Page 32 of Strictly Business

I spot Serena standing up. Her dress looks ethereal in the lights and for a moment, her hair shines too, and she looks like an angel. The very sight of her takes my breath away once more and I am glad that I don’t have to do anymore of the talking for a moment. I don’t think I could keep the quiver out of my voice right now. Serena steps out of the lights and heads towards me and the angelic look fades, but she is still beautiful, even with her cheeks red from embarrassment as she reaches me and feels every eye in the room on her.

I smile and hold the microphone out to her. She takes it and I give her upper arm a quick squeeze to reassure her. I feel the sparks the second my hand touches her skin, and her quiet intake of breath tells me she feels it too. It was probably the wrong move to calm her nerves before her speech, but she can’t say I didn’t try. I move away and leave Serena in the center of the dance floor.

“Hi everyone,” she says, and a cheer goes up. She smiles and I can see the muscles in her back soften slightly. She is relaxing into this. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to keep you long. I just want to say thank you to Wyatt for hiring me and for believing in me enough to let me run with my ideas for Hislop’s. And I want to thank all of you for the warm welcome. I feel like I have found my home at Smart Marketing Solutions, and I am literally living my dream with all of you. You all rock.”

This gets another cheer and Serena pumps her fist into the air. More than half of the room are on their feet now and they fist pump back at her. She turns to me with a much less nervous smile and holds the microphone out to me.

“How did I do?” she says, although I think she already knows the answer to that one.

“Good,” I say.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, please give it up one more time for Miss Serena West,” I shout into the microphone and the applause keeps coming as more and more people get to their feet. I let it go on for a while, letting Serena have her moment. When it starts to die off naturally, I speak again. “Ok guys, the bar is open, the music is pumping, and the night is young. Let’s have fun tonight everyone.”

This gets another cheer and another round of applause, and I hand the microphone back to the DJ and go back towards my seat. A few of the staff high five me as I pass. I spot Serena and Ruth at the bar. Ruth hands Serena a glass of something orange in color and hugs her. I raise an eyebrow. I’m shocked to see that, but I can’t say I’m not happy about it. I am pleased that Ruth is finally making an effort with Serena, and I’m sure that if she continues to do so she will see the real Serena and start to like her for real.

I realize I should have gone to the bathroom before I came and sat back down and so I stand up and head off to them now. I use the toilet and wash my hands and I come back into the room. A few people stop me on my way back to my table and I find myself laughing and chatting and by the time I get back to my seat, over half an hour has passed since I stood up to go to the bathroom. I scan the room looking for Serena and I can’t find her anywhere. I feel a bad feeling in my stomach, but I tell myself not to be silly. She’s likely at the ladies’ room or something. Or knowing Serena, she’s convinced a porter or someone to give her a tour of the place. I smile to myself, but I know she won’t really have done that, not in the middle of a work event, although I wouldn’t put it past her at a family party.

I still don’t see her and when almost ten minutes have passed, I figure she can’t possibly still be in the bathroom after all this time unless she is ill. I turn to Ruth.

“Have you seen Serena?” I ask, forcing myself to keep my voice casual.

“She went outside to get some air,” Ruth says. She leans closer so only I can hear her. “Not before time if you ask me. She was so drunk she was starting to embarrass herself.”

I frown. That doesn’t add up at all. At most, Serena has had one glass of champagne and whatever the orange drink Ruth gave her was. Even if that was a double vodka and orange, she wouldn’t be that drunk. Even if she’d lied about the tonic water and it had really been vodka too, I still didn’t think she’d be drunk enough to be embarrassing herself.

I decide to go and look for her and make sure she’s ok, well aware of the possibility that her drink had been spiked, although I hated the idea that anyone who worked for me would do such a thing, I couldn’t just ignore it as a possible outcome. I stand up and make my way across the ballroom, not stopping long with anyone who speaks to me, just enough to be polite before excusing myself again. I get out of the ballroom and cross the lobby and go outside. I look to the right. Nothing. I look to the left and see Serena standing there looking at her cell phone.

CHAPTER24

Wyatt

“Hey,” I say, moving closer to her.

“Hi,” she replies.

She puts her cell phone in her purse. She doesn’t look or sound drunk, but Ruth was at least half right that she’s out here, so I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt for now.

“Are you ok?” I ask her.

“Yes, I’m great thanks,” she says. She smiles. “Thank you for the party.”

“Ah, it’s no big deal,” I say shrugging one shoulder.

“It is to me,” Serena says. She looks at me for a moment and then she closes the gap between us, grabs the lapels of my jacket and pulls my face down to hers and kisses me. I’m taken aback but the feel of her lips on mine, with their orangey sweetness, her eager little tongue pushing in between my lips, I can’t help but respond to her kiss. I wrap my arms around her, pulling her close, and I kiss her deeply. I never want the kiss to end, but there’s a voice in the back of my mind reminding me that she could be drunk, and I could be taking advantage of her, and that anyone from the office could step out here at any moment and catch us. That voice gets through to me and I force my lips away from Serena’s and I step back, removing my arms from around her. She lets go of my lapels and frowns at me. She looks hurt and I hate myself for putting that look on her face.

“I’m sorry,” I say.

It’s lame and it’s not enough but it’s all I’ve got.

“If you’re sorry for pulling away, then good, so you should be,” she says. “But if you mean you’re sorry for kissing me, well I’m not sorry it happened, and truthfully I don’t think that you are either.”

I sigh. I’m not sorry about the kiss. I should be, but I’m not. I am sorry for pulling away though. I could be kissing her now instead of standing here wishing I was. But I won’t take advantage of her.

“You’re drunk Serena,” I say. “I don’t want to take advantage of you.”

“What are you talking about? I’m not even close to drunk. I’ve had one glass of champagne and one mimosa,” she says.

“But didn’t you come out here to get some air because you were drunk?” I say with a frown.

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