“Stiff.”
“It isnotstiff.” She arched a brow.Fuck,I hate it when she’s right.More like I hated when I was wrong. “Okay, so maybe it is, but what else would you expect for a group of corporate attorneys?”
“Lawyers still like to let loose.” Her lips pinched together. “Look, whatever you decide will be fine. It doesn’t have to be some expensive, stuffy affair. They probably get enough of that in their everyday lives, don’t you think?”
“I guess.”
She wasn’t wrong. Contracts and litigation accounted for a small part of being a lawyer these days, especially in a city like L.A. Schmoozing made up for the rest. As a firm that catered to high-profile celebrity clients, we were constantly expected to represent the firm at film screenings, exhibit openings, and concerts. Just last month, I had met Hozier backstage at the Hollywood Bowl, and yes, he really was amazing—and gorgeous—in person.
Maybe I was overthinking the holiday party. Then again, it might be just the thing to set me apart from the rest of the junior associates, especially the sniveling suck-ups who were there on their daddy’s dime. After the last few weeks, I needed a win.
“Okay, the Ferris wheel picture makes twelve,” Leighton declared. She lifted her teacup toward the twinkle lights strung above us. “Sis, I believe we have a calendar.”
“To us,” I said, mirroring her action with my own cup.
“Cheers.”
We slurped our tea like motherfucking ladies. Queen Victoria—the real one—would have been horrified.
Austin
This is it. This is how I die.
I was hiking the Hollywood Hills with my assistant and her latest boy toy. I had always pictured something a little more mundane and a lot less . . . true-crime podcast.
But no, this was what I got for saying yes to a surprise outing.
“Almost there,” Laric shouted from at least ten yards ahead of us. “Come on, you two.”
Sloane smiled. “Right behind you, babe.”
The moment he rounded the curve of the path, her smile soured. She bent forward, collapsing to the ground on all fours. “Fucking hell,” she whisper-shouted, careful not to alarm her new beau. “Why the fuck would anybody do this for fun?”
I dropped down beside her, leaning back against the rocky shelf as I tried to catch my breath. “Exercise gives you endorphins.”Breathe.“Endorphins make you happy.”Wheeze.“Happy people—”
“Don’t you dare quoteLegally Blondeto me at a time like this.”
The jewel dotting her belly button glistened in the sunlight when she stripped down to her sports bra and used the discarded shirt to wipe her face. I envied Sloane’s confidence. Both of us were big bitches, but she wore her stretch marks like badges of honor.
“I’m never going to forgive you for this one,” I told her after I finally caught my breath. Whoever had come up with hiking deserved to die a slow and painful death, preferably while being chucked off the top of a mountain.
“That makes two of us.” She waved when another hiker leapt over our outstretched legs before jogging up the trail. “C’mon, that’s just showing off.”
“The sex better be worth it.”
Her pause told me everything I needed to know.
“It is,” she eventually answered.
“Sloane—”
“It will be. We just . . . haven’t found our rhythm yet.”
I could tell there was more, but I didn’t want to press her. To say that Sloane had a nasty habit of picking the wrong men would be an understatement. Her relationship history read like a bad soap opera. There’d been the dog walker who enjoyed having food eaten off his dick, the therapist who had stolen some of his clients’ trauma to use in his book of poetry, and worst of all, the stand-up comedian. There was a special place in Dante’s seventh circle of Hell for amateur comics.
Sloane didn’t have a type, other than emotionally unavailable men.
Funnily enough, Laric seemed like an okay guy, minus the intense, outdoorsy stuff, but clearly, the chemistry between them was lacking.
