Hi, Mrs. Wilmington. Can I get you anything?”
“Now, Kayla, you know good and well I want you to call me Christine,” she says with a smile.
“Okay. Christine, can I get you anything?”
“Not at all. I wanted to tell you how great of a job you did here. Kendall was telling us how he remembered seeing a lot of the design elements tonight on your portfolio. Everything here looks amazing. You have quite the talent.”
“Thank you,” I say, beaming back at her. “It’s taken a lot to get here, but everything looks better than I could have ever imagined.”
“Well, I don’t want to keep you. I just wanted to say congratulations, and I’m so happy Chase found you.” She squeezes my arm and makes her way back inside.
Taking a deep breath to bolster the sense of pride I feel about this event, I look around the courtyard. Guests mill around the shrubs and flowers, and my eyes meet a dark-haired ballerina with a perma-scowl. Maggie stands at the arched entrance alone, wineglass in hand, smirking at me like an evil little pixie. I straighten my back and give her a smile with a little finger wave before turning to grab the tray stacked with dishes.
As the night has progressed, guests have shed their fancy jackets and shawls. The dining room now resembles that of a business dinner crowd, with alcohol lending to loud laughter and people sitting wherever they choose. Slowly, my colleagues and I are beckoned to refill drinks and swap out dessert choices. I glimpse Chase slipping out of the dining room, mingling with another table or three full of people outside.
Guests have started to make their exits the closer we get to ten o’clock, and I’m making my rounds with pitchers of water, when Camryn comes up to me. Her voice is high and nasally, so I know for sure she’s Camryn. “Tamryn needs a refill,” she tells me, and whips around without another word. There’s no clarification, no indication of what exactly needs to be refilled. She just turns on her heel and walks back across the patio like she expects me to follow. Trying hard not to roll my eyes, I brace myself for the return to table twenty-six to see what else they could possibly need.
“Did you enjoy dessert?” I ask, looking around at the three untouched slices of cheesecake while I move around the table to fill their water glasses.
Giggling, Tamryn turns to me, and with her much deeper voice says, “Oh, I think Maggie’s enjoying a different kind of dessert right now.” She juts her chin toward the courtyard. Without a second thought, I turn to look over my shoulder.
I go still as stone.
Down the stairs, through the courtyard archway, on the ledge of the water fountain, sits Maggie. Except she’s not sittingonthe ledge, she’s sittingonChase’s lap, her fingers tangled in his hair, kissing him while his hands rest on her leg. They whisper something back and forth before turning and looking right at me. And somehow, I’m no longer serving ballerinas on the patio. I’m transported back to my freshman dorm room, looking at Evan and my roommate.
Alone, together.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHASE
“What the hell, Maggie!” I pull my face out of her hands and drop her foot.
“Oopsie,” she says with a shrug. “I think your girlfriend saw us kissing.” She turns to look up the stairs, wearing a triumphant smile on her face.
Following Maggie’s gaze, I lock eyes with Kayla on the patio, wide-eyed and shaking her head. I’ve never moved so fast, trying to get across the courtyard and up the stairs, taking three at a time. By the time I reach the landing, Kayla is weaving quickly through the jigsaw of tables on the patio, trying to make it inside. Someone stops her for a quick water refill, and it gives me enough time to catch up to her.
“Kayla, that wasn’t what it looked like,” I say, panic coursing through each word as they leave my mouth.
“I know what I saw,Evan.” Her hushed voice trembles as she continues her weave through the patio.
“Evan?”Shit.“Kayla, no. This wasn’t like that. I?—”
She maneuvers around chairs and shareholders, trying to get away from me while the requests for refills continually slow her down.“It doesn’t matter,” she says, her voice low as she crosses the threshold into the dining room. More people have clearedout of this room, making for less obstacles in her race to the kitchen.
“Itdoesmatter. Kayla, please, let me explain,” I plead, grabbing her elbow to turn her around. “Will you just wait? Please?”
“Don’ttouch me, Chase.” Whipping around, she stares down at my hand on her arm before jerking it away. She reaches the swinging doors of the kitchen with me right on her heels as I follow her through them.
“Please, Kayla, I LOVE YOU!”
“I’M WORKING!” she fires back, looking at me for the first time. I said it louder than I intended, and the moment wasn’t anywhere near what I’d imagined telling her would be like. The coldness in her eyes is a near perfect match to the hostility in her voice, and it’s enough to knock me back down to earth as I slowly become aware of the space we’re in. I look around at the catering staff volleying glances between the two of us and realize I’ve made it halfway across the kitchen. The hiss of the water sprayer and clang of pots and pans from the dishwashing station becomes more evident the longer I stand here.
She drops her eyes, her chest heaving as she holds the mostly empty water pitchers down at her sides. The full weight of the last ten minutes settles in around me. This is her job. Her future rides on landing an internship based around this event. As much as it pains me to let her think what I can only imagine she’s thinking, this is not the time, or place, to hash any of this out. I turn around and slip back through the swinging doors without another word, heading down the hallway to find a place to be alone.
Thankfully, the ballroom is deserted. Trevor was in charge of packing up the presentation equipment, and it appears he’s already done so. I sit in one of the empty burgundy velvet-tufted chairs, loosen my tie, and take off my suit jacket. It feels like I’m roasting. As my thoughts spiral, I undo the buttons around my wrists and roll my shirt sleeves up my forearms.
Trying to organize the chaos in my mind to come up with a game plan, I start with the facts I know. One of thetwins flagged me down to help with Maggie. I tried to coax her down from her drunken dance on the edge of the fountain when she twisted her ankle and fell. She asked me for help removing her shoe, and like the helpful idiot I am, I moved her leg onto my lap to reach the strap. She grabbed my face and attacked me with her sloppy, wine-soaked lips. Kayla saw it and thought…what? I don’t know what she thought, just that she saw it. I told her, shouted at her, really, that I love her. And I potentially ruined her internship chances. Cool.Fantastic.
