a chair and stretches her small body forward. “You don’t know what you’re doing,” she says with wide eyes.
I just look on and chuckle.
“It’ll be fun. Maybe we can all go out together,” Vanessa says.
I shake my head at her. That’ll be her excuse to give Cristian the cold shoulder I’m sure.
“One thousand!” the other woman declares, smiling smugly at her friends like she’s got this.
“Lauren you are the one who said we couldn’t fight the other on who they chose,” I remind her.
“That’s before I thought she’d bid on him,” she says, him with disgust.
I don’t know what she has against Luca Bianco and I wonder if my best friend has been keeping secrets from me.
Unable to reach the paddle, Lauren teeters on the edge of the chair and has to crouch down before she falls.
“Just tell me, what’s the highest you’ll go?” Vanessa asks the woman.
The redheaded woman shrugs like game on. Vanessa blows at a strand of hair out of her vision. “Fifteen hundred!”
“Vanessa!” I scold because she cannot afford that. She can’t even hold down a steady job. I mean, she pays me her rent in five, ten, and twenty dollar bills every month.
“NO!” Lauren screams and stands trying to grab the paddle again.
She finally loses her balance and crashes into Vanessa who can’t stop them from falling. They topple to the ground in a tangle of limbs, but Vanessa is sure to keep the paddle in the air.
“Nice,” I say, shaking my head.
“Do you counter?” the MC asks the redhead and she sits down in her seat, picking up her glass and downing the rest of her wine.
“Sold to the lady on the floor wrestling her friend. Have fun with that one, Luca.”
“Just how I like them,” Luca says before he saunters off stage.
“It’s over,” I say to my friends still wrestling for the paddle on the floor. Classy, aren’t we?
Lauren sits up on her knees, not bothering to straighten her dress or fix her messy hair. She could probably go a couple more rounds.
“See, you’re perfect to fight off the competition,” I say and laugh.
Lauren narrows her eyes at me.
Vanessa stands, instantly situating her hair and dress. “Jeez, Lauren. It’s just a date.”
“A date I won’t be going on. You just wasted fifteen hundred dollars.” Lauren stomps off toward the bar.
I could use a drink too. I stand and begin to follow her, but my feet stop when Mauro comes into sight.
He’s got a beer in his hand talking to a golden-blonde haired woman in an elegant dress that reveals her nice figure. He always did love the blondes. I remember some of the girls he was linked to in high school—Tasha Needlebrook, Holly Jenkins, Katie Iverson. All blonde, all thin, and all cheerleaders. The woman smiles, touching his bicep. Back when we were younger I was used to seeing the girls fall all over him, but what cuts me right now is his wide smile toward her. He’s hanging on every word she’s saying. Jealously rips through my body like a taser.
Trying to shake off the unwelcome emotion, I continue on my way to the bar.
“Tequila shot. Now.” Lauren slaps the top of the roll in bar set-up outside the ballroom. Her rudeness pulls a few stares our way.
“Sorry Miss, we don't have tequila,” the kind women who served me earlier says without the friendly smile this time. “You want gin or vodka?”
“Vodka and I need two then.”
“I’ll just give you a double.” The bartender pulls out a regular highball glass and pours in more vodka than Lauren should consume.
Lauren downs most of it in one gulp.
Luca comes out from the ballroom and I notice Vanessa laying out piles of cash on the table to pay for Lauren’s date. The women accepting the payment glance at one another, looking a little unsure.
“You think she’s hooking?” Lauren asks me, seeing the same thing I am.
Who carries fifteen hundred in cash in their purse?
“No. She would never do that.”
Silently, I second guess myself…the hours she keeps, the cash she always has on hand, the way she’s always so shady about where she’s been.
Nope. I know my friend and she is not sleeping with men for money. But she’s definitely up to something.
“You’re probably right,” Lauren says.
Luca stops when he spots Vanessa, leaning his hip against the table, eyeing her like she’s his next meal.
“Great, now he thinks she bought him,” Lauren says.
Vanessa nods to us and Luca steps to the side to look past Vanessa