The Arrangement Anthology (55 page)

I fold my arms across my chest and walk. There hasn’t been much of a smile on my face tonight and Marty knows me too well. “So, what happened?”

My eyes cut to the side. “What are you talking about?”

“At work, something h
appened. What was it? You seem spooked.” He touches my forearm lightly, stopping me. We’re standing in the middle of the parking lot. I look up at him, wanting to tell him, but afraid of what he’ll say. “Just tell me. I think I already know. The asshole messed with you, right?”

“How’d you know that?”

“It’s all over your face. Are you okay? Do I need to break his neck?”

I shake my head. “No, Gabe took care of him and got me out before he really had a chance to hurt me. Somehow his crazy got past Black. She didn’t know he was jealous or
nuts.”

“Jealous? Who would order a call girl and then be jealous?”

“A crazy person. He hates Sean and when he realized I was with Sean this weekend, he went nuts. He would have killed me if Gabe didn’t show up. I’m kind of out of it, that’s all.” I start walking again. Mel has started the car. The sky is that dingy gray, like it’s going to snow again.

“Hey, wait.” He takes my elbow and I stop and turn back to him. “Are you serious? The guy really wanted to hurt you?” I nod. Marty gives me the most grieved look I’ve seen on him yet. I know what he wants to say, but he swallows it back down. “I’m glad you’re all right—I wish to God you’d quit—but I’m so glad you’re all right.” He pulls me into a hug and releases me before I can protest.

“I can’t quit, Marty. You know that.” My head hangs forward as we walk the rest of the way to Mel’s car.

“When do you work again?”

“Next weekend, I guess. My regulars left, or had Gabe beat the shit out of them, so I guess I’ll have a new guy next week. Black will clue me in closer to the weekend. In the meantime, I need to get caught up on school.”

Marty
nods solemnly, like he knows that he can’t save me. I wish he could. I wish someone could pull me back, but I’ve already fallen into the abyss. Last time Sean was there to keep me company, but now I’m completely alone.

By the time Wednesday night rolls around, I can’t think. My mind keeps floating back to Sean. I hate that he left, but at the same time, I realize that I let him walk away. I didn’t have to do that. I could have done something, some huge gesture, that swept him off his feet, but I didn’t. I walked away and so did he.

I push my economics book away and wonder what the hell I was thinking when I chose my electives this semester. It’s not my thing. I have to study twice as hard to keep up, so I
invoked my failsafe plan to ensure my A- at the end of the semester—smile. It sounds really stupid, but before my freshman year I never smiled unless I felt like it. I’m not a smiley person, I guess.

Anyway, I had a
sociology class and learned that people have a hard time thinking poorly of a person if that person is always smiling at them. Short version—I smile at the economics professor during the entire lecture. It doesn’t matter of I’m bored out of my mind, or if I understand a thing he’s said. I look pleased as punch to be there and maintain light eye contact. Oddly, I thought that would make him call on me more often, but it doesn’t. He thinks I’m enthralled and paying attention, so unless I raise my hand, the prof calls on some other kid that’s just as lost as I am. That little smile has pulled my average up a letter grade, because I have no interest in any of this.

I should have taken a sociology elective. Then
, I could have glared at the teacher the whole time and sulked in peace rather than faking it the whole semester.

I tap the cover of the textbook with my pen and decide. I need to get out of here for a while and go back to the last place I was happy. I jump in the shower before Amber and the male slut return
, and I get dressed. Around the time I’m almost ready, Mel knocks on my door and sticks her head inside before I answer.

“Avery, you here?” Mel catches a glimpse of me in my little black dress—the one that was mine before I started working for Miss Black. Mel steps into the room and folds her arms over her chest, knowing
damn well that I don’t have a client. “Tell me that you aren’t going on a date.”

I’m swiping on
mascara and almost poke my eye out with the wand. I glance over at her from the other side of the room. “Nah, nothing like that. I just need to go out, get some fresh air. No guys.”

