Page 25 of Fun Together (Make Romance #1)

Faye

Every August, our company has an employee appreciation party where they ply us with free food and alcohol, and we all get to pretend to have a good time.

It’s always held in the largest conference room at the Marriott downtown, and I always spend the entire day dreading it.

Andrew always came with me to these things because he’s good at events like this, at making polite small talk with people.

Tonight, I’m dragging Rett along with me for moral support.

As we make our way down the hallway, I already hear a cover band playing “Brown Eyed Girl.” It’s only a matter of time before Craig, our comptroller, takes hold of the mic for his rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

“Is that a giant inflatable fish?” Rett asks as we approach the room’s entrance.

“You mean Guppie? That’s our company mascot.”

She gives it a little poke with her index finger. “Weird.”

“Come on, let's find the bar.” I don’t like to rely on drinking to make these events bearable, but a glass of wine certainly won’t hurt.

Tonight, especially. I know Eli will be here, and we haven’t talked much in the few days since game night. And when we did talk, it definitely wasn’t about our little cuddling session.

On the way to the bar area, we run into Alexis and her husband, Brian. She’s wearing a floor-length sequined gown and bright red lipstick. He’s intently looking at his phone, seemingly oblivious to his surroundings.

I put on a bright smile. “Hi Alexis!” I turn to her husband and nod politely. “Nice to see you again, Brian.”

He nods at me before looking back at his phone. Alexis smiles, huge and fake. “Faye! You look lovely this evening.”

I smooth the front of my dress, the only semi-formal thing I own and the same one I wear every year. It’s a simple black satin gown that wrinkles when I look at it wrong, but I still feel pretty in it and can’t justify buying anything else.

“Thank you. Have you met my friend Rett?” I ask, knowing good and well they haven’t. But that’s just the kind of bullshit you ask at parties like this.

Alexis shakes her head. “I don’t believe I have. Rett.” She lets the name linger for a moment. “What an odd name.”

Rett gives her the most fake saccharine smile I’ve ever seen. “I really love this self-care initiative Faye’s told me about. It so rare these days to see a company prioritize making the office a more pleasurable environment.”

I’ve got to get Rett away from my boss. Bringing her to an event, there’s always a risk of some sort of debacle or unexpected event happening.

She has a mesh sieve for a filter and gets off on antagonizing people, especially people like Alexis.

She’s fiercely loyal to her loved ones and it’s nice to have her in your corner, but I need to make sure I leave this party with my job still intact.

Alexis lights up. “Yes! It is spectacular, isn’t it? We really care about our employees, as you can see.” She holds her arms up to gesture around her, fur stole slashing through the air as she polishes off her glass of champagne. “Maybe you should come work with us.”

“Unfortunately, I already have my own terrible boss, so I’m not currently on the job market,” Rett says with another grin.

I don’t allow enough time for Alexis to get the gist of that comment before I guide Rett along to the bar. “We’ll let you two get back to mingling,” I say to Alexis.

“You’ve got to behave,” I chastise Rett.

“Sorry, I just can’t stand that woman. Do you think that’s real fur?”

“It’s faux mink. I ordered it for her last year when she was going through a vegan phase.”

The bartender places a couple of napkins down in front of us. “What’ll it be, ladies?”

“Riesling, please,” I say. Wait, is that the one I like? “Sorry, actually make that a Chardonnay.” I can never remember which one is dry and which is sweet.

“Sure thing, and for you?” he asks Rett.

“Cab Sav, please,” she says.

I lean against the bar, already regretting my shoe choice, a pair of strappy black heels currently making permanent indentations in the sides of my feet. “We’ll stay for an hour, tops, just so I can say I was here before we go.”

“Fine by me. Hey look, Eli’s over there.”

She points toward the buffet line, and sure enough, Eli is loading up his plate with a pile of bacon-wrapped shrimp. He wears his simple black suit well, the bright white shirt sharp against the tanned skin of his neck.

He puts some fruit on his plate, and I watch as he tosses a grape into his mouth. He licks the end of his thumb, and I feel . . . hot.

“When are you going to admit it?” Rett asks, handing me my glass of wine.

“Admit what?”

“That you want him,” she croons.

I will admit that I wanted to look good tonight. That, as I curled my hair and put on my lipstick, I was thinking about him. That, while I was zipping up my dress, I thought about what he would think when he saw me in it.

I wanted to look good tonight for him .

She squints her eyes at me. “What happened after I left the other night? You’re not telling me something.”

