Chapter 19 A Diamond Affair

Someone had forgotten to tell Leah that the holiday season was also exhausting. She'd barely recovered from her hangover from the Matzah Ball when Diamond Media's holiday party began the next day. She wore the new Christmas-themed dress with red and green plaid that she bought just for the occasion while being careful to conceal the puffiness under her eyes.

"Late night?" Alex had commented in the morning when she arrived at work with her sunglasses still on her face. She smirked and sat down at her desk, hoping she'd get through the day. "Coffee?" Alex placed a mug on her desk as he came around. "A little sugar, lots of milk," he recited from months of watching her make her own.

She gratefully drank the coffee and Alex left her alone to her data entry. She was in no state to do any writing. And that was fine because it was December. And the only people in the finance industry working in December were in that very room. The people they wrote about? All those movers and shakers? They had moved their way to ski resorts or shaken it down to warmer weather. Apparently winter break didn't stop after college in this industry. Well, not counting the underpaid journalists who stood on the sidelines and wrote about the millions of dollars changing hands.

After lunch and her third coffee, she started to feel better. By the end of the workday, she was ready for another holiday party. She, Alex, and Mark stuffed into the crowded elevators going up to the top floor of the Diamond Media building where the holiday party was starting. When the elevator doors opened, they were flung out into the venue surrounded by windows and the New York skyline. "Woah." Leah couldn't help but comment.

"You've never been up here?" Mark questioned and she shook her head. "I guess I was only here for last year's party and that breakfast thing we snuck into a while back."

"That was a good breakfast," Alex commented.

"You didn't even touch the food! You were too busy drooling over the underage models they brought in. Who, also, by the way, didn't touch the breakfast."

"I remember the croissants. And those little cheese thingies."

"The cheese thingies," Mark nodded in agreement. They were handed chutes of champagne and the group cheered before drinking. Leah looked around the room. There were so many people who worked at Diamond Media, she felt like she knew no one there except her two friends. After drinking their champagne, the three of them found the bar and hors d'oeuvres.

"The ceviche is the only thing worth eating," someone whispered next to her. She turned to see Malcolm holding a plate with what she assumed was ceviche. "The catering at these events is not authentic though." Leah nodded as though she too appreciated authentic ceviche. "Did you try it?"

She shook her head and Malcolm took one of the little cups from his plate filled with tiny pink cubes and handed it to her. She'd never had ceviche, didn't even know what it was, but she accepted and shot the small cup into her mouth. It was fish.

"Not terrible, right?" Malcolm confirmed. Despite her instincts to spit it back into the cup, Leah swallowed and nodded.

They stood by the buffet and Leah wondered what happened to her friends and why they hadn't saved her. She took a sip of the cocktail she got. "How's salsa going?" She asked.

"Great! We have a new jazz soloist coming to the club next week. Will you be there?"

"I'll try to come." Which was a lie. She wouldn't go. She wouldn't even try.

"Oh!" Malcolm suddenly seemed surprised. "Did you meet Brittany?"

Leah shook her head. "Who is Brittany? "

"The new researcher at Teen Club. She just started last week." Malcolm waved over Leah's shoulder. "Brittany! Come meet our researcher!"

Leah's heart fell down to her hips. She was supposed to be the new researcher at Teen Club. She was supposed to move to that magazine once they found her replacement at Club Business. Had they forgotten? What about the woman who was supposed to be her manager? Her mentor who would take her under her wing? Had she forgotten Leah? And what about HR? Helen? Kelsey? Did they forget she was supposed to be just temporarily researching for Club Business?

"Hey!" said the blond girl with perfect makeup and way too much enthusiasm. "I'm Brittany!" Leah looked at Brittany and her huge boobs and professional, yet low cut dress.

"Brittany comes salsa dancing sometimes," Malcolm noted. "This is Leah."

"Yeah! It's so fun, I just love it. Have you been?"

Leah nodded. "Yeah, so fun."

"It's so nice to meet you! Diamond Media is just, like, so big, you know? It's hard to know anyone outside of your little department." Brittany smiled. "Is that ceviche? Oh my God, I lived on ceviche during my semester abroad in Spain!"

Malcolm nodded and handed her a cup from his plate. "You'll be disappointed though. "

Brittany ate the ceviche. "Shucks, yeah, it's not so authentic. They used lemon, but real ceviche uses orange." Malcolm nodded as though he were thinking the same thing.

"Oh, there's my boss! She's so amazing, I have so much to learn from her!" Brittany smiled. "Nice to meet you, Leah!" She said it like Princess Leah, instead of Lee-ah, the way it should have been pronounced.

"I'm going to the bathroom," she said to Malcolm and darted away. She found Alex and Mark standing with their boss Tony. The three of them were all swirling fat round glasses with brown liquid inside.

"You know when I was your age, I hadn't even tasted scotch," Tony said. "And that's probably best because you can't appreciate it until you're older. Scotch is better with age, just like your taste buds. At your age, you should just stick to all those crummy beers or well drinks. You guys don't know how spoiled you are drinking this scotch."

"Spoiled rotten," Alex confirmed while taking a sip. "Leah! Where were you? I guess you're not spoiled like we are!" He noted her cocktail, probably made from unbranded liquor.

"You kids are so lucky. When I started out, the holiday parties were just for the senior management, now everyone is invited! Drink up and enjoy though! You all work hard." Leah wondered how much scotch Tony needed to throw a nice word at them .

When Tony walked away, she leaned in close. "So I just met Brittany!"

"Who's that?" Alex asked, drinking his scotch.

"She is who I'm supposed to be!"

"I don't get it," Mark laughed.

"She's the researcher at Teen Club! I can't believe they just replaced me!"

