Chapter 4

After work, Julie and I headed to my apartment to get ready for a celebratory night out. I was still feeling jittery after my meeting with the St. Clairs, but Dash had given me a five million dollar ballpark figure and that was worth a damn drink someplace where I didn't have to pour it for myself.

Julie glanced at me as we walked into the three-story penthouse I now lived in alone. "Are you okay? You've been really quiet considering that it's you and all. It's usually hard to get a word in edgewise after we close a deal and yet you've barely said a word."

"Oh, I'm fine," I said. "Just thinking about Dash St. Clair."

She shot me a wide grin. "Hot, huh? Hotter in person, I'd say."

"Definitely," I said because I was a human being and denying it would've only made her suspicious, but damn, I'd been completely right about him being a hell of a looker. It was too bad about his personality, though. "If only a conversation with him wasn't like trying to talk to a wet rock, that might've been nice."

She frowned, spinning to face me as she walked backward into my kitchen, as familiar with the layout of this place as I was at this point. "Really? Diana was the complete opposite. She didn't stop talking the entire time I was with her. She's awesome. I love her and I want her to adopt me."

"I love her too, but she must've gotten all the personality in that family."

"He has four brothers. Maybe that just made him quiet. I'd imagine it could be pretty chaotic growing up in a house like that. All that testosterone in the air." Julie closed her eyes and inhaled deeply as if she could smell it. "Paradise."

"Nah." I kicked off my heels, pulled out a bottle of wine, and reached onto the exposed shelf for two glasses. "I think he's just an entitled, know-it-all snob. He thinks he's too good to plan a wedding with me."

"Wow." She chuckled, slinging her purse off her shoulder. "Less than an hour with him and you've already decided that? It seems a bit extreme. Especially for you, Ms. Glass-Half-Full."

She sat down at the dinner table in the center of the kitchen.

I filled the glasses with a crisp white and carried them to the table to join her. "Exactly. You've got to know it's true if even I say it."

"Fair enough." She tilted her head at me, her baby browns curious as she watched me sit down. "What did he do to be the only person, other than the one we shall not speak about, to get on your bad side?"

I shrugged, twirling the stem of my glass between my fingers. I dropped my gaze to the ripples on the surface of the liquid. "There wasn't just one thing, but he was not happy with anything I offered. He refused to speak to me even when I asked really easy questions to try and draw him into the discussion. I almost felt like he couldn't even be bothered to look me in the eyes."

"Maybe he was looking at your tits," she teased. "You're really letting the girls out to breathe in that outfit."

I snorted. "It was more like he was looking through me. I swear, he's one of those that just can't stand to look at us normal people."

She arched a steep eyebrow at me, taking a pointed look around. "Since when are you normal? Have you seen where I live compared to this place? You're from an old-money family too, but you're also independently wealthy and you negotiated a kickass settlement for yourself. You're not normal, girl. Plus, again, your boobs look killer in that top."

I bit back my smile at that last part, but it didn't quite work. "To be fair, I didn't negotiate that settlement all by myself. My lawyer helped. A lot."

"But she was able to because you had the balls to stand up for yourself," Julie said, as if that settled everything. "You're thirty years old, a TV star in your own right, and you're now running a major events company in the event capital of the world."

"I doubt London and New York would agree. Tokyo either, for that matter, and what about?—"

She groaned, holding up her palms in surrender. "Okay. Fine. I get it. Los Angeles is a strong contender though, and you're a strong contender for the best there is around here. That counts."

"Thanks, but what's with the sudden pep talk?"

"It's not a pep talk." She scoffed, but then her gaze came back up to mine and she shrugged a shoulder. "I don't know. You seemed bummed after the meeting. I figured you needed reminding of who you are."

I held her eyes for a moment, knowing she was right. It wasn't because of the meeting, though. Recently, I'd been just a little bit less happy. A little bit less optimistic. A little bit less resilient, even.

My ability to see the silver lining in every situation and the good in every person had been diminished, what I'd once regarded the best aspects of my personality significantly muted.

Ethan had done a number on me during our marriage and it'd taken me far too long to realize it. I carried the effects of that with me every day, and facing off with a man like Dash exhausted me.

I sighed. "Okay, you're right. Enough moping. This will officially be the most profitable wedding we've brought in and we should celebrate."

"I thought that was what we were doing," she said, tipping her head toward the glass in her hand. "Isn't it?"

"Nope, not yet. Bring that. We're going out."

"Now? I didn't bring any clothes. I kind of thought maybe you'd changed your mind about not just drinking here."

"Nope. We're going out." I smirked at her as I stood up. "Since when are clothes a problem? I'm pretty sure I have enough."

Julie laughed and shrugged. She got up and followed me to the master bedroom on the top story. It had a magnificent view of the ocean and the lights twinkling to life in the city, but neither of us paid much attention to that as we strode to my walk-in closet.

For now, the his section of the massive his-and-hers changing suite was decidedly empty, but her eyes darted in the direction of the shelves that had once been occupied by Ethan's things anyway. "Hey, uh, he hasn't tried to contact you again, right? That's not what this is about?"

I shook my head. "We're not talking about him tonight. This is a celebration, remember?"

"Sure, but as far as I'm concerned, every night for the rest of our lives can be a celebration of the fact that you finally kicked him to the curb. That man was rotten."

