Page 61 of In Love and War
Nowadays, though, she mostly gave him the silent treatment when they ran into each other. The girl did not take rejection well. Probably because she wasn’t used to it.
“Milly?”
I immediately tensed up in reaction to the high-pitched dolphin squeak that escaped my cousin’s mouth when she spotted me.
Oh God.
“Monica, how are you?” I asked as she practically bounced over to me and kissed both of my cheeks with her red lips.
“Oh myGod,how long has itbeeeen?” she asked, holding on to both of my hands, the overpowering scent of her floral perfume invading the air around us. “You lookgreat.I’m so glad you’re not likestick skinnyanymore, Toronto suits you better than New York. A little fat always looked so much better on you.”
My jaw tightened in irritation as she pinched at my arm in an attempt to prove her point, but I forced myself to brush it off. Monica and I were the same age, and she had always been highly… competitive with me.
When we were in school, it was about grades and boys. I once made the mistake of telling her about the guy I had a crush on in the ninth grade after she spent an hour convincing me that my secret was safe with her. She was dating him the very next week.
As we got older and my looks changed, she began focusing more on that. So no, things had not improved with age as I’d hoped they would; she had just gotten more passive-aggressive with her jabs.
We spent the next twenty minutes listening to her talk about herself, until she was finally bored with us and moved on to a new target.
“I swear she turns memoregay with every conversation we have. How the fuck can one person be that annoying? She is quite literally the human equivalent of a mosquito,” Kai said to me as we made our escape, “except she feeds on your soul and sanity. How she’s had as many willing men wrapped around her little finger as she’s managed is beyond me. Are the straights okay?”
“No,” I laughed, “we’re not. Seriously though, we better find my dad and say hi. I wouldn’t mind sneaking out of here a bit early.”
It didn’t take us long to spot my father. He was chatting with a few of his golfing buddies I recognized from the country club and…
“Who isthat?” Kai asked me at the exact same time I saw him.
“Oh my God. That’sZac—what the hell is he doing here?” I asked, having stopped dead in my tracks. He was in midconversation and hadn’t seen me yet.
“Wait,that’sZac?” Kai whisper yelled as he grabbed my arm in shock. “Milly, he’s like… he’ssexy,sexy.”
“I. Know!”I whisper yelled back at him.
Zac was wearing a tailored light grey suit and a white shirt with the top button undone. He looked so fucking good it hurt.
“You didn’t know he would be here?”
“No, I didn’t. He never told me he was invited. How do I look?” I asked, my hands instinctively straightening the front of my yellow dress.
I need a mirror.
“Why do you care?” Kai asked, giving me an overly dramatic suspicious look.
“Shut up.”
“You look perfect, stop fidgeting.” He grabbed my hand and held on to it as he led us over to where the group of men were talking.
“There you two are!” my father exclaimed, his face breaking out into a massive grin when we approached.
I saw Zac’s gaze land on me from the corner of my eyes, making goose bumps stand at attention on the surface of my skin in response.
“Mr. Bloom, you’ve absolutely outdone yourself.” Kai greeted my father with a handshake and a smile that would put any major Hollywood star to shame. “It’s a good thing my mother couldn’t make it. I have a feeling she may have spent her afternoon trying to poach your gardening team.”
“Quite the charmer he’s grown into, eh, Milly?” my father asked me midlaugh, clearly very pleased with the compliment.
“Why do you think I still keep him around?” I smiled and leaned in to give him a greeting peck on the cheek.
“You kids already know Vikram, Richard, and Dean. Kai, I don’t believe you’ve met Zac yet. He’s one of our marketing directors.” A proud hand landed on Zac’s shoulder.
