Page 102 of Bookworm and the Beast
“Mr. Van Zandt. Good to see you, sir. Mrs. Van Zandt, you look lovely tonight.”
“Oh thank you, dear. What was your name again?” she asked.
“It’s Hunter. Hunter Bestia. I live a couple houses down from you.”
She nodded, her dangling diamond earrings swinging from elongated lobes. “Oh that’s right. You leased the Weston’s old estate. They turned it into condominiums. Did you know that, dear?” she asked her elderly husband.
“Of course, I knew it. I toldyouabout it. Damn shame, if you ask me,” he grumbled. “To cut up a beautiful old home like that.”
I worked hard to keep my smile from morphing into a grimace.
He’s old. The chip is gone. Every thought he has comes right out of his mouth, unedited. It isn’t personal.
“It’s still beautiful, sir. You and Mrs. Van Zandt are welcome to drop in anytime and see the renovations if you’d like.”
He swatted the air, dismissing the suggestion. “I’m not a fan of ‘renovations.’ Our house hasn’t changed in forty years, and we like it just fine. Who needs an elevator in their house anyway?”
Especially when you have servants to run up and down the stairs and carry everything for you?
“It’s nice to see you both looking so well. Enjoy the evening.” I stepped to the side and walked away as quickly as possible before my internal thoughts overrode my own chip and made it out of my mouth.
I didn’t want a beef with my neighbors. Too many of them were already suspicious of the idea of seven friends living and working together in the same house.
Most of them were, like the Van Zandts, too old to understand the concept of a start-up tech company and the necessity for round-the-clock work.
Now that we’d gotten the company off the ground and going strong, each of us could afford a huge house of our own, but there was time left on the lease, and so far, none of us had seen the need to move out.
We were all single, and each of the mansion’s separate “apartments” was at least twenty-five-hundred square feet. Mine was the largest, at thirty-two-hundred, more than adequate for one person.
A common great room served as our communal workspace, and for now, it worked fine. Soon I supposed I’d buy a building or construct one to serve as the company headquarters.
I was still contemplating the idea and trying to decide whether the state capital, Providence, or here in Eastport Bay would be a better location when I spotted her.
Unlike so many of the women who’d chosen slimming black tonight, Kristal stood out in a spectacular red cocktail dress. It had a halter-style top, a tight waist, and one of those skirts that sort of poofed out below the waist.
It fell just to her knees, baring a pair of knockout legs I’d spent way too much time considering during AP Calculus.
According to Josh’s sage advice back then, a guy should always examine a woman’s ankles if he wanted a preview of what her figure would look like when she got older.
I didn’t know about that, but Kristal had only gottenmorebeautiful as she’d aged and seemed twice as untouchable now as she’d been back then.
Suddenly, I was that underfed and overly self-conscious math geek who’d been too afraid to say more than a few words to Kristal.
Did I really think I was going to just waltz right up to her now and dazzle her with my success and new money?
What would I even say?So… if you haven’t heard, I’m a billionaire now…
I snorted. Like she’d care. She’d had money her whole life. And she probably had literally forgotten my existence entirely.
She turned and looked my way, meeting my eyes directly.
For a moment I was frozen like the proverbial deer in headlights.
This was it. It was either turn tail and run, hurdling the manicured hedges to get to my own backyard where I could hide…and possibly expire of shame.
Or I could go talk to her.
I took in a deep breath, put my glass down on a nearby table, and set off in her direction.
Here goes nothing…
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