Our team got drunk fast. More drunk than I’d seen them, but nowhere near the drunkest company there. That honor belonged to Financial Asset Management Infrastructure, who got so blasted, someone puked on a table.
We were chatting in the couch and chairs lounge section, which was never something I’d seen at a networking event. It felt more like I was with my college friends at some trendy lounge downtown than at a work event. The only things missing were the provocative waitresses and thumping club music. Instead, it was mixed-gender cater servers and mid-volume pop from a decade ago.
“Anyone want anything while I’m up?” Jess, another Jr. Rep. said, standing.
Alec tipped his small plastic glass back and said, “Yeah, please?”
She smiled. “Mm-hmm. You?” she said, looking at me.
“Good for now. But thanks.”
Jess was the only other person talking to us. The rest of the team, while sitting close by, were engrossed in their own conversations. I couldn’t hear them, so I assumed they couldn’t hear us. Not that it mattered, but any form of privacy with Alec gave me a slight thrill.
“See them,” Alec pointed with a chin nod to a younger man and woman chatting near the bar.
“Yeah.”
“They’re gonna fuck later tonight.”
“Oh yeah? How do you know?”
“Been to this conference so many times, I’ve got a sixth sense for it. Tonight is just speed dating to find your conference boo.”
I snorted a laugh. “Seriously?”
“Yup.” He gave me a smug grin. “And those two. And them. And I think… yup, those guys are gonna share her, oreach other and her, by the end of the conference if they haven’t already,” he said, pointing to random groups of people.
“What the genuine fuck, Alec?” I said with a hearty laugh.
Everything I knew about him screamed he didn’t like that kind of thing.Hescreamed it from the past, through his own lips.
“What?” he said, his false innocence revealing how drunk he was. Another side of him I didn’t know existed.
I gave him a look halfway betweenwhat the fuck, andyou’re fucking with me, right?He said, “They all work for different companies.”
I tried to impersonate his voice. “Anyone you meet will be related to your work, and sleeping with people in the industry gets messy.”
He looked at me for a minute, then laughed. “Never fucking said it wasn’tmessy. It’s crazy messy. Doesn’t mean they’re not gonna fuck.”
I laughed, shook my head, and sipped my drink. Jess returned with Alec’s and was called over by one of the other groups. The feeling that I was at a social event meant for early twenty-something's grew stronger.
“It’s always like that here. People pairing off and everyone pretending they aren’t. Or colleagues never mentioning the missing rings from people’s fingers. Just gross. All around.”
“I don’t get you, man. One minute you’re condoning that shit, then the next, you’re bitching about it.”
He looked at me, his face darkening. “I hate cheating. Always have. Always will.”
“Then what gives?”
“Nothing gives, Blackwood.”
“If you say so, man,” I said and took out my phone.
A minute passed. Alec sighed as if I’d worn him down. “I guess part of me misses being unattached at something like this.”
“So, you’re jealous?”
He laughed. “Fuck you. I’m not jealous.”
