They introduced her to Kent, a dark-haired white man in his midforties who was decently attractive and seemed perfectly nice. Within five minutes, Lilah could tell she wasn’t into him whatsoever. As they sipped champagne and attempted to make small talk, she had the sinking suspicion that, as often happened, the two of them had only been set up because they were both tall.
“So, are you making any resolutions?” she asked in a light, false tone.
Kent frowned. “I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions. Ninety percent of them fail. If you want to make a change in your life, why wait until some arbitrary date to start? It just shows you’re not really serious about it.”
Lilah laughed, but only because she didn’t know how else to respond. “Right.” She gulped down the rest of her champagne, then glanced around desperately for one of the waiters.
She was so distracted by her search that she was caught completely off guard when someone behind her tapped her on the shoulder. When she turned around and saw it was Shane, she was thankfully able to suppress her first instinct to gasp like she was in a soap opera, but she could tell from the amusement in his eyes that he knew just how flustered she was to see him.
“Sorry to interrupt,” he said in a tone that indicated he wasn’t very sorry at all.
He was accompanied by a stunning young blonde—the twenty-two-year-old she’d prophesied in Vancouver, by the looks of it. Though they exchanged introductions, the woman’s name might as well have been white noise for how well Lilah was able to retain it.
“What are you doing here?” She directed the question at Shane, but his date answered.
“I work at the label.”
“Bailey’s a friend of Dean’s. He introduced us,” Shane filledin.
Bailey,Lilah filed away.
Shane’s eyebrows lowered, his expression serious. “I didn’t know this was Yvonne’s party until we were on our way here. Really.”
Lilah shrugged. “It’s fine.” She turned back to Kent, threading her arm through his. Shane’s eyes tracked them, and he put his arm around Bailey’s back a second later, but Lilah caught his hesitation, the slight flash of surprise in Bailey’s eyes when he pulled her closer.
Suddenly, Lilah was hit with a brief, overwhelming sense memory of what it was like to be in Bailey’s place. Shane always smelled amazing, unfortunately, whether he was fresh out of the shower or oozing pheromones after hours on set. It was the reason she was constantly stealing his clothes, back when they were together.
She blinked a few times to shake it away, cozying up to Kent, who glanced at her with confusion, since they hadn’t touched at all up until that point.
“I just wanted to come over and say hello because Bailey’s a big fan of the show. She was dying to meet you,” Shane said.
Bailey smiled guiltily. “Sorry, I know I should probably play it cooler, but I wassoobsessed withIntangiblein high school. We used to have watch parties and everything.”
Lilah smiled, too, forcing herself to relax. “Thank you. That’s really sweet.”
“We were all totally convinced you guys were banging in real life.” Bailey clapped her hand over her mouth, her eyes going wide. “Oh,fuck,sorry,” she said, raising her empty champagne flute and laughing nervously. “Guess this is my cue to slow down.”
Lilah met Shane’s eyes, all too aware that both Kent and Bailey were looking at them for a reaction.
“It’s okay. That just means we were doing our jobs,” Lilah said, her smile widening until she felt like she was showing every last one of her teeth.
Shane turned to Kent. “So, how long have you two been seeing each other?”
“This is actually our first date,” Kent said, as Lilah stared at the ground, tension vibrating through her entire body.
“Us, too,” said Bailey. “But you gotta have a date on New Year’s, right?”
“Right. Lock down that midnight kiss,” Shane said innocently, looking directly at Lilah. Lilah felt heat creep up her neck. Was it obvious even to him that there was no spark between her and Kent?
“Right,” Lilah repeated, smiling brightly. “Well, I think I need another drink. It was nice meeting you, Bailey. Shane…” She just nodded at him, unsure what to say, and he returned it, his gaze unexpectedly intense.
She steered Kent through the crowd until they made it to the windowed back wall, swapping out their empty glasses for freshones en route. They stood there in awkward silence for a long moment, looking out at the view. Kent ran his fingers through his hair.
“I don’t want to pry, but…is there something going on there? Because I don’t want to get in the middle of anything. That seemed a little…complicated.”
Lilah hesitated, a terse deflection on the tip of her tongue. She took a sip of champagne first, biding her time, weighing her impulse to be honest with him about it.
Or, at least, more honest than she was going to be.
