“Please,” I added.
Meredith undid the top button of my green stripey blouse and pushed the collar open, then adjusted my twisted gold necklaces. “Perfect. You look adorable.”
“Thanks.”
“Okay, incoming,” Colton said under his breath, stepping out of line to intercept the trio. “Heyyyy, who let the troublemakers in?”
They went through a series of handshakes and backslaps before turning their attention to us. “Guys, meet my girlfriend, Meredith, and our friend Brooke.” He turned to point at them. “This is Tyler, Zach, andKai.”
He practically wiggled his eyebrows at me as he said the name. I wanted to punch him for his lack of chill.
“You again.” Kai smiled at me. “We keep running into each other. You’re a member at CPA, right?”
“We all are,” Meredith lied for me. “But the last time I was there, I fractured my foot. We ran into you in the lobby, remember?”
“Right, of course.” He nodded. “Grip was taking care of you.”
“Yup, Brooke’s taking lessons with him now,” Colton said. “Twice a week.”
“He said she’s really good,” Meredith added.
They were a combination of hype man and PR strategist, and I loved them for it. All I had to do was try to look cute.
“Oh, no way,” Kai said with admiration in his voice. “Gripper is the best. And you must be good, because he’s super picky about who he takes on. I practically had to audition to get him to work with me! He off-loads to Brandon if he doesn’t think you’re good enough.”
It was news to me.
“You folks ready to get crazy tonight or what?” Tyler tried to punch Colton in the stomach, but he ducked away too quickly.
Meredith and I exchanged a look. We’d already agreed to bail if the party wound up goingWolf of Wall Street. My hope was to get my Kai time early enough that things were still sober and civil, although thanks to the unexpected meeting, I had a head start.
“We’re ready to enjoy a fun evening,” Meredith answered with a prim smile. “The weather’s perfect, the company is great—”
“The drinks will be flowing,” Zach added. “Plenty of party favors too.”
I glanced at Meredith again. Yeah, I definitely wasn’t down to hang with a bunch of strangers tripping balls. I glanced at Kai to see how keen he seemed to just say yes to illicit substances, but he didn’t respond.
“Did you guys eat breakfast? Want to join us?” Colton asked.
The people in line behind grumbled at the possibility of three extra people between them and their bagels.
“Would love to,” Kai answered as he glanced my way, “but we need to run a couple errands to get ready. We can hang tonight and gossip about the Big Gripper. He’s supposed to come, by the way. I invited him. Last minute, but he said he might make it.”
My mouth dropped open. Owen was going to be at the party too? That made my mission even easier!
“Later,” Zach said, reaching out to do a complicated handshake with Colton. “Nice to meet you both.”
We waited until they were out of sight to begin the download.
“He wastotallychecking you out,” Meredith said under her breath.
“I saw it too.”
Same. It was too obviousnotto notice it.
“So how does this muse thing happen? Explain it to me,” Colton said as we moved forward a half step. “Is it like a bolt of lightning?”
“No,” I answered quickly, even though it sort of was. “I can’t figure it all out myself. It’s sort of hard to believe that this is my first time dealing with major writer’s block.”