"They didn't replace you, you work at Club Business."

"But I was supposed to work there! They were supposed to move me after a little while. Ugh! It's so unfair!"

"Sucks." Mark commiserated.

"So should we meet Brittany?" Alex questioned as he finished his scotch.

Leah rolled her eyes. "You probably would like to meet her! She seems like just your type!" Leah chugged the rest of her cocktail and grabbed another champagne flute from a waiter making rounds.

"Introduce us?" Alex asked, swirling his drink as though he thought he was James Bond.

"Introduce yourself!" Leah rolled her eyes and drank the rest of her champagne. "Are these parties always so lame?" She commented as she looked around the glittering bar, buffet, and the skyline lit up by all the people still sitting at their cubicles working while Christmas approached. There was even a harpist playing near one of the floor-to-ceiling windows. Leah knew this party was anything but lame. It was probably the fanciest place she'd ever been to since moving to Manhattan. Probably the fanciest place she'd been to ever. Except maybe Tory Goldenberg's Bat Mitzvah which was at the Plaza Hotel. Leah had begged her mom to bring her to the city for the event, all the girls in their eighth grade were going! "The Plaza is a little over the top for a bat mitzvah!" Leah's mom had whispered, as though she weren't sure if it were true and she didn't want to be caught saying something so absurd. But in the end, she drove Leah and three friends to the event. Most likely, she had been just as curious to attend the event herself.

"Drinking with management is always lame," Mark responded. "You have to be careful. You never met Clark from Celeb Club. He kissed Helen from HR at this thing a few years ago and no one saw him since."

"Not even his roommate," Alex chimed in. "Rumor has it that Helen's lipstick is poisonous and he went down somewhere near the dumpsters and got taken out with the trash."

"Celeb Club is trash," Mark responded. Leah rolled her eyes again just as Malcolm came over with a tray of small cups.

"Please don't tell me that's some fancy liqueur that only people who have been to some remote Mediterranean island can identify." Leah mocked sarcastically .

"Just tequila," Malcolm smiled. "But if you want a Mediterranean liqueur—"

"Cheers!" Leah grabbed a shot and threw it back. Everybody followed and Malcolm whispered that he would go ask the bartenders if they had some liqueur that Leah couldn't understand because Malcolm said it so quietly.

Leah looked around the room, wondering where that Brittany girl was and hoping Malcolm wouldn't invite her for their shot of the fancy Mediterranean liqueur. If Brittany had stolen Teen Club from her, well, Leah couldn't let her also steal her friends, or her sort of manager, or whatever Malcolm was to her.

Alex and Mark were suddenly both on their phones, typing away as though it was something seriously urgent, like a hilarious Facebook meme they couldn't miss out on. Phones are contagious and Leah felt the urge to pull hers out of her bag. She actually did have important messages to respond to. One from Gabe, which she opened immediately, feeling guilty that she hadn't thought about him all evening. He'd be excited to hear about the holiday party, although on second thought, he probably went to parties like this all the time, seeing as he worked for people who spent money the way others unwrap a candy bar.

Peppermint cocktails are half off at Hamlin's. Want to imbibe?

Imbibe. Leah chuckled. She loved that Gabe used smart words like that. He was smart. Smart, smart, smart and that was sexy. Just as she was about to respond, her phone buzzed, sending an electric shock through her arms. It was from Asher.

Have you seen the Christmas tree in Rockafeller?

He didn't even spell Rockefeller right! Leah rolled her eyes and texted that she had seen it. And it was pretty impressive. She was only slightly disappointed in herself that she couldn't think of some complex vocab work like imbibe to include in her text. She went back to Gabe's message and responded that she'd love to once her work party was over. She looked up to see Alex smiling at her.

"What?"

"You make funny faces when you're texting. You're like, acting out whatever you're typing." He responded with a giggle and started to imitate her.

"You're so immature." Like Asher, she thought in her head.

"You say it like it's a bad thing. Let's go to the buffet." Alex motioned and she followed, feeling her stomach grumble. They loaded up plates and found a tableclothed table to sit at while they gobbled their food and made fun of each appetizer before popping it in their mouths.

Leah's phone rang just as she was chewing on a deviled egg.

"Why aren't there angeled eggs?" Alex questioned .

Mark had the answer: "Because no angel would eat an egg, a.k.a. a baby chicken."

Leah's text was from Gabe. He was downstairs waiting for her. She quickly swallowed and stood up. "I'll see you guys later."

"I'll walk out with you. I have to go to the water closet after eating all these baby chickens." Alex smiled and they left Mark sitting alone.

"You're gross," Leah commented as they exited the event hall toward the elevator bay. Alex smiled and winked as though accepting a compliment. She felt herself swaying as she pressed the elevator call button. Alex stood next to her instead of heading to the bathroom. "You don't need to, like, be a gentleman and wait with me. I know you're not a gentleman."

"I can be a gentleman."

"Sure." When the elevator doors opened, Leah stepped inside. She was about to say goodbye to Alex when he swooped in after her. He pressed his lips to hers so hard she almost fell backward as the elevator doors closed. There was shock. Fear. And then thrill. Alex was sexy. Gross, but sexy. And not just the kind of sexy after at least four drinks. She kissed him back and he pushed her harder and harder toward the back of the elevator as they rode down the many, many floors of Diamond Media .

The elevator stopped. It pinged. And Alex pulled away as the doors opened. "See you Monday." He said as Leah wiped her mouth and stepped into the lobby. Alex stayed in the elevator and the doors closed again.

She wasn't sure what had happened. Had she imagined it? She probably should have skipped the tequila shot. She turned around and there was Gabe waiting for her outside the building. He smiled and waved.

She must have imagined it. What a ridiculous girl she had become.