I took another swig of the too sweet champagne. Shit, shit, shit.
"Nah," I lied.
* * *
AVERY
My sister looked lovely in her dress, but she was double-fisted and guzzling champagne at an alarming rate.
And she wasn't supposed to be here.
"Lila," I hiss-whispered to her. "What the hell are you doing?"
She regarded me coolly and widened her eyes in mock surprise. "Avery! I'm so happy to see you." She leaned closer and I could smell cigarette smoke in her hair. "Wouldn't it be nice if you greeted your sister in the same, friendly manner?"
"Lower your voice," I begged. "You're not supposed to be seen in public with me. How did you even get in here?"
My sister tossed her hair over her shoulder and shrugged. "I gave the bouncer a bag of weed. I figured it was for a good cause."
"How did you find out about this?" I asked.
She snorted. "It's this little thing called the Internet—you might have heard of it."
"You have to go," I said. "If Elena finds out you were here, I'm going to get fired."
Lila took another healthy gulp of champagne. "You know that's not going to happen. The press is eating up your little story. She's not going to fire you now." She surveyed the crowd, her laser-like stare taking in every detail. "I had to come find you. You've been ignoring me. You were supposed to send me money."
"I already gave you two thousand dollars. You didn't already spend it, did you?" My panic was rising.
Lila rolled her eyes. "Not all of it."
"Jesus. When are you going to learn to—"
"Can you introduce me to any ballers?" she interrupted me. "I was kind of hoping I could meet one. You look like you're having so much fun, I thought I might give it a whirl."
"No, I can't. As far as they know, I don't have any family around here. Please," I said, desperate to get her to leave. "Don't ruin this for me—for us. I'm going to make so much money, I'll be able to take care of you. We'll be able to move out of that dump and get a nice apartment. But not if you mess this up."
"Where can we get an apartment?" she asked, excited. "Do you think we could move to the South End? I've always wanted to live there…"
I sighed. "Wherever you want. Just promise me you'll go."
"Not yet, okay? I got this dress from Rent the Runway for twenty-five bucks," she said as she smoothed it. "It needs to earn out. Plus, there's free drinks."
She chugged some more champagne. "Bottoms up," she said. "Oops, looks like we've got company. He's huge in real life, huh?" Looking past me and gawking.
Chase was suddenly beside me. I felt relieved that he was close, but I kept my face neutral. I didn't want my sister to see my feelings written all over my face. Any sort of ammunition she could assemble would be dangerous, potentially lethal. "You must be Avery's sister," he said in a friendly tone, holding his hand out for Lila. "I'm Chase Layne. I've heard so much about you."
"Don't believe a word of it." Lila shook his hand and simultaneously stuck her chest out at him. I winced and Chase protectively snaked his arm around my waist, a fact that was not lost on Lila's wandering eyes. "It's so nice to finally meet you, Chase. Avery's been hiding you from me—or me from you. I'm not sure which."
"Lila was just finishing her drink and leaving," I said pointedly.
My sister shook her head. "I'm not ready to go. I haven't met anybody, and I haven't had all the free champagne I can handle yet," she whined.
"My driver's available now, if you'd like him to take you home. It's a sweet ride—an Escalade, brand new." Chase smiled at her. He'd just met her, but he already had my sister's number.
That seemed to perk Lila up. She turned her gaze to me. "Ave, do you have any cash I can borrow? Maybe I can have the driver drop me at this club I've been wanting to check out. Since I'm all dressed."
I nodded stiffly, feeling my face turn a molten red. "Sure. I'll walk you out and make sure you have everything you need." I turned to Chase, certain he could read the humiliation on my face. "Be right back."