Page 29 of Protected
She handed the phone back to Carrie. “Yeah, yeah. I’m just frustrated that he turned out to be such a terrible guy.”
Carrie cocked her head to one side. “Is he? Peter sure seems to like him.”
“When the hell did Peter spend time with him?”
Carrie laughed. “I think he had a consult with him about a security matter for the senator. I’m not sure. I swear he’s more connected than I am sometimes.”
“How much longer will he be in California?”
Carrie shrugged. “Few days, possibly a week. It was open ended because he wasn’t sure how long it would take to get his friend Jonathan set up to run that branch of the firm.”
“Enough talk about husbands and boyfriends,” Elise declared. “We’re here for a girls’ night.”
Darci scowled. “Not my boyfriend.”
“I agree.” Olivia raised her glass. “I really don’t want to talk about boys tonight.”
Carrie put a hand on Olivia’s shoulder. “He’ll come home some day.”
Darci felt bad for Olivia. She’d fallen for someone who was out of touch ninety percent of the time. She hoped her friend would either work it out with him or find a partner who was home more often, but she knew how hard it could be to move on from a partner who wasn’t right for you when the chemistry was there.
Elise lifted the pitcher and filled everyone’s glasses until the pitcher was empty. “Drink up ladies. Then we’re going to find a better bar. Noah suggested we try this new upscale place that specializes in top-shelf whiskey. And he gave me his credit card.” She flashed the black card with a grin, and Darci shook her head.
“You’re ridiculous Elise. He doesn’t have to buy our drinks.”
Elise shrugged. “He likes to spoil me and sometimes that means spoiling my friends. Our arrangement works. I kneel for him and do every dirty thing he asks for in the bedroom and he spends his money on me.”
Olivia drained her glass and raised her arms. “I win. After the expensive whiskey, let’s find karaoke.”
Darci groaned. It was going to be a crazy night. Maybe she would call in sick tomorrow.
A server appeared with a new pitcher, and Darci grinned when she recognized him. “Kyle, right?”
He blinked and looked at her as he held the pitcher.
“You were my Uber driver the other night.”
“Oh right. Small world.”
“You have a lot of jobs.”
A group of women came stumbling from somewhere else in the bar and bumped into the poor kid. Cider spilled all over the table and rolled off into Darci’s purse. She jumped up before it could get her jeans all wet.
“Fuck. I am so sorry.” Kyle jumped into action and started cleaning things up. He picked up her purse after he wiped down the table and threw towels on the floor to soak up the mess. “I don’t want to dig through your bag or anything, but I can clean this up for you if you like.”
Darci dug through it herself first and sighed as she pulled sticky receipts and other paper from it. “I think these are pretty much toast.” She handed him the bag. “It’s got my wallet and keys in there. If we could just wipe the sticky off those that would be great.”
Kyle took them and jogged behind the bar and into the back room. Darci started to object, but he was gone too fast. He reappeared a few minutes later. “Purse is still wet but the keys and wallet should be good to go. Again, I’m so sorry. Your drinks are on the house.”
The other women stood. “We were just about to head somewhere else, anyway.”
Kyle looked sad but winked. “My shift ends soon, so I guess that’s OK.”
Darci laughed and pulled out some cash to leave as a tip before they cleared out and headed for whatever fancy bar Elise had in mind.
As they waited for the cab, Elise glanced around and shuddered.
“What is it?”
