Modern Girl's Guide to One-Night Stands (24 page)

“I’m not sure what Hannah would have been able to tell you. I haven’t seen her in months.” Not that she hadn’t tried. The woman couldn’t take a hint.

“I hear that,” Henry laughed as though they were sharing an inside joke. “Growing a business can suck all your free time. That's why I’m glad Sarah has her charities.” He squeezed the arm of the vapid blond next to him, who smiled. Seemed like Hannah got her brains as well as her looks from her mother.

“You’ll have to excuse me. I see a client.” Simon headed to the small group in the corner, without saying goodbye. Why he ever went out with Hannah Mayfield was a mystery to him. He should have known it was a mistake as soon as his father approved of the relationship. Good thing he got out of it before it went too far.

“Simon, come over here and give me a hug,” Beth said as he got closer.

“Is Matt still treating you good?” Simon leaned over and planted a kiss on her cheek. “If not, just let me know. I take customer service seriously."

Beth laughed and slipped back under Matt’s arm. “Why do you think I married the big lug? Now I get my marketing for free. It really freed up a lot of money in my budget.”

Beth was the one who’d encouraged them to try their hand at international marketing. The nonprofit she worked for launched a campaign to raise money in Europe and she’d insisted Millennial Marketing take them on as a client. Matt headed up the job himself. Probably to spend more time with his wife. And Simon couldn’t blame him. Beth was great.

“And how’s the little bean?” Simon asked.

Matt squeezed Beth tighter and frowned. “Her blood pressure is high and she really should be resting. Maybe you can talk some sense into her because she’s not listening to me.”

“My blood pressure was just a little bit high,” she said, slipping out of his hold. Beth turned to face him and placed both her hands on her still-slim hips. “I'm pregnant, not broken. Women all over the world manage to be pregnant and still work. Women in Africa tend fields until they go into labor.”

“You don’t live in Africa anymore, and the doctor said for you to take it easy.”

Simon didn’t want to get sucked into the middle of this battle of wills. He did a quick scan of the room and only noticed a few of their clients still lingering.

“Things are dying down now and Peter and I can handle the rest of the night. Megan put you in one of the rooms that overlook the lake. Why don’t you guys call it a night and watch the fireworks from your balcony?”

“I thought you’d be on my side,” she said, throwing her arms up in defeat. “Fine. We can go up to our room, but not because I’m fragile and need protecting. My feet are swollen and starting to throb. I have to get these shoes off or I won’t be able to walk tomorrow.” Beth said her goodnights, making sure to shoot Simon an angry scowl before she headed upstairs, not waiting for Matt.

“Thanks. I’ve been trying to talk her into sitting down or something for the last hour, but she’s determined not to let the pregnancy change her normal activities. You should have heard her negotiating with the doctor when he started giving her precautionary instructions. That woman missed her calling as a lawyer. I need to head upstairs and check out those feet. She shouldn’t have worn heels.” Matt thanked Simon again and followed his wife down the hall.

“Wow. Since Beth got pregnant, Matt has sunk to a new level of whipped,” Peter said.

“I don’t know. I think it’s good for him. He’s really come out of his shell since she’s been in his life. Maybe that’s what you need,” Simon said, slapping him on the back. “A nice girl who’ll settle your ass down, and maybe you won’t come to Monday staff meeting hung over.”

“Screw nice girl, I’d settle for one with two brain cells to rub together. I have no interest in society gossip, fashion, or any of that other crap that seems to fill their empty little heads. The only woman I know, Beth excluded, who seems to have some interest outside of the society column is your sister. She’s the one woman I can be around who I don’t want to strangle after ten minutes of conversation.” Peter took a big gulp of his wine and watched the crowd of partygoers. He turned back to Simon, all the humor drained from his expression. “I like Julia. If you think there might be something there, you should go for it.”

Simon sipped his wine and wondered how the conversation had wrapped back to Julia. He thought he’d been clear outside that he wasn’t ready to talk. “We should really try and network or some shit,” he finally said, setting down his glass.

“Network? I’m not sure that would do much good. This party seems to get stuffier every year,” Peter said. After taking another glance around the room, he sighed and grabbed another glass of wine from a passing tray. “Hardly any of our clients are here. Our clientele is younger. This,” he waved to the crowd, “isn't our market. If you and Matt want to use events like this to network, we need to lose the geriatric crowd. We should talk about that New Year’s Eve party again. Let’s just blow this snoozefest and join the girls for the fireworks."

Peter was right. When they started the company, they’d always intended to be a hip, fresh alternative to the old marketing firms. So far they’d managed that. It was one of the reasons Star Atlantic approached them. The airline wanted to improve their image with the young jetsetters. Now that the Star Atlantic campaign was off the ground, Millennial Marketing was poised to really take off. But not with the old-school businessmen his father socialized with.

“I’m going to make one more round, and I’ll meet you down there in a little bit,” Simon said.

And tonight, with Julia waiting for him, he was going make that sooner rather than later.

Chapter Fifteen

Modern Girl Tip #11: Be Up-Front About Your Intentions—Not all men are just looking for sex. Some of them would like sex and a relationship. Be up-front if you’re not.

Julia had been nursing the same glass of wine for the last two hours, while Megan paced the small room, ragging about what a giant prick Luke was. But the only thing on Julia’s mind was that kiss.

That kiss had caught her off guard. She had melted into Simon without any consideration to all her well-thought-out plans. All it took was one touch and she’d practically humped him.

