“I thought I recognized you!” he said, grinning at her.
“From behind?” she laughed some more, teasing him.
“Valentine, I'm pretty sure I could recognize you quicker from behind then from the front,” he teased right back. Then he turned the charm on Bailey. “Who's your friend?”
“This is Bailey, my roommate,” Valentine said, introducing her and hopefully setting a boundary. “It's her first night in Caché.”
“Oh, wow! You picked a hell of a night to pop your cherry,” he laughed. Bailey scrunched up her nose.
“Excuse me?”
“So what do you do, Bailey?” he asked.
“She takes classes online,” Valentine piped up before the other girl could. “She's nineteen, it's her second year in college.”
At the word “nineteen”, she could practically see Evans cooling his jets. Anything went at Caché, sure, but Val wasn't about to let the thirty-two year old corporate poon hound hit on her young, naive roommate.
“College!” Evans toasted his glass to Bailey. “Fun times! I loved college – I went to Columbia. You ladies want a drink?”
They followed him off the dance floor and into the Music Room. It wasn't any less crowded in there, but Evans had apparently had foresight – he'd booked a table for himself for the night, and it was all set up with a bottle ready and waiting for them when they sat down.
While Evans and Bailey made chit chat – Evans smoothly, Bailey awkwardly – Val glanced around the room. That feeling of being on edge was back and she bounced her feet under the table. Maybe it was the adrenaline still pumping from rushing around the club all night. Maybe it was nerves on Bailey's behalf.
Maybe it's a totally different problem. Maybe one that's, oh, say, about six-foot-two, with blond hair and blue eyes and all at once the life line you've been praying for and the living nightmare you've been dreading.
“Penny?”
Evans' voice interrupted her train of thought and Valentine glanced over at him. She'd almost forgotten that she wasn't alone.
“What?”
“Penny for your thoughts,” he clarified, and she chuckled. Bailey was leaning back in her chair, talking to some super gothed-out chick who was wearing a bunch of leather straps covering vital body parts, and little else.
“They're not even worth that much,” she joked. “Just ... stuff. Life.”
“Ah, life stuff. The worst,” he sighed. “Anything I can help with?”
“Not really,” she shrugged. “Just gotta take it one day at a time, you know? I'll be fine.”
“I feel like everyone always says that,” he replied, startling her.
“Excuse me?”
“Everyone always says they're fine,” he repeated her statement. “Like it's a band-aid that'll cover up the fact they're not fine at all.”
She chuckled again and nodded, spinning her glass in between her hands.
“Ain't that the truth,” she agreed. “But best to leave the band-aid in place for now, okay?”
“Okay,” he nodded his head. Unlike Ari, Evans was a guy who knew when a subject was closed. “So how'd you meet Bailey? I didn't even know you had a roommate.”
“I took out an ad,” Valentine explained. “I'd needed help with my grandma, offered a free room to someone who'd be home during the hours I'd be gone. She was one of the people who responded.”
“You're lucky you didn't end up with a serial killer.”
“Yup. Instead I ended up with a quirky little gamer,” Val laughed.
“Bailey's a gamer?” Evans asked, raising his eyebrows as he looked across the table. Upon hearing her name, the younger woman finally returned to the conversation.
“That's what she's in school for,” Valentine explained, smiling between them. “Game design.”
“One of the things, yeah. Kinda dorky, I know,” Bailey said, picking at the tablecloth.
“Dorky? Are you kidding? Multi-billion dollar industry that only shows growth, as well as an industry that's at the forefront of technology – what's dorky about any of that? Plus, I kick ass at Skyrim.”
And then they were off speaking another language. Valentine had never seen Bailey so engaged, she fairly lit up as they started talking about games they both knew and played. When a waitress interrupted to drop off more mixers, Val leaned close to Evans.
“Look after her for me, alright? I'm gonna do a lap,” she mumbled as she stood up. “And nothing funny. If I come back and you two have disappeared, I won't hesitate to shut this entire club down to look for you.”
“You're a formidable friend to have, Saint Valentine,” he laughed, then he waved her away. “We won't move from this spot.”
The night was still relatively young – she could easily pick up a client, and make sure to stay down there in the Club and Music Rooms, keeping an eye on Bailey the whole time. So Val made her way back onto the dance floor. It had thinned out just a little, enough so that she didn't feel claustrophobic as she danced around.
She kept an eye on the crowd, looking for potential targets. There was a rowdy table near the entrance, she didn't want any part of that, so she kept scanning. The bar was a mass of people, not worth even trying. Maybe if she moved to the other side of the -
Just as she was taking a step to turn around, a flash of blonde caught her eye and she did a double-take. Then her jaw dropped.
Harper fucking Kittering had just walked into the Club Room with a gaggle of her friends, all of them laughing and flicking their hair around. They swayed close to the rowdy table and the guys took the bait pretty quickly, talking and flirting with them.
Holy shit. Holy shit. I never thought to preemptively ban her because I couldn't even imagine the possibility of her showing up to a place like this!
Valentine whirled around to walk off in the opposite direction, but instead, she collided with what felt like a solid wall. She ricocheted off someone's chest and started to fall backwards, but then strong hands gripped her upper arms and held her upright.
“I just love it when we bump into each other.”
At this rate, her jaw was gonna fall off at the hinges, she was gaping so much.
Ari stared down at her, as if she'd conjured him out of thin air. It felt like a mirage – he'd been banned from Caché for so long, it was bizarre seeing him there again.
On top of that, he also looked different. He still hadn't shaved, and she was surprised to realize that Ari could probably grow a thick, healthy beard if he ever choose to; the stubble made him look rakish and sexy, complimenting his mussy hair perfectly. His clothing just added to the look – she'd rarely ever seen him wear anything but suits, but now he was in a white t-shirt and expensive looking jeans. His long, black, felt winter coat looked like it had been added as an after thought and perfectly completed his sexy, messy, roguish look he had going on.
And to round out the bizarreness, HARPER IS LESS THAN FIFTY FEET AWAY.
“What are you doing here?” Valentine gasped as he let her go.
“Membership was reinstated,” he reminded her. He went to fish out his gold club card, but she stopped him, pressing both hands to his chest.