Authors: Casey McMillin
"You can do some taste testing," I answered. I gave him a genuine smile at being so willing to
go with the flow on a not so typical date.
"I hope you know who you're talking to here. I am an expert taste tester, probably the best in the city," he said.
"I knew it was a good choice to ask you," I said.
"You think so?" he asked, moving a little closer. I felt the underlying intent in his repositioning, and I wasn't necessarily opposed to the idea of getting close to him. We hadn't talked about relationships or where we both stood, but we were two single people who were apparently attracted to each other. There wasn't much to think about. As far as I was concerned, we could get a little cozy now, and ask questions later.
I was standing with my back to the wall and he was next to me with one arm propping him up. Everything seemed to be on track as far as the party was concerned, so I decided to forget the taste testing after all. We could eat later. I took the opportunity to relax and enjoy my date's company before the guests began to arrive.
Everything about my current surroundings was good. The party was on the up and up, and my date was
extremely
easy on the eyes. He was wearing dark gray slacks with a lighter gray shirt and tie. It shouldn't surprise me that a guy who drove an exotic sports car would have perfectly tailored clothes and the best cologne money could buy. Having the hunky TV star so near me was still a bit intimidating.
"I'm glad you got the role," he said with a slow smile. "T
he producers had me read with the other candidates, and you're the only one I had chemistry with."
"Chemistry, huh?" I asked, looking up at him with innocent eyes.
"Yeah, you've heard of the stuff, haven't you?"
"I think so. Are you referring to whatever it is that's making me a little short of breath right now?"
"I believe that's exactly the stuff I'm talking about." He moved closer still, bending to speak into my ear. His cheek barely brushed mine, causing me to shiver with the contact. "I like how you smell," he said, taking in a breath through his nose. His cheek was so close I could feel the heat coming from it even though it scarcely brushed mine.
"Think you can manage to keep it in your pants till the party's over?" The sound of Joel Perrin's deep voice startled me, so it took me a second to register what he said.
Shooting me a confused look, Caleb took a step back. "Caleb and I thought we were alone," I said, trying not to show the surge of anger I was feeling toward Joel for saying something so inappropriate. "We'll have to save that for later."
I reached up to Caleb's tie, and pretended to straighten it. Thankfully, Caleb went along with me. He looked at Joel with a proud smile as he put a possessive arm around my shoulders.
Chapter 2
Joel
Who the hell did this punk think he was smirking at me like that? There was no doubt in my mind that I could kick his pampered ass. I had the sudden urge to demonstrate some of the skills I picked up from growing up in trailer parks.
Gretchen must have sensed some of the tension radiating off me, because despite me being a jerk, she smiled and tried to lighten the mood. "What are you doing here so early?"
I was so distracted that I barely heard her question. "Huh? Oh, Why am I here? I left early to pick up my date, but she got called to do an emergency surgery, she'll be here later."
Something about that statement made Gretchen huff a little laugh, which I had no idea how to take. "Well, you should take advantage of being early and check the place out." she said, playing the
role of hostess. "Guests will be showing up before too long. You should know quite a few of them… the swimmers at least."
I thought arriving early would be no big deal, but everything about this situation was wrong. The girl was taking my breath away in that green dress, but the
last
thing I wanted to do was stand here and chitchat with her and Mama's-boy.
"Don't worry about me," I said, "I can take care of myself."
"We'd like nothing more," Caleb said, surprising both Gretchen and me. "I'm sure we'll see you around… or not."
After his smug comment, I wanted nothing more than to
familiarize
the actor's face with the pavement.
"
Okaay
," Gretchen said. I could tell she wasn't at all comfortable with the amount of testosterone that charged the air between Pretty-boy and myself. "We'll see you, or we won't see you then," she said. "And I'd like to meet your really wonderful girlfriend who's doing surgery. You'll have to introduce us when she gets here." The two of them turned and walked off leaving me staring after them.
They'd taken no more than a few steps when Gretchen turned around, her fists clinching in distress. Her expression was shocked and disappointed like she'd forgotten something. "How in the world did I forget this?" she asked herself out loud. Whatever she'd forgotten was important enough to make her oblivious to Heartthrob and me and the fact that we weren't each other's biggest fans.
"What is it?" the other guy said, taking the words right out of my mouth. "The picture. Collin had a tiny little picture of him and Rachel when they first met at Disney years ago. I had it blown up to eight by ten and framed for the party." Gretchen was staring at the wall, apparently deciding whether to make a run for the photo, or stay and help host the party.
"Let me go get it," I said. I was annoyed with her, sure. But that didn't mean I shouldn't help her out.
"Really?" she asked. She was smiling at me like I was her hero. "Are you sure? That would be a huge favor, Joel. You think you can find my apartment?"
"Of course, I'll just put the address in my GPS."
"Let me go," Caleb cut in, "I just came from there. I can be back in a half hour. Just give me the keys to your apartment."
What the hell? Was this guy for real? As if I would be going any slower just because I'd never been to her apartment.
I started to tell him how ridiculous the notion was when it dawned on me that I didn't mind the idea of him making himself scarce for a while.
"Yeah, you're right, you could probably get there a lot faster since you've been there before," I said. I was being sarcastic, but neither of them seemed to catch
on.
"Caleb, thank you so much." Gretchen turned to him and regarded him lik
e he'd just agreed to donate a kidney or something.
"No sweat," he said. He bent down and placed a kiss on her cheek. I diverted my gaze, but didn't leave her side. I could have found something else to do, but I didn't want to. She gave Baby Face her
apartment key and explained where he could find the photo. He left us standing alone.
