“It was good talking to you, but I think we’re both thirsty.”
“Don’t worry; I’ll get you some drinks. Some more wine perhaps?”
“Sure,” Katherine says with a nod.
“What about you, Brielle?”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind some. I think they have a Riesling.”
“Two glasses of Riesling coming up.”
I walk away, and as I get farther away from the women, I hear Brielle whispering to Katherine.
“What was that all about? And where did you guys disappear to?”
“You don’t want to know,” Katherine says.
I turn to look over my shoulder and see she’s staring at me. I lick my lips slowly and give her a big wink. She just glares at me. I can’t help but laugh as I make my way to the kitchen and grab two glasses.
“So, why do you look like the cat that got some cream?” Levi asks, his blue eyes dancing with merriment as he observes me.
“I don’t know,” I say. “Why are you asking?”
“I just saw your lady friend running out of one of the rooms about ten minutes ago, and then you sauntered out five minutes later. I’m just wondering if something went down, if you know what I mean.”
“Oh? What do you mean?” I say. “You want some wine?”
“Nah, I’m okay. I’ve still got my beer.” He holds up his hand. “So, what’s going on with you? Was it Brielle?”
“No. Brielle’s got light-brown hair. Katherine’s the one with the almost-black hair.”
“Oh, okay. I forgot. You know her from before, don’t you?”
“You know that I know her from before. No one’s going to forget what went down the other day,” I say, laughing. “Nice try, Levi.”
“What? You haven’t been very forthcoming with information. So, I figured I’d have to use my smarts to get what I could.”
“It’s not really a long story,” I say, shrugging. “I met Katherine many years ago at a club, and she ended up dating my brother, Zac.”
“She dated Zac?” He looks surprised. “No way.”
“Yeah. I don’t think they dated very long, as they were both teenagers. You know how those things go. Anyway, I think she was still a senior in high school, and Zac was at Columbia. He’d just started.”
“They dated seriously?”
“No, it didn’t seem to go very well. They didn’t see each other very often, and he kind of was seeing other people. They broke up.”
“So then, why was she so mad at you?” he asks.
Maybe I had a helping hand in the breakup.
“You know how it goes.”
“What happened?”
“I could tell she really liked him, and she seemed like she wasn’t going to dump him, and I just felt bad for her. She seemed way more invested. I knew Zac wanted to go a little bit deeper into the relationship.”
“Deeper—like get married?”
