“Well, I nearly fell on my face getting out of the carriage,” I say. “So if you’re slutty and I’m klutzy, who are the other dwarves?”
Jo laughs, a loud bark that startles a cluster of girls lounging on a couch nearby. “I’m thinking we’ve got Bitchy”—she points at Addison, who is telling a hushed story about how Madison once slept with a pageant show host—“and Ditzy”—this to Daisy, who is squinting at the goat-cheese crostini in her hand like she can’t figure it out.
“Drinky,” I say, tilting my head toward stripper Rapunzel.
“Evil.” Jo’s looking over at Madison, who is holding court near the marble fireplace, smiling in that too-sweet way.
I point at PhD girl. “And Doc!” I say, too excitedly.The girls nearby look over at us again and I flush.
Jo laughs, even as I groan. “Oh my god,” I say, glancing over at the camera focused right in on us. Feeling that mic pack at my back all over again. “I guess I am going to be known as one of the bitches.”
I can almost hear Rob’s voice, dripping with sarcasm:Another great example you’ve set for the girls, Becca.My lungs squeeze inward, even though I know I didn’t say anything that bad.
But I feel myself relax a little as Nate’s smile teases the edge of my thoughts.Go ahead. Be a bitch to me.
And then, later:You’re brave, and you’re going to rock this.
Rob never once called me brave. I sure wasn’t brave enough to leave him.
“Yeah,” Jo says with a sigh, thankfully pulling me away from those thoughts. “Probably by having this conversation, we’ve become Catty and Judgy.” She pauses. “I call Judgy!”
I laugh. “Damn it. Okay. Catty it is.”
“So, have you gotten to talk to Preston yet?” Jo takes a few steps over to grab a mini cupcake from a tray of otherwise untouched desserts. I decide she’s got the right idea and take one of them myself.
“Not yet,” I say around a bite of red velvet.
“You’ll want to get on that,” she says with a sly smile, making it clear she means the innuendo.
Heat pools low in me, remembering who I really wanted to get on in that carriage. Whose hands I wanted to feel on my skin, whose tongue I wanted on my—
“Are you implying that I’m not here for Preston?” a girl nearby shouts, flinging her arms out and barely missing breaking her champagne glass against a marble column. Attention swivels toward her; cameramen inch closer. “Because I am definitely here for Preston!”
“I’m saying thatI’mhere for Preston,” the girl talking to her says firmly, and I notice she’s the gorgeous redhead I saw have the interview with Nate. Does he get to pick who he interviews tonight? Did he really request to be in the carriage with me or was he just saying that to make me feel better?
“Oh my god,” Jo says loudly in their direction. “We’reallhere for Preston.”
The girls don’t seem to notice, still sniping with each other.
I turn back to Jo. “Actually, I said in my interview that I’m just here to make friends.”
She laughs. “In this crowd? Good luck with . . .” She trails off and raises an eyebrow at a couple of the women on the couch nearby, leaning close to each other and whispering. Well, they think they’re whispering, but are a little too intoxicated to have full volume awareness—or to realize how obvious they’re being with their furtive looks.
“ —friends instead of him,” one of them is saying.
The other one nods, looking concerned. “Yeah, I think Preston needs to know she said that.”
Shit. Are we in fourth grade? Are they seriously going to tell Preston that I’m not here for him based on a stupid joke?
Although, when you get right down to it, I’m not really here forhim. I barely know the guy yet. I’m here for me, and to find out if I can be ready for—
“Go!” Jo says under her breath, giving me a small shove. “Get your time with Preston. I’ll stall them.”
Right.Time to talk to Preston, to get to know the guy I’m here to date.
Hopefully I’ll like him so much I won’t wish I was dating Nate instead.
