As long as he doesn’t want to suck my neck, I thought.
She’d done my makeup and swept my hair into an elegant style. When I looked in the mirror I looked nothing like I usually did. I hardly recognised myself. I stared at my own reflection, as if I was seeing myself for the very first time. I looked classy, sophisticated even. I’d never thought I was beautiful, but tonight I felt like I might be.
Ethan had let out a wolf whistle at us as we descended the stairs and kissed both our cheeks. Jodie was flattered, secretly I was too. Had I not known what Ethan was, I would have suggested he be Jodie’s date. They would actually suit each other, but with the knowledge I had, it didn’t feel right.
The double doors to the house lay open, soft music and laughter floated into the night air. The party was set up in the foyer this time. There wasn’t as many people here as the last function he’d held. Still, there were easily over a hundred guests. Everyone was exceptionally well-dressed. Men wore gray or black suits, the women were dressed to the nines, dripping in expensive jewels, manicured nails, wearing a confidence and an air of superiority that only came with money and class.
Suffice to say, once again I felt way out of my comfort zone. It was apparent from her confidence that Jodie was used to these functions. She wore a navy, figure-hugging dress which sailed out from her knee, and she glided like an elegant swan through the doors.
I surveyed the room; the middle had been sectioned into a dance floor by a row of potted hedges, neatly trimmed into triangle shapes and connected by soft pink ribbon. Little fairy lights sparkled amongst the green of the plants and ran across the ribbon to the next plant. Elvis was crooning in the background, and a few older couples were dancing. A large bar sat off to the side where people hovered, drinking and chatting. The bottom floor was crowded, but not excessively. There were no signs of bare asses, fingers buried up skirts or blood-stained teeth.
Above the staircase, white linen-covered tables and chairs with gold bows sat against the railing. The soft glow of tea-light candles danced in glass holders.
“I’ll leave you ladies to it,” Ethan said, moving off to the bar to order a drink. He seated himself beside a stunning sandy haired girl. He turned on the charm. She fell hook, line and sinker.
“Upstairs?” I suggested.
Jodie glanced over to the bar area, where her parents were chatting to Jefferson.
“Yep, good idea.” Her mother was a stunning blonde, with smooth skin and blue eyes. Jodie was a slightly taller replica of her, with the exception of her eye colour, which she got from her father. Her father was tall, dark-haired, and fit—distinguished looking and rather handsome.
We climbed the stairs and entered into a large, open-plan room. There was a bar against the wall to the right, the roomwas full of people chatting, drinking, and laughing. We found an empty table against the railing and perched ourselves up at it.
“Drink?” The pretty waitress I recognised from the last party smiled at us, she held out a tray filled with bubbling glasses of champagne.
“Thank you,” I said, biting my lips so I didn’t laugh at the thought of Karson and his comments of filling my body with champagne.
Jodie took two glasses, then reached for a third and placed it in front of me. The waitress looked bemused before she moved off.
She looked beneath us to where Ethan sat with the girl. Then back to me.
“You and Ethan seem to get on well,” she said casually, but there was a question in the comment.
“We do.”
“Just friends, then?” She cocked her head to the side and studied me. “Nothing more?”
I groaned. “Yes.”
“It’s just that if it was more than that I’d completely understand. You live together, he’s hot. He obviously thinks you’re hot.” She didn’t finish as she looked at me expectantly and waited for me to fill in the blanks.
I glanced at Ethan, conscious that if he was listening, he could hear everything we said. The girl was laughing at something he said. Thankfully, I didn’t think he was.
“He doesn’t think I’m hot, and we are friends. That’s it.”
She sat back, analyzing my face and took a long, leisurely sip of champagne. “He definitely thinks you’re hot, if the way he looked at you when you came down the stairs is any indication.”
“He looked at you the same way,” I appealed.
“He hardly gave me a sideways glance, but he couldn’t take his eyes off you.”
My insides twisted up. “We are friends and that’s it.”
She just kept looking at me like it was an interrogation and she was waiting for me to let something slip. “You’re going to make a good lawyer.”
She sat forward and fiddled with the stem of the champagne glass. “Is Karson coming?”
The comment in itself was casual but the sparkle in her eyes gave away another question.
