“K-I-S-S-I-N-G…”
“Stop it right now,” I said through myteeth.
“…first comes love, then comes marriage…then comes little Shar-Pei in a babycarriage.”
He burst into a laugh as I finished rolling my eyes as overdramatically aspossible.
“Daxy Boo.” My muscles locked as the sound hit myears.
“Four o’clock,” Carter said. “Wait, no, maybe eight…orten.”
I kept glancing in the wrong direction. “Jesus Christ, Carter, how bad can a person be at thisgame?”
I finally spied Serena at my “Two o’clock,” I stressed,annoyed.
“Oopsies.”
Serena pushed a hug on me. She was dressed to the nines in a red gown that matched the bright lipstick she wore, and her dark hair was doneup.
“I thought you said you weren’t coming,” I spitout.
“I said I wasn’t invited. But then I thought,Oh, they’ll let Lil’ Donnie Gibson’s momin.”
“You always knew how to work an angle. Just like old times,” I said, not intending any sort of nostalgia as much as digging at the way she used to take advantage of mysuccess.
“You look fantastic, Serena. Love thedress.”
“Oh, thank you, Carter. It’s so good to see you again. Looking as dapper as ever.” She must’ve noticed my expression because she quickly changed her tune. “Oh, Dax. Don’t act so upset that I’m here. I won’t be in your hair. You know Mommy has to do her ownschmoozing.”
I rolled my eyes at the thought of her running around, trying to impress all the a-holes she’d want to help her nab a new part in some crapshoot TV or streamingmovie.
“But I do want to meet this Hottie Firefighter you haven’t told me anything about. You should have brought him with you. This would have been a great place for him to get some moreexposure.”
“I doubt he needs any more exposure rightnow.”
“Well, I guess you would know, seeing as how you’re the bigshot PR guy,” she said, an obvious dig, considering she must’ve known she was right about the exposure. “I swear, you’re acting like all the attention is a great imposition, but you just need to play it to your advantage. Make hay while the sunshines.”
I’d called her after everything went down and discussed my predicament with Jace, but being who she was, she was more interested in me finding the angle that would benefit my careermost.
“I’m clearly just getting under his skin, Carter, so I’ll be on my way, but, Dax, we need to have lunch and catchup.”
“Of course,” I said, realizing how much tension filled me since she’d started chatting withus.
She offered another hug before heading on herway.
Carter started to say something, but I blurted out, “Just leaveit.”
We finished up at the party, and I grabbed an Uber back to my place, texting Jace:Gala wentamazing.
Which outside of Freyda Inc. and the run-in with my mother, ithad.
JACE: I expected noless. :)
DAX: Heading home, but good luck saving the world tomorrow,Batman.
JACE: Night,Hollywood.
DAX:Night.
