“You have no idea.”
I make my way back to the girls with the shot glasses in my hand when I catch the end of their conversation.
“Oh god,” Tess says, worried.“Leo is going to flip when he sees him.”
“Sees who?” I ask, and they turn toward me. Both Tess and Gwen look at the shot glasses I’m holding.“I got us some dancing juice,” I explain, and hand each of them a shot.
“Dancing juice?” Gwen laughs skeptically.
“Ok, fine, it’s vodka,” I chuckle.“Cheers to being a dancing queen!” I yell before we all take the shot.
“Gross,” Tess comments, and it makes me laugh.
“So who is going to make Leo flip?” I ask again as I look at the other side of the room.
“Rex Chen. I’ll put it mildly and say he is a business nemesis of Leo’s who tried to screw us over as well,” Tess explains.
“Do we need to do anything?” I ask, feeling ready for any type of action.“Wait, is that Julian? Julian!” I scream as I look at the guy next to Rex.
Both Julian and Rex look my way. Julian smiles and makes his way toward me.
“I haven’t seen you in forever! How are you?” I ask him as he makes his way over to me and hugs me.
“I’ve been busy,” Julian says almost shyly.“How are you? What are you doing in Chicago?” His demeanor feels nothing like him.
“I moved back,” I tell Julian proudly.“We should have lunch soon,” I tell him, and he nods.
Julian looks around the room, and when he sees Leo making his way toward us, he seems even more nervous than before.
“I have to go. Sorry,” he says before he quickly makes his way to the other side of the room again.
“That was weird. Is Julian alright?” I ask Leo, who shrugs his shoulders.
“I’m honestly not sure. Rex is a bad influence. I hope he’s ok.”
I’m about to say something when Jake makes his way toward us again.
“I thought you guys might want another round of drinks,” he says while he scratches his neck.
“You didn’t have to,” I smile as I take the drinks from him. He looks so earnest about it that I almost feel bad for calling him a water boy. Almost. Mostly, I’m just impressed that one sarcastic comment turned into bottle service. Maybe men really are that easy. Or maybe hockey players are simply built differently.“Now let’s go dancing, girls,” I tell Tess and Gwen, who are looking at me wide-eyed.
“Lisa,” Tess says, laughing already,“I have known you for maybe twenty minutes, and somehow you’ve started a feud, charmed a rookie into bringing us drinks, and yelled across a room full of rich people.”
“That’s impressive,” Leo says.
“I’m versatile,” I reply.
Gwen looks at the dance floor as if it personally offended her.“Do we have to?”
“Yes,” I say while giving her my biggest smile.
“Fine,” Gwen mutters.
Tess sighs.“I hate and love that we’re doing this.”
“You’ll thank me later.”
“We absolutely will not,” Tess laughs.