Even though it was still early, more guests were starting to arrive. I recognized Ian Craig, the photographer I hired to do the photo shoot for my company's new ad campaign. He was toting his camera and had already begun snapping photos.
"I guess it's safe to assume that's Ian Craig," Gretchen said, looking at me.
"Yeah, he's a character. You haven't met him?" I asked.
"No, but Rachel told me he'd be here. She said he was taking photos for free in exchange for the rights to use them as he pleases."
"That's what I hear," I said, "seems like a win-win."
Just then, a group of people surprised us by coming from the outside terrace. Gretchen was caught off-guard by their appearance and I assumed it was because she didn't realize they were already here when she arrived.
"I think that's Collin's family," she said, staring intently at the group of people as if she still couldn't believe they'd been here the whole time. "I guess they were outside."
"Do you want to go introduce yourself?" I asked.
She gave it some thought before replying, "I think I'll wait for Rachel. I checked my phone when I pulled out my keys, and I had a text from her saying she was just a few minutes away."
Just then, the group of people passed us and headed for the entrance. We heard them saying they were going to wait for Collin to arrive.
Gretchen turned to me. "Yep, that's his family all right. Did you see the brother? Spitting image of Collin."
I wasn't listening to what she was saying. I was just getting to look at her for the first time and it struck me that her pale green dress was the exact same color of her eyes. Come to think of it, her eyes were almost the same color as mine. I had the oddest sensation for a split second that I was staring into my own eyes. They looked so much better on her, though. The sight of them against her red hair and freckles could take your breath away.
"Don't you think so?" she asked, snapping me back to reality.
"Think what?" I asked.
"Think that must've been Collin's brother."
"I guess so," I said, even though I hadn't really seen the guy. "Let's go out there." I pointed to the door that led to the terrace. "Who knows? Maybe there's a whole bunch of people out there you don't know about."
She faked a punch to my shoulder. "Why do you have to be so mean? Do you just like to torture me?" Gretchen looked around to make sure nobody was in earshot of us before continuing, "And why do you have to walk in telling Caleb to keep his pants on?
That makes it sound like I'm
slut
or something. You want my date to think the worst of me?"
"Of course not," I said… and I meant it. I didn't want anyone to think the worst of Gretchen. I tried to remember what prompted me to be so rude, and I realized it was probably just because I wanted Fabio Junior to get his grubby little hands off of her. But I couldn't really tell her that now could I?
I put an arm around her shoulder and turned us in the direction of the terrace door. I started walking toward it, pulling her along with me. She followed. Reluctantly at first, but she did come with me.
"What are you doing with him Gretchen? He's just a boy. What do you want with the boy when you could have a man?" She was silent for a few long seconds after that, and by the time she spoke, we were outside and she had stopped walking to look at me.
"He's only a year younger than me, Joel. And what does it matter anyway? Where do you get off telling me who I
should
and
shouldn't
date?" Her feathers were ruffled. I could tell she was just getting started. "You're here with someone, I'm here with someone. Why can't we just be friends with each other… be nice to each other?"
I couldn’t take my eyes off her lips, her mad little lips. I found myself wanting to kiss the frown off of them.
"We… actually, uh, no, I'm not sure about friends." I mumbled.
"What did you just say?" she asked, dumbfounded. "I didn't understand a word of that."
"I said I don't know if I want to be your friend."
"There you are!" It was a female voice and I turned to see the smiling face of Celia Beckett, my date for the evening. She walked toward me with an arm outstretched. I took her hand. What else was I supposed to do?
"Congratulations on the surgery," Gretchen said as she edged her way past us, "looks like it was a success." She shot a smile my direction, and I thought she was either an excellent actress, or she honestly wasn't upset about Celia's appearance. The fact that she was being so aloof just served to piss me off. I had the urge to follow her just to see if that smile remained in place.
Celia's voice brought me to the present. "I didn't have to do the procedure. The hospital got in touch with my partner. He was the one on call tonight, anyway. They called me back when he said he was on his way, and I just turned around and came he
re." She hesitated for a moment and then added, "I hope that's okay." She gave a concerned look in the direction of the door Gretchen had just gone through.
"Yes. I'm glad you're here. And, no, that was just, she's, uhh, just an assistant, my advertiser's assistant. And, an actress, I guess. Her name's Gretchen."
For Christ's sake
, I had to recover somehow. I was all-but stuttering. "You look beautiful," I said.
It worked. She beamed at me. "Aww, thanks. You look good too. If I'd have known you were going to look this hot, I would have shaved my legs," she said.
"You didn't shave your legs?" I asked, taking a little peek down toward her exposed ankles. She kicked up her foot so I could examine.
"I did," she said, guiltily, "I just wanted an excuse to say you looked hot. And I wanted you to check out my legs."
"You think I look hot?" I asked. I was playing along, saying what I knew she wanted me to say. I was so frustrated with myself for not being able to focus on anything but the redhead. I rubbed my eyebrows as if I were trying to physically erase the girl from my brain.
"You okay?" Celia asked, concerned as every good doctor should be, "headache?" I smiled at her. She really was a sweet girl. She was beautiful, and smart, and had all the other attributes I'd been looking for. Shaking Freckles out of my head should be a piece of cake once I reminded myself about how great Celia was.
"No, I'm good," I said. "Is this your first time here?" I asked.
"No… but it never get less beautiful," she said. "Is it your first time?"
"I've been here once before, but you're exactly right, I'm blown away again." I was looking around at the gorgeous flowers and plants, all formed from glass and mirror. On the terrace, the amazing reflective artwork was incorporated into real landscaping. It was the most colorful, whimsical place I'd ever seen… Too bad I was too distracted and pissed to enjoy it.