She blinked and her head snapped. “Yes, thank you.” Isabel placed the crumpled napkin down just before the man started to walk away.
She cleared her throat loudly and glanced down, which had conspicuously led the waiter to catch the empty glass I was holding.
“Sir.” The man held out the tray.
Taking my eyes off Isabel for only a second, I turned to set the glass atop the tray and thank the waiter, then raised an eyebrow at the mysterious woman. “That was considerate of you,” I said—or probed. Most of the time, I was probing. Especially when I needed to figure someone out.
Her mouth fell open before any sound came out and her eyes wandered for a beat. “Well I—” she recovered with a breath and locked her eyes into mine once again. Zero hesitation. “You caught me. It was just a gentle reminder that he should focus on themaleguests as well.”
His mouth curved into an innocent smile, so I played along. “Hmm, well maybe you could drop a hint to the photographer, because he seems to be focused on you at the moment too.”
Her eyes darted to the dirty blond pony-tailed man in the all black suit holding the camera. He not so swiftly redirected his focus on a couple a few feet from us.
“See, and here I thought that you were just hinting at buying me another drink,” I continued, studying her.
She jerked her head back playfully. “Are they no longer free for the evening?”
My brows jumped dramatically. “Have your drinks been free all night? That does it, the next time I go to one of these, I’m wearing lipstick.”
She laughed again. “Mr. Weston, this has been fun, but I need to be going,” she repeated, stepping back with more caution this time and then turned to walk away.
I blinked.This was new.
“Another party?” I called after her.
She turned her head back, but barely glanced at me as I followed her across the hall between the crowd. “No.”
“Curfew?”
Hearing my voice grow closer, Isabel stopped and turned to face me. She seemed as though she were about to respond, a slight hint of a smirk made me believe a witty retort was coming. But her mouth fell silent and eyes wandered faintly—as if she were trying to hear something. After a short moment, she looked up and immediately switched gears on me again. “Just ready to call it a night.”
I nodded slowly and gave her my best cordial smile. That was all I was going to do. If I said anything at this point, it would be to stop her from leaving.
And that wasn’t who I was.
Instead, I watched her attempt to gracefully make her way through the crowded ballroom and smiled to myself.
Perhaps for tonight, I’d break my own rule.
5
ELLE
“Where are you going?”I heard Shawn ask through the earpiece.
“Why don’t you focus on someone else, Shawn?”
“Hey, remember this was a favor, Elle.”
“I’ll be back in fifteen minutes,” I stammered before muting my earpiece.
As soon as I can get someone to let me in through the back door, that is.
I let my eyes flutter closed and released a slow and steady breath. As much as I loved early fall weather, late evenings tended to be a little too cool for my comfort, especially in this get up. A sweater would have been nice right about now. But I supposed I should enjoy it before I could get back in there—back to the rushing and sweating and of course…panicking. Because what on earth was going on in there without my supervision?
I sighed.
What was it about this job that I loved? Orusedto love? There was a thrill to what I did, that was for sure. I couldn’t deny it. Took too much pleasure in it. Some of my friends, ones I rarely spent time with much anymore, would tell me their carefully laid out weekend plans and I’d tell them all the ways it can go wrong.
