scanned the crowd for anyone we knew. Of course many of Jil ian’s clients were there, and I knew I’d be mixing in a bit of work tonight, but right now
I was content to eat my fancy shrimp and listen to Sophia and Mimi size up the men.
“Oooh, Sophia, I see a cowboy for you right over there—no, no, wait, he’s taken by another cowboy. Moving on.” Mimi sighed as she continued
her search.
“I got him! I spotted your boy for tonight, Mimi!” Sophia squealed in a whisper.
“Where, where?” Mimi whispered back, hiding her mouth behind a prawn. I rol ed my eyes and grabbed another glass of bubbly as the waiter
passed.
“Inside—see? Right over there by the island in the kitchen, black sweater and khaki pants? Jesus, he is a tall drink of water…Hmmm, nice hair
too,” Sophia mused, narrowing her eyes.
“With the curly brown hair? Yes, I could definitely work with that,” Mimi said, her target acquired. “Look how tal he is. Now, who is that yummy
he’s talking to? If that bimbo would just move out of the way,” Mimi murmured, raising an eyebrow until the al eged bimbo final y moved on, giving us
a clearer shot of the man in question.
I looked as wel , and as a path opened up, we could now see both of the chatting men. The big guy was, wel , big. Tal and broad—linebacker
shoulders almost. He fil ed out his sweater quite nicely, and as he laughed his face lit up. Yeah, he was exactly Mimi’s type.
The other gentleman had wavy blond hair that he constantly pushed behind his ears. He wore bookish glasses that real y worked for him. He
was long and lean and intense looking, almost classical in his beauty. Make no mistake, this guy was geeky gorgeous, and Sophia drew in a quick
breath at the sight of him.
As we continued to watch the scene unfold, a third man joined them, and we al smiled. Benjamin.
We headed for the kitchen immediately to say hi to our favorite man on the planet. No doubt Sophia and Mimi were also delighted to have
Benjamin handle their introductions. I glanced at the two as they simultaneously worked themselves over. Mimi surreptitiously pinched both cheeks,
a la Scarlett O’Hara, and I saw Sophia sneak a quick boob prop. These poor guys didn’t stand a chance.
Benjamin caught sight of us on our way across to him and smiled. The guys opened their circle to let us in, and Benjamin enveloped al three of
us in a giant hug.
“My three favorite girls! I was wondering when you were going to turn up. Fashionably late as always,” he teased, and we al giggled. Benjamin
did that—he made us into sil y schoolgirls.
“Hi, Benjamin,” we said in unison, and it struck me how much we sounded like Benjamin’s Angels at that moment.
Big Guy and Glasses stood there grinning as wel , perhaps waiting for an introduction as the three of us just stared at Benjamin. He real y was
aged to perfection: wavy brown hair, just barely beginning to silver by his temples; jeans, a dark blue shirt, and pair of old cowboy boots. He could
have walked right off a Ralph Lauren runway.
“Al ow me to make some introductions here. Caroline works with Jil ian, and Mimi and Sophia are her, oh, what do you cal it—BFFs?”
Benjamin smiled, gesturing to me.
“Wow, BFFs? Who’s been teaching you the lingo, daddy-o?” I laughed and extended my hand to Big Guy. “Hi, I’m Caroline. Nice to meet you.”
He engulfed my hand with his paw. It actual y was like a paw. Mimi was gonna lose her mind with this one. His eyes were ful of fun as he
smiled down at me.
“Hey, Caroline. I’m Neil. This tool here is Ryan,” he said, nodding over his shoulder at Glasses.
“Thanks, remind me of that next time you can’t remember your email password.” Ryan laughed good-naturedly and extended his hand to me. I
shook it, noticing how scorchingly green his eyes were. If Sophia had kids with this guy, they would be il egal y beautiful.
I made sure to handle the continued introductions as Benjamin stepped away. We began to smal talk, and I chuckled as the four of them
began their little getting-to-know-you dance. Neil spotted someone he knew behind me and shouted, “Hey, Parker, get your pretty-boy ass over
here and meet our new friends.”
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” I heard a voice say behind me, and I turned to see who was joining our group.
The first thing I saw was blue. Blue sweater, blue eyes. Blue. Beautiful y blue. Then I saw red as I recognized who belonged to the blue.
“Fucking Wal banger,” I hissed, frozen on the spot.
His grin slid off as wel as he played place-the-face for a moment.
“Fucking Pink Nightie Girl,” he final y concluded. He grimaced.
We stared, seething as the air literal y turned electric between us, snapping and crackling.