I rocked my head from side to side, but I couldn't disagree with her. Julie had been the first person to warn me against Ethan, way before I'd even married him. She'd never liked him. Never trusted him. And for a long time, that had put some serious strain on our friendship.

I still didn't know how to make it up to her. I should've listened, but I hadn't. Not until it was too late and I'd found myself crying in this very closet, five years into a marriage that had broken the very foundation of who I was.

Shaking the thoughts out of my head, I decided to take my own advice and focus on the celebration. After changing into brand new, sparkling party dresses that had no bad memories attached to them, we touched up our makeup. By then, the car service I'd arranged was waiting downstairs to take us to an upscale nightclub.

Oblivion was the kind of place I'd frequented before Ethan. When I'd been filming my show and living what I'd later realized had been the good life. Since I was trying to get back to that person, the girl I really was, I was pushing myself to do more stuff like this again.

Even so, anxiety thrummed through me when we stepped into the darkened main area of the club. Strobe lights flashed overhead and the pounding bass of the music thumped in my chest like it had replaced my heartbeat.

For just a moment, I was nervous, but then Julie wrapped her arm around mine and dragged me to the bar. We ordered a couple of beers, thankfully not having to wait too long to get served, but I turned when I thought I heard my name being called.

"Serenity?"

My heart jumped into my throat. I completed the turn to see Dash St. Clair behind me, a buff but not overly attractive guy next to him. I paused for a minute to wonder if I knew this guy. I figured I might since the social circles Dash and I traveled in weren't that different, but when I came up dry on his friend, I glanced back at the man himself.

"Dash! We've got to stop meeting like this." I laughed, but he didn't even crack a smile in return.

Those honey-colored eyes were dead serious on mine. "I agree. You should watch where you're going. You never know if you're going to run into the wrong person."

The friend looked me over, doing a quick double-take before he interjected, stepping forward with his hand outstretched to introduce himself. "Hi. I'm Lance and he's just made this really awkward, so can we please pretend he didn't say anything?"

Dash's dark eyebrows twitched upward, but he simply strode past me to the bar and didn't even look at Julie to greet her. Rolling my eyes at him, I smiled at his friend and smacked my palm into his. "Serenity. It's nice to meet you, Lance. If you want some better company later, come find us."

He chuckled, the grin coming quick and easy, telling me that he probably provided a bit of balance to his incredibly grumpy friend. Lance nodded, greeting Julie with an equally friendly smile before he waved at us, surging forward through the crowd to meet his friend at the bar.

Julie wrinkled her nose at me, leaning in close to be heard above the music. "Okay, I see what you mean. He's really unpleasant."

I laughed, widening my eyes for emphasis as I nodded. Even so, I glanced at him across the dance floor every so often as the night progressed, wondering what had happened to him to have made him this way. Other than the unexpected loss of his father, our quick Google search yesterday hadn't yielded any results, and it would have if he had any skeletons in his closet.

It seemed the tabloids loved his family almost as much as they loved me, and even if it did look like his brothers were a lot more sociable than he was, he was followed enough that they'd have unearthed any scandals relating to him. So maybe he's just a prick by birth.

Either way, I kept looking at him, taking in the strong slant of his jaw and the way those shoulders filled out his suit. It's such a damn pity about his personality.

Eventually, I made myself stop ogling the forbidden fruit and focused on my friend instead. We drank and danced, toasting the day we'd had and having fun until the tequila started going to my head.

We didn't see Dash or Lance again until we walked out. All four of us somehow emerged at the same damn time. Like a real gentleman, Lance motioned for us to precede them and I flashed him a smile, inclining my head in thanks just before we hit the sidewalk.

A sidewalk that was, as usual, covered in paparazzi lying in wait. Whether it was just for me this time or if there were other people in there they were interested in, I didn't know. I ducked, let my hair fall in front of my face, and kept walking.

Flashes went off, lighting up the night, but Julie and I were both so used to it after the craziness that had followed me around since the divorce that neither of us took much notice. Dash, on the other hand, did not appear to be pleased.

He cut me a sideways glare as if this was all my fault and I was the only public figure between us who could possibly be responsible for such drama. He quickly separated himself from the rest of us and stole away while Lance at least sent us an awkward wave as we climbed into the car.

"God, why is he so weird?" I groaned as exasperation slid through me. Sure, he was hot, and physically, I couldn't deny that I was attracted to him, but we were going to have to spend the next couple months working pretty closely together and I really didn't know how we were going to get through it.

Julie laughed, shaking her head as the car pulled away from the curb. "Don't sweat it. I've decided he was simply born an asshole."

"I was wondering about that earlier," I admitted.

She shrugged, flashing me a slightly lopsided grin that betrayed how tipsy she was as she waggled her eyebrows at me. "Enough of the bad. Let's just focus on the good. We killed it today, and that's all that matters."

I nodded but I was still staring down the barrel of two solid months in that guy's non-company. The mere thought of it brought a bitter taste to my mouth, but then I thought of the look Ethan was going to have on his face when he learned I'd brought in a five-million-dollar wedding.

I couldn't lie. That brought my smile back with a vengeance. It felt amazing to be doing what he had said I never could. For that reason alone, today had been a damn good day—and so would every day that I proved to him just how well I could do what he'd explicitly told me so many times I never would.

I wouldn't fail, no matter how much of a pain Dash was.