Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70294 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70294 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
“It would kind of be badass, though,” Gray said. “Get up there, sing to the crowd like you’re a jazz star.”
“See, Peachel? Gray gets it,” Luke said with a twinkle in his eye. “I’m going to go ask the band if we can do it. Just for one song.”
“I’m going to die from embarrassment,” I said, putting my hand at the side of my face.
We watched as Luke acted slick, making his way up to the stage right as the jazz band went on one of their five-minute breaks.
“You feeling okay?” Gray asked me. “Not too drunk?”
“Not even close,” I said. “How long have we been here? An hour?”
“Two hours and eleven minutes. Not that I’m counting.”
Gray didn’t look out of place, really.
He looked sexy as fuck, wearing a slate-colored suit and a light blue tie that made his eyes shine.
He was gorgeous.
And he was my date.
It made me kind of giddy, even though this same man had seemed like he’d be the death of me when we first met.
“Well, I’m really glad you came here with me,” I told Gray. “You look so sexy in that suit that I’ve been half-chubbed all goddamn night, by the way.”
“All night?” he said, a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth.
“Maybe not the entire time. Not when I was talking to the guys from Tech.”
He smiled fully and I realized how good it made me feel to see that.
I’d known from the moment we walked in that a lavish party like this was probably going to make Gray feel out of place.
And all I wanted to do was make him realize he belonged here.
With me.
“You know, I got dragged to a few super fancy parties with my parents when I was a kid, and I had a favorite thing to do,” I said.
“Let me guess. You crumpled the napkins into little balls and pretended to play football with them?”
“Sounds like me. But no. I’d go around high-fiving as many stuffy old businessmen as I could.”
Gray lifted his eyebrows. “Really?”
I nodded. “Made it my goal to find the angriest looking men and make them high-five me. Some of them still scowled while they did it. An elderly investor once told me I’d never grow up to be successful if I kept doing ‘stupid shit like that,’ which is an exact quote.”
“Goddamn,” Gray said.
“They’re in!” Luke called out, appearing at the table beside us. “We’re allowed to sing a song.”
Heat flooded my veins.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Dead serious,” Luke said. “This is going to be gold. They only have two microphones set up for vocals, though, so it has to be you two doing a duet.”
“Whoa, I never signed up for this,” Gray said, holding up his hands.
“I can’t sing for shit,” Luke said, shrugging. “I would have happily done bad backup vocals for you, but I’m thinking this is more of a couples’ duet type deal.”
Fuck.
I wished I could melt right through my chair into the floor right now.
I couldn’t bear to look over at Gray’s face.
My own cheeks were burning hot in an instant.
“We aren’t a couple, bro,” I muttered to Luke, reaching for my drink and tossing back the rest of it.
“He just dragged me here so that he could force me into a suit,” Gray said.
Thank God.
I was glad he was defusing the situation with humor because I’d been so caught off guard that I could barely use the English language at the moment.
“I’m going to go take a piss,” Gray said. I felt his hand come down on my forearm as he gave it a little squeeze. “Andrew, you work on convincing Luke to be your singing partner instead of me, okay?”
“Got it,” I said, and in my peripheral vision I saw him heading off for the bathroom.
“Fuck you, Luke,” I said once Gray was out of earshot. “I won’t be surprised if he doesn’t even come back.”
“You’re like a fuckin’ schoolkid on the playground, Peachel,” Luke said, waving me off.
“I told you I was taking Gray on this date as a friend,” I said.
Even I barely believed my own words, though.
“Friend who you look at with little hearts in your eyes.”
“Doesn’t matter how I look at him. He certainly doesn’t look at me that way.”
Luke let out a hearty laugh. “Wow. You’re blind, you know.”
I glared at him. “I’m not blind. I’m just not delusional. I trust Gray now, but I still think he’s mainly here for the article. I want to have fun with him, but I know none of this is going to last. So just let me have my fun, okay?”
“Have your fun up on that stage with him, then. If none of this will matter, then just do it.”
Gray reappeared soon after.
I could barely make eye contact with him now, not knowing how he may have reacted to Luke calling us a couple.