“What about girls?”

I smirk and think of Sidney. “I don’t do girls. Although I think Marty liked the idea of me and you together.”

Mel plops down on my bed and smirks. “Every guy likes the idea of two girls together.” She leans back on her elbows, careful not to mess up
the bedspread. “So, I hear things, ya know. Things that I should have heard from you.” I glance up at her in the mirror, wondering where this is going. “Are you going to tell me or do I have to keep up the twenty questions?”

“Depends on what you’re asking about.”

“Well, aren’t you all evasive today? Okay, girlfriend, if you want to play that way I’m just gonna come out and say it—Gabe beat the shit out of your client the other night. I heard Black talking to him about it when I checked in earlier. She said you smashed the bead. What the hell happened? I thought that guy was sweetness in a pasty Brittish wrapper.”

“So did
I, until he went nuts. Apparently, he and Sean go way back. Let’s just say that Henry has some serious anger issues. I don’t want to talk about it.” I finish applying my make-up and sweep a light dusting of blush over my cheeks. I look better, but I still feel like crap.

“I get it, but you should tell me this shit. I want to know if Black is accepting guys that she shouldn’t. I haven’t had to use that ugly little bracelet. Good to know it works, right?”

“Yeah,” I say, and lean back on my dresser. “I can’t imagine what would happen if the bead broke by accident. Gabe would pound the guy and ask questions later.”

“Probably so, but hey, that’s not my problem as long as he doesn’t try to beat the shit out of me.”

I’m watching her and too many questions rush through my mind. How is she okay living like this? How many times has she booked a client and had it go poorly? Maybe I’m just the worst hooker ever. I don’t know, but I want to talk to her. At the same time, I’m guessing she’ll flip out when I tell her where I’m going. Screw it. It’s worth her freak out to have her along. “Come with me.”

“Where are we going?”

“To the Crystal Lounge in the city.”

“Isn’t that where—”

“Yeah, it is.” I cut her off before she can say more. “I’m heading to the bar for a while and I’d like company if you want to come.”

She gives me a sad smile, like I’m pathetic. “He won’t be there, Avery.”

“I know Sean won’t be there. That isn’t why I’m going. It’s hard to explain, but it’s easier for me to move forward when I go back to the last place where I was happy and it was there. I was laughing the other night. Maybe it’s stupid, but I’m all for whatever works and I need a mood shift. So, are you coming or not?”

“
Psh, and pass up and invite to a swank bar? I don’t think so. Give me a couple of minutes to get ready.”

Mel is dressed and back in my room quickly
. She’s wearing a skin tight, ruched red dress that shows off every ample curve. Mel tosses her shoes on my bed as she fastens on a pair of huge gold earrings.

“How are you going to walk from the station to the hotel in those?”

“Who says we’re walking anywhere?”

“I didn’t want to take a cab.”

“Nope, no cab. We’re riding in style. Limo, baby.” I raise an eyebrow at her. Although Mel has money, she rarely spends it. Wasting a bunch of hard-earned cash on a ride isn’t like her. She waves me off. “I got connections—well, actually a guy owes me a favor, so I called it in. He’ll be here in ten. Then, I can wear these babies and look every inch of luscious I want.”

I smirk at her. After she straps her heels on her feet, we walk down the stairwell and wait for the limo. Mel points to the car when the headlight are in view and pushes through the door. Neither of us bothers with a wrap. Wraps are for losers. We duck into the car and when I look up
, I’m shocked to see a familiar face.

“Gabe?” I ask
, as I look between him and Mel.

“I’m sorry, but you must have me confused with someone else. My name is Gabriel and I don’t work for Black and take her limos out when no one is looking.” He looks up in the rear view mirror and smirks.

“She’s going to kill you!”

Mel shakes her head.
“Avery, stop fussing. He’s just messing with you. Black gave him the car to get it cleaned up for some hotshot client this weekend. He’s going to drop us off and then take the car in. Black won’t even know we were in it.”

