I grinned and nodded.
“You like her.”
I nodded. “Yeah, of course.”
“So when does she go back to London?” I didn’t want tothink about it. I’d promised her uncomplicated, and I didn’t go back on my promises.
“Monday.” I felt my jaw tense. “Can we get a beer, a whiskey, a Manhattan, and a glass of champagne?” I said to the bartender.
“She is your perfect woman if she drinks whiskey.”
I grinned and raised my eyebrows.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. When I turned, I was faced with Julie … or Julia, or something.
“Hey, handsome,” she drawled. I cringed—I didn’t remember fucking her, but I knew we’d fucked. And I cringed that she had her hand on my shoulder when the only person I wanted touching me was Anna. I moved to the right to encourage her to remove her arm, but she just moved with me. Fuck. I hoped Anna wasn’t watching this. Would she care? I wasn’t sure, but I cared.
“Hey. This is my friend Andrew,” I said. I couldn’t introduce them properly when I couldn’t remember her fucking name.
“Hey, Andrew,” she said dismissively and turned back to me. “So, you should give me a call sometime. We could hang out again.”
Fucking hell. I put every effort into never having to have these conversations. I was always clear that they would have no call from me. Ever.
“I don’t think so. I’m with someone.” I wasn’t sure if I said it to soften what I was saying or because I wanted it to be true.
“I won’t tell if you don’t.”
Jesus, that made my stomach churn. As if I’d ever fuck her again.
“I’m not interested,” I said. It was rude, but I didn’t care. And it got the result I wanted: She removed her hand frommy shoulder, called me an asshole, and walked away. Thank fuck for that. I turned to see if Anna had caught any of that, but she was talking to Mandy and that bitch Clarissa. Fuck, why had I agreed to come to this shitty party?
“I hate these parties, man.”
“Me, too,” he said. “I think it’s going to be fun until I actually get here.”
“Is this bartender on a go-slow?” I wanted to save Anna from Clarissa.
Just as we picked up the drinks, we were ambushed by the Zetter twins and some girl I’d never seen before. I worked with their father, so couldn’t brush them off as easily as I had Julie. Julia. Whatever her name was. But eventually we broke free and headed back to Anna and Mandy.
TWELVE
Anna
“Do you have parties like this in London?” Mandy asked.
I shrugged. I didn’t know what that meant. “We have parties. But indoors, mainly.” She laughed. I looked over to the bar. A tall, very tanned woman wearing a very short skirt had her arm draped over Ethan’s shoulder. Had he slept with her? Was she his type?
“Hey, Clarissa,” Mandy said, as an equally tanned woman came to join us.
“Hi.” She smiled. It wasn’t a warm smile. There was something off about it. She kissed Mandy on the cheek and then held out her hand to me and actually looked me up and down. Wow.
“Clarissa, this is Ethan’s girlfriend, Anna.” I took her hand and shook it.
“Ethan’sgirlfriend?” she asked.
I should have set her straight. I should say that we were just friends, or lovers, or … how would I describe us? ‘Oh, I’m just having hot sex with him for a week to get over my ex’? I was pretty sure that wouldn’t be appropriate. And besides, I liked to see Clarissa squirm, which was apparently what she was doing.
“Nice to meet you,” I said.
