Page 40 of Brooklynaire

Alex steps back and gives me an actual frown. “Oh. Rebecca. Thereceptionist.”

“Office manager,” I say immediately. And then I regret it just as quickly. I really don’t need to argue with one of Nate’s oldest friends. But the message behind her chilly stare is unmistakable.You are not welcome here, it says. “I run the Brooklyn Bruisers’ offices these days,” I add, trying to soften mycontradiction.

“I see.” She shakes my hand stiffly. “That explains why I haven’t seen you in a while. But now I remember—Nate moved you to Brooklyn and promoted Lauren Williams. Great girl,Lauren.”

“Right,” I say slowly, trying to keep my voice light. “She’s thebest.”

Nate’s eyes widen slightly. Then he puts an arm around me. It’s just friendly, but I can actually see Alex’s eyes narrow. “Rebecca has had a rough couple of weeks. I invited her tonight to cheer herup.”

“Oh?” Alex tosses her hair. It’s blond and silky. She looks like a shampoocommercial.

“Head injury,” Nate babbles. “Did you know the inner ear can be knocked out of whack? The treatment plan involves time on a trampoline and spinning in an officechair.”

“How stimulating,” Alex says, sipping from a cocktail. Her expression suggests that someone kicked her puppy. I have a feeling that I’m the puppy-kicker in this scenario. But hell if I knowwhy.

For his part, Nate ignores Alex’s weirdly cool tone. He waves at the bartender, who’s stocking the place, readying himself for the coming onslaught. “What are you drinking?” Nate asks Alex. He points at her glass, which seems to contain a gin and tonic, or maybe vodka. Something clear and probably expensive. They serve top-shelf liquor at these benefits. No cheaping out on the richbenefactors.

“I’m good for now,” she says. “But there are specialty cocktails for our event. You might want to try…” she reaches for a menu on the bar. “The Brooklyn Bubbly. Champagne, apricot nectar, and orange blossom water. There’s a cute cocktail named after each of ourteams.”

“Until tomorrow,” Nate says, with a dry laugh. “Tomorrow night they’ll just name the same drink after some other rich guy’shobby.”

Alex smacks his arm. “It’s too early in the evening to be thatcynical.”

“It’s never too early to be this cynical.” He brushes the lapels of his tuxedojacket.

“You clean up nice,” Alex teases him. She’s turned her back to me entirely. “Is the bow tie a clip-on?”

“Of course not!” I yelp. “I tiedit.”

But apparently I do not exist. Alex doesn’t acknowledge that I’vespoken.

And why did I enter the fray, anyway? This is not my fight. If she’s pissed off at Nate, I don’t even need to know why. I kick off my heels and tuck them under a barstool. The grass feels nice beneath my feet, and my balance improvesimmediately.

Nate scans the offerings behind the bar. “Hey, Bec! They have that ginger beer youlike.”

Alex’s eyes narrow again, but Nate ignores her, ordering a soda for me and Macallan 18 forhimself.

The drinks come, and Alex steers the conversation toward ye olde college days, when she and Nate were twenty and struggling with their grades. “I got you through that French poetry class,” she says. “Admitit.”

“That youdid.”

I watch the waves lap the sand in the distance and wonder when Georgia willarrive.

11

Nate

Well,this is awkward. Alex is in a snit, and I don’t knowwhy.

Tonight her eyes are bright, but sharper than usual. Alex is cunning, and she never shuts that off. But she’s not usually bitchy to otherwomen.

Even though Becca seems to be shrugging it off, I’m annoyed. And my gut says Alex’s misbehavior has nothing to do with making a play for my router division. She hasn’t mentioned businessonce.

Maybe she’s pissed off that she lost a bet to me? But that’s just wishful thinking. Like me, Alex is a hardcore businesswoman. She knows how to take risks, and how to move on when they don’t workout.

There’s a third possibility, but I don’t like it much. The last time I saw Alex was in March. We were both at a big tech conference in Las Vegas. After a steak dinner we got uncharacteristically drunk in her hotel suite. I was operating on only a few hours of sleep. That’s the night we made the bet on the napkin, which resulted in this charitybenefit.

It’s also the only time I ever slept withAlex.