I should have told her about what happened already, but part of me liked having this little secret rolling around in my head for a few days. “He hung out for a little. And then he stayed over.”

She gasps and clutches my arm.

“And we?—”

“Had sex?!”

“Shhh. No, we talked.” I take a pause before mumbling, “There was also cuddling.”

“What kind of cuddling?”

“What do you mean, what kind of cuddling?”

She gives me an exasperated look. “Arm over the waist, spooning you cuddling? Or your head over his heart cuddling?”

I watch Eli continue down the buffet line. He’s already eaten half of what he’d put on his plate. “Arm over the waist cuddling.”

“Caressing?”

I woke up and his face was buried in my hair, so close I could feel his beard stubble against the back of my neck. He was absently moving his thumb back and forth across my waist. I don’t even think he realized he was doing it. “Some light caressing.”

“And did you push your ass back against him?”

I give her a guilty look and hold up my thumb and index finger. “A little?”

She claps delightedly, and I can’t help but laugh. “I’m calling it. You’re going to fuck each other before the month is out.”

“I don’t know. It was nice, but I can’t rebound with my ex’s best friend.”

“You keep saying that, but I don’t think it’s a big deal.” She tilts her head and looks over to Eli again. He’s now talking to Tina and gesturing about something so grandly that a grape rolls off his plate. “I like him, and he clearly likes you.”

When Eli spots us, he walks over and he pulls me in for a hug, somehow managing to avoid spilling any more of his food.

He always smells nice—like he’s been out in the sun, with a hint of whatever simple bar soap and deodorant he wears that probably has a name like Alpine Spring Morning or Rocky Beach Cliff .

“Loretta, good to see you,” he says to Rett. “Don’t worry, I won’t hug you.”

“You save any shrimp for the rest of us?” she teases him.

Rett likes maybe three people in the entire world, so it means something for her to like Eli.

I take a sip of my wine and can’t help but pull a face. Guess I was wrong about my wine of choice.

“Don’t like your drink?” Eli asks.

“I always forget if I like Riesling or Chardonnay, and I chose the wrong one. It’s fine, though.”

“I’m going to get a drink,” he says. “Do y’all want to sit together?”

“Yeah, we’ll get some food and meet you at a table.”

Rett and I load our plates and make our way to the seating area. The party is in full force now, getting more raucous by the minute. Last year, the party ended when our VP of Sales tried to do body shots with one of the hotel staff. Sadly, she’s no longer with us.

She’s not dead, she just got a job at Google.

We find Eli and when I sit down next to him, he slides a glass of wine over to me. “What is this?” I ask.

“Riesling.”

“How did you know which one to get?” I didn’t even mention I got Chardonnay before.

“Lucky guess,” he says and takes a sip of his beer.

Rett practically obliterates my foot under the table. I yelp and give her a questioning look.

She nods to the glass of wine and takes a smug sip of her own.

“You excited for your interview?” Eli asks. He pushed my resume along and the team decided they’d like to interview me next week.

“I haven’t had an interview in so long. I’m honestly terrified.”

“We can do a practice interview beforehand if you want,” he offers.

“That would be great,” I say.

Rett gives my foot another stomp and I ignore her.

We finish our food, and I’m prepared to call it a night when Eli says, “Let’s go check out the band.”

“I think we’re leaving soon,” I say.

“I don’t think so,” he says matter of factly.

“Excuse me?”

“You can’t leave already.” He walks behind my chair and leans down by my ear, “That’s not something Fun Faye would do.”

I look up into his smirking face. “Fine, but I’m not dancing.”

We get up and weave our way through the crowd. “Sure, whatever you say.”

“I’m serious, Eli. You will not get me out on that dance floor.”

The band area is packed, and I spot a few people from the marketing team belting “Don’t Stop Believing.” I need to get out of here.

Rett has her phone out with a look of concern on her face. “What’s wrong?” I ask.

“I have five missed calls from my dad. Are you good for a minute? I should call him back.”

“Of course. I hope everything is okay.”

The song ends and the band begins to play “My Girl.” Eli holds his hand out to me. “Alright Fun Faye, let’s go.”

Panic flares and I shake my head so hard my thoughts rattle. “No.”

But Eli, being Eli, doesn’t give up that easily. He smiles at me and I almost feel my defenses start to crumble. “Yes.”

“I’ll dance to the next one, I promise.” A lie and he knows it.

“Two minutes. You’ll dance with me for two minutes.”

I quickly weigh my options. Either I wait for the next song, which could be something worse, or I suck it up through this one.

“One minute.”