friend of mine. She actually got me this job.”
She then points to Nate. “This is Nate.”
Firmly shaking David’s hand, he says, “Nate, Juliette’s boyfriend.”
I flash Juliette a look. I bet Caroline’s jaw would be dropping with jealousy if she heard him say that. Nate’s certainly not a guy with commitment problems, he’s already labeling them. Juliette has a big smile on her face. It’s obvious that Nate is making sure the guys at work know she’s taken.
The bartenders are dressed as Lando Calrissian and Captain Panaka. David leans over and says, “You want me to get Lando to make a drink for you?”
I pretend to swoon. “Yes, I love it when the swashbuckling hero makes me a drink. Can you see if they’re serving margaritas?”
Juliette lifts her glass to show me she got one.
3CPO enters the cocktail area announcing, “The IMAX Hidden Universe show will begin in fifteen minutes.”
“Do you want to see it?” Nate asks Juliette.
“I’d rather eat dinner first. It’s supposed to be a special catered buffet,” she replies.
David gives me a questioning look to see what I want to do. I tip my head and question back at him, “Let’s eat with them. We can see the IMAX after?”
He nods as we join the group heading into the food pavilion.
The dining room looks like a Star Wars set. I think they spent more this year on the party than last. The food is set up Brazilian BBQ style with waiters dressed as warriors. They circle the room with large skewers of meat; slicing them onto your plate if you turn the card they give you to green.
David starts laughing, he gives me an elbow. “Hita, your favorite dinner—skewers of meat.”
Chiding him back, “Hey, maybe I should have brought your co-worker, the vegan. We both could sit around making annoying comments.”
David leans into me and says, “One day with that guy, and you’ll be eating meat just to piss him off.”
I nod my head as I walk up to the buffet table to see what vegetarian dishes they have.
Chapter 35 – Relationships
Savi is starting to come back down to earth actually telling me, “Arav’s a bit of a slob, he always leaves his wet towel on the bathroom floor and in the kitchen, he never wipes off the counter or cleans out the sink.”
“If that’s your biggest complaint, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. David’s really a slob. His apartment is gross. Those guys have been living there for three years. I don’t think they’ve ever cleaned the bathroom. The EPA is going to come in one of these days and declare it a superfund site.”
***
After an unusually contentious team meeting, Juliette and I decide to take a walk around the building to get away from all the testosterone.
As we head outside she confides in me. “I’m a little concerned about my relationship with Nate.”
This is a surprise, they looked so happy at the party. “Why, what’s he done?”
“He’s kind of alpha,” she says.
I ponder that comment finally asking, “What do you mean?”
“He spent a lot of time at our party making sure everyone knew we were together.”
“And there’s a problem with that?”
She looks conflicted, but responds, “No, that’s not it. It’s, I hope he doesn’t turn controlling. You know, you read all about these alpha guys who don’t have boundaries.”
“So you’re afraid of something that’s going to happen based on what, romance novels you’ve read?”
She flashes me an annoyed look, then says, “It’s more than that. When we were at the holiday party, he was sure that all the guys at this company are after me.”
“Juliette, did you see yourself in a mirror? That dress was tight. I never realized what a hot figure you had until I saw you in that dress.”
She looks at me in horror. “Was it worse than the football game?”
“No, your boobs were hanging out at the football game. This was much classier. But I think even the gay guys were checking you out.”
I can tell by the look on her face she’s horrified. We work with guys. You need to be careful about dressing too sexy. You don’t want the wrong kind of attention.
“Back to Nate, actually, it’s not the arm around me and making sure the other guys know he’s my boyfriend. It’s that he had this macho showdown thing with Flint.”
“Flint?”
“Yeah, it was really embarrassing. Nate got all aggressive with Flint. Like as in this is my girlfriend, don’t hit on her.”
“Has Flint been hitting on