“I thought you said a guy owed you a favor?” I ask
, narrowing my gaze at her with a light smile on my lips. Mel has a way of making everything work to her advantage. I wish I knew how to do that.

“He does. I took his nephew to a wedding a couple
of weeks ago and kept the dumb kid from knocking up his ex.” Mel leans forward in the seat and says to Gabe, “By the way, that chick was insane.”

“
He bought you for his nephew?” I’m blinking at her, wondering what the hell she did.

Gabe answers for her. “You think I got no class? I don’t buy my nephews hookers, damn
, Avery. And like I’d mix business and pleasure that way. Nah, Mel watched out for him—he just didn’t know it. He thinks he picked her up in a bar on the way there. I provided the ride—”

“And I happened to be at the bar, dressed to attending a wedding, and on the lookout for Gabe’s hot nephew. And he is hot, just a little too heartbroken to see that the love of his life is a total bitch.”

Mel and Gabe chatter, which is weird. They didn’t get along at all when I first met him, and now it seems like they’re old friends. Either way, it works for me.

“Where to, Miss
Stanz?” When I tell him, he breaks our gaze and shakes his head softly, like he shouldn’t say anything. “You sure about that?”

“Yeah, she’s sure about that. Drive man! Stop asking us questions.” Mel laughs and leans back into the seat. She starts chattering about tabloid
gossip and I love her for it. “Did you see that shot of Trystan Scott?”

“Yeah, I did. When rockers come to town, they rock hard, huh?”

“I don’t know. The guy seems…”

“Unlucky. Very unlucky.” That guy’s life has been plastered across the papers
ever since they found him hiding in a high school on Long Island. He wrote a love song for some girl that didn’t know he was alive. The song went viral, but the guy wouldn’t show his face. Some blonde outed him. I feel bad for him. His life sucked and fame doesn’t seem to have made it better.

“Cursed is more like it
,” Mel says. “Or maybe his marketing gurus make that shit up to get the teens slobbering.”

“Yeah, right. The teens.” I smirk at her. “It seems to be working pretty well on college crowd too
, from where I’m sitting.”

“
Cuz he’s hotter than hell. If the devil made the perfect man to lure women into Hell, it’s totally Trystan Scott. Mmm, mmmm. I’d follow his perfect ass anywhere.”

I laugh at her. “You’re so stupid. You would not.”

“I would and I’d have no regrets, because that’s the way I am. I see what I want and I take it and if that guy ever crosses my path, he’s mine.” She means every word of it. I almost envy her. Mel is so sure all the time, it’s like she’s never worried about anything.

I worry about everything.

As Gabe pulls the car up to the hotel, my stomach dips. It feels like a bad omen, but I get out of the car anyway. I’m going to order bourbon and burn my tongue out off my mouth. I’m going to laugh and forget about things for a while.

As Mel and I walk across the lobby, several sets of male eyes fall on us. We take the elevator up to the
restaurant and head for the bar. It’s the middle of the week so it’s not too crowded. Plus drinks here cost twice as much as anywhere else in the city, which drives away some people. I don’t care. I love this place.

As Mel and I settle onto a couple of seats at the bar, a familiar voice speaks out behind me. The hairs on my neck prickle. Out of everyone, I never expected to see him again.

“Avery?” I turn around and see Peter Ferro, uh, Granz. He’s standing there in a dark suit with his hair slicked back. Every strand is perfectly in place, which is the complete opposite of Sean’s.

“Peter?”

Mel turns and glances at him, but says nothing. She flags down the bartender and orders for us while I talk to Sean’s brother.

“I’m so glad to see you.” He’s smiling at me, but I have no idea why.

“Yeah, nice to see you too.” For a second my stomach claws its way up my throat. I’m horrified that Sean is here with him, but as I glance around I know he’s not. I don’t know what he wants or what to say, so I smile at him and drop my gaze. I don’t want to be reminded of last weekend.