By the time Peter made his way down, Julia was on edge, teetering between anticipation and dread, waiting for Simon. It was all she could do to keep the obvious disappointment off her face when Simon didn’t come in behind him.

“Matt and Beth decided to skip the after-party, and Simon won’t be down until later,” he said as he shrugged off his jacket and loosened his tie. "So I guess it’s just the three of us for now.”

“Well I’m glad you’re here,” Megan said. "Julia’s been in a funk since we ran into Luke.”

“I’m fine,” Julia tried to protest. “But I think I might head back to my room.”

Megan flopped down beside her on the small chaise and filled up her wine glass. “Don’t let him ruin our night. While I do love my boys”—she blew Peter a kiss——“it’s nice to have another girl in the group. After Matt got married, I had my hopes. But Beth has spent so much time out of the country this past year getting new projects off the ground in anticipation of the baby, she hasn’t had much time to hang out. You can’t even begin to understand how bad it’s been. I’ve had to endure listening to the locker room talk for years."

“Hey. You haven’t always been the only girl. You’ve had friends join us on more than one occasion. Remember that trip we took to Vail? You brought along Holly or Hailey. That girl from your master’s program.”

“Hillary,” Megan said, rolling her eyes. “And didn’t that trip go swimmingly? I thought she came to hang out with me, but she spent the whole week trying to get into Simon’s pants.”

“You’re selling her short. After Simon turned her down, she tried Matt and then me. To be honest, I was offended that I was her third choice. That was the year Matt grew that beard. He looked as if he’d just wandered out of the backwoods.”

“Oh my God! I totally forgot about that. It took him forever to get a beard that bushy. It was huge. He was going through this whole hipster phase. I blocked that image from my mind. Seriously, he looked like he’d just stepped off the set of a softcore lumberjack porno. I really need to dig up those photos to share with Beth.”

And with that, the two of them were off. They’d started recounting tales about their adventures, and each story was more outrageous than the next. It was hilarious. Peter and Megan could have taken their show on the road. And Julia should have been enjoying herself. But Simon was still on her mind.

Had they shared a moment? Something more than just another kiss? Maybe she had read too much into their nightly conversations. He didn’t show up tonight until the very last minute, and despite saying how much he wanted to spend time with her, she hadn’t seen him the entire evening.

It shouldn’t matter. After the encounter with Luke, all of the reasons why she should steer clear of Simon came back to her. Steeling her resolve, Julia decided, for the second time that night, she needed to keep her relationship with Simon platonic. Now she just had to convince her body.

“Earth to Julia,” Megan said. “That asshat is ruining your night. You haven’t heard a word I’ve said for the last fifteen minutes. I can have Simon punch him if you want.”

Julia frowned and looked over to her friend. Megan had moved to the overstuffed sofa and was stretched out with her feet in Peter’s lap. The music, which had been turned on sometime in the last hour, played softly in the background. Both of them stared at her expectantly.

She was being a terrible guest. Maybe she should just call it a night. Julia was just about to beg off and head back to her room when the door opened and Simon strolled in.

“About time. I thought I was going to have to send a rescue party,” Peter said.

“I got sucked into a conversation with one of our clients and couldn’t break free. I’m sorry it took so long,” he said, staring directly at Julia. “But I’m glad I’m here now.”

There was an intensity in his eyes that, even from across the room, heated her skin and caused her heart to race. Julia’s mouth was suddenly dry and she couldn’t seem to form a greeting. The room was quiet. Only the soft murmur of the stereo broke the silence, and it seemed like the world had narrowed to just Simon.

A loud pop sounded from the outside, and just like that, the spell was broken.

“At least you made it in time for the fireworks,” Julia finally managed to say.
Smooth. State the obvious and sound like a petulant child all at the same time.

“Come on, Peter. Let’s go out to the deck. I think you could use the air,” Megan said.

“I don’t want to watch the fireworks.”

“I said, come on.” Megan hopped up from the sofa and dragged Peter behind her in a mad rush to get outside. The glass door closed with a thud behind them, leaving Julia alone with Simon.

“No camera tonight?” he asked, leaning against the back of the sofa. “I would have thought the fireworks would be just your thing. I'm surprised you aren’t hip-deep in the water trying to get some crazy shot.”

When Megan told her about the fireworks, that was exactly what she’d planned. But after Simon’s suggestions and a chat with the gallery owner, Julia had changed her entire shoot schedule. “I’ve decided to branch out. I’m going to focus on more artistic shots. I think I’ll have a better chance of gaining an audience. Or at least that's what I hope will happen.”

Julia took a drink of her wine, feeling strange talking to Simon about her work for some reason. They had spent weeks talking online about photography and art, but now she wasn’t sure what to say. When the pause in their conversation crossed over into awkward silence, Julia tried to fill the void.

“I wanted to thank you again. I know you said you’re not an art critic, but your comments really clicked. I even spoke with the gallery owner and after sending her some proofs of the stuff I’m working on now, she decided to do a private showing of just my photographs.”

“That’s great.”

“Well, ask me how great it is in a few weeks. I only have another month to finish the new series. I’m going to head back to the city so I can spend some time in the studio.”

“Oh,” he said, sounding disappointed. “I took some time off work this week so I could hang out with Megan. I was hoping you'd still be here. I’d like to spend some time with you.”

“I’m not leaving until next week, but I’m going to be swamped. I’m in the middle of shooting at the abandoned house, and that takes most of the day. I’m also working with an agency back home to line up models and that’s taking longer than I expected. And I have my editing to do.”