Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,82
her parents – which picked out the blue in her eyes and the black of the dress. She had no idea what the others would be wearing to dinner as she’d not had chance to ask them but she hoped that she had judged the dress code right.
Entering the bar, she scanned the tables, wishing that she had taken the trouble to arrange to walk down with Celeste and Tilly rather than having to walk in completely alone. A few heads turned as she entered, the bar at this pre-dinner time being quite full. Presumably many of the conference attendees had also travelled down the night before and she pushed past numerous smartly suited men before she finally spotted her group huddled together over in one corner. Relieved, she headed in their direction.
Celeste and Tilly were also wearing black dresses and Roger and Sam had on the uniform suits. Most of the men in the office wore suits daily so they didn’t look all that much different but both Tilly and Celeste looked stunning, a fact which it appeared had not gone unnoticed by the two men. Roger eyes rarely strayed from Celeste and Sam was blatantly eyeing up Tilly who in turn, wasn’t totally oblivious to his attentions.
Celeste had opted for a short, fitted black dress which emphasised her figure to perfection. She had left her brunette hair down, just securing a couple of clips in the side to hold it off her face, and minimal make up.
Tilly, a beautiful petite girl with exquisite features, had on a stunning floor-length gown. She had a paler complexion as a natural redhead but she had emphasised her eyes with clever make up to create a really dramatic look.
Reaching the small group, she was grateful when Celeste enveloped her in a bear hug and whispered in her ear, “Looking good, hon!”
Elise hugged her in return and then stepped back to take in her friend’s full appearance.
“You too – you look amazing! I’m only sorry that we can’t be in the same room to share make up and swap tips.”
“Yeah...” said Celeste “Where is your room anyway? - I can’t imagine why they decided to split us up like that.”
“Er...I’m on the first floor – I think it’s something to do with numbers and availability. At least that’s what Cole said when I called him.” Elise lied easily and immediately felt guilty. She really wanted to confide in her friend but the time was never right so the lies just kept on coming. She was starting to worry that the line between truth and lies would become so blurred that one day she would forget which her real life was, and which her fantasy one was. Not that either of her ‘lives’ were that much of a fantasy.
Moving away from Celeste, she waved at Roger who was still throwing lustful looks at her friend and smiled warmly at Tilly and Sam. As if Elise’s arrival provided some sort of cue, Tilly almost immediately moved across to stand next to Sam and the two of them were soon engrossed in conversation.
Having not taken much notice of Roger up until now, Elise looked him over surreptitiously and realised that in a Clark Kent geek kind of way, he was actually quite handsome. He had light brown hair which was neatly trimmed and wore fashionable spectacles over the most arresting green eyes that she had ever seen. At first glance you could be forgiven for thinking he was a little scrawny but up close, Elise could see that he filled out his suit very nicely and if she wasn’t much mistaken, there were some serious abs hiding under his shirt. Nudging Celeste in the ribs, she turned to whisper in her ear.
“Have you noticed the looks that Roger’s been throwing you? Seems to me like someone has a bit of a crush.”
To her surprise, Celeste immediately blushed and Elise slapped her hand over her mouth to hold in her gasp of surprise.
“Oh no! Don’t tell me it’s not only him with the crush?!”
Celeste nodded warily and turned to whisper back. “I think I really like him Elise – I mean really like him. I’ve never taken much notice of him before but we were sat in the back of the car together on the way up here and there was just something there – you know? Since then I’ve been thinking about him constantly and I know he’s watching me too. Every time I look up,