Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Penn nodded his head at me, and Natalie gave me a knowing look before they both traipsed back off into the crowd.
By then the rest of our table had arrived. Court and English, Lark and Sam, Whitley and Robert, and Gavin with his date… Harmony Cunningham. I gaped when I saw her on his arm.
“Harm!” I gasped. “You and Gavin?”
She shrugged one shoulder and glanced back at him. “It’s not serious. We were both going stag, and he offered for me to go with him instead.”
“That was nice of him.”
Too nice of him. Gavin wasn’t normally the magnanimous type. He usually chose the hottest… sometimes the easiest date for the evening or found someone to hook up with when he was there. If he was here with Harmony, there was a reason. Did it have something to do with Whitley being here with Robert?
My focus shifted to the pair. Robert stood rooted to the spot, watching Whitley flit around from person to person like she was wont to do. But even more so than normal. Whitley was particularly performative when she got nervous. I wondered what Robert saw when he saw her skipping about like that. Did he know her like I did? Robert watched people in the same way that I did. I was surprised that he put up with her, but I could tell he deeply cared. I just… wasn’t sure Whitley felt the same way.
We all settled into our seats for dinner. I hadn’t eaten much that day to prepare for getting in this dress, but now that I was in it, I could hardly eat more than a few bites. I was envious of my friends in less constricting attire. Why did beauty have to come as such costs? I would have happily finished off my meal and eaten some of Camden’s, but the stupid silk did not breathe.
Fuck, it was constricting. It wasn’t a corset, but it was not meant to stretch at all. Alexandre had warned me of that, but I hadn’t considered what it would be like to sit and stand and dance in it for hours. I took shallow breaths to compensate and concentrated on my friends instead.
It was only a few hours. I’d survive.
After dinner, we sat through the presentation for the individuals and businesses with considerable contributions to the HIV/AIDS foundation for this year’s charity measure. Then the dance floor opened, and we all poured onto it, desperate for the release.
My dress was still tight. Next time I saw Alexandre, I was going to have to tell him to consider that people needed to breathe in these goddamn things.
“I’m so glad I came tonight,” Harmony said with a laugh to me and Robert.
I hadn’t realized that they were friends, but she seemed relaxed around him.
“Me too,” Robert said. “That shit with Mitchell…” He trailed off as Harmony’s face went pale.
“What?” I asked, looking over my shoulder.
Then I saw what had drawn her attention. Robert seemed to have produced Kurt out of thin air.
And on his arm was none other than Fiona.
“Oh fuck,” I ground out.
I didn’t know why I’d thought that Fiona would scamper off and disappear after Camden got Kurt to own up to his mistake. She’d never disappeared before when I wanted her to.
“I can handle this,” I told Harmony, going into full-on bulldog mode.
Harmony caught my arm. “Don’t. I just… I want to forget about it.”
I opened my mouth to object. That wasn’t in my nature. Harmony was in my circle now. Which meant I protected what was mine. I already despised Fiona—pregnancy or not. She didn’t need to rub it in Harmony’s face.
But before I could say anything, Harmony turned and fled. I sighed and turned to go after her, but Robert stopped me.
“Hey, just keep an eye on Whit, will you?” he asked.
“Sure, but I can talk to her.”
He smiled with that characteristic charm. “Don’t worry about it. Harmony and I have been friends since we were kids. Let me talk to her.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah, she’ll be fine. Let Whitley know I’ll be back.”
“Sure,” I agreed, and then he traipsed off, following in Harmony’s wake.
What a fucking clusterfuck of a night.
Things were actually going amazingly well for me and Camden, but everyone else seemed to be falling apart. Peace always seemed like just another truce. Maybe I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop… and it was dropping for everyone else.
I let Whitley know what Robert had said as she dragged me into a dance with English and Lark. I had to spend half of the time concentrating on my breathing just to get through this. Camden zipped in and out, bringing me fresh drinks and kissing me between making small talk with other friends.
But then I realized it’d been forty-five minutes, and I hadn’t seen him. That was a long time for him to keep his hands off of me. He’d been just on the boundary of our group all night. My eyes scanned the crowd. Where had he gone?