“Honey, what would it take for you to fly someplace to work with me? I’m willing to do anything up to and including murder.” Liz actually batted her eyelashes at Tony. And kept holding his hand.
“Liz, I’m sure we wouldn’t want you to neglect your other patrons,” Margo said.
“They can wait. I’d like to get to know Tony a little better.” She tucked his hand under her arm and led him away.
“Leave it to Liz to commandeer the new guy before the rest of us are even introduced,” Amanda said. “But it means I don’t have to worry she’ll take off with Sam tonight.”
“Yeah, I think he’s safe. Tony’s the target this time,” Margo said, laughing.
Mark Howard said, “As long as we’re talking about good-looking people, who’s that blonde over there? She’s the most beautiful woman in the room.”
Margo wasn’t sure if she was more annoyed her friend’s date was describing another woman that way or if it was the woman in question.
“That’s Greer Payne. I work with her. She’s a deputy DA,” Margo said.
“That’s a DA? Wow. Who knew they looked like that?” Howard said.
Margo rolled her eyes. And when Amanda looked like she was about to comment, she shook her head to signal her to leave it. Fiona avoided their eyes as her boyfriend went slack-jawed watching Greer in a navy blue tailored suit which was both going-to-court appropriate and, somehow, sexy.
With her was Paul Dreier, a local attorney. Dressed in Armani, his light brown hair carefully styled without a strand out of place, and his manicured nails and expensive-looking shoes both buffed to a high-gloss shine, he was a perfect match for Greer. Paul and Greer. Ken and Barbie. The only difference, according to most people who knew them, was that Greer had more brains than Barbie and a better wardrobe.
Greer must have had her radar out because just as Tony returned, she led her date over to the group. After the introductions, Greer extended her hand to him, peeked up from under her thick, perfectly mascara-ed eyelashes and said, “I’m so glad to see you again. I didn’t know we’d be seeing each other this soon.”
“Nice to see you, too, Greer.”
“Are you here on business or pleasure?”
“A little of both.” He smiled at Margo, who changed the subject.
“Amanda, tell me about your new work,” she said.
“It’s a further exploration of combining glass with metals. This time I used both foils and wire. I’m really enjoying playing with it. And I’ve started using reactive glass that changes color when I incorporate metal so I get an extra kick.”
“I love this piece,” Margo said, indicating a gently curved rectangle of creamy vanilla glass with a wide stripe in the middle created by the reaction of the glass with the metal foils. “It would look great with the other piece of yours I have.” She looked at the tag identifying the piece by name and price. “But you’re moving out of my price range, Amanda. Good for you. Bad for me.”
“That’s why I married her,” Sam said. “I couldn’t afford to buy her work.”
The group broke up into duos and trios; the conversations waxed and waned; various configurations of people went to look at what was on display or to refresh their glasses of wine. During one of the wanings of the group, Greer went off to get more wine, Tony went to the back, toward Liz’s office and Paul Dreier sidled up to Margo as she perused the jewelry case. Standing behind her and in a low voice he said, “Margo, we have something we need to talk about. How about lunch tomorrow?”