Cruel Money (Cruel 1)

“That’s right,” Lewis spoke up. He stepped forward to hug me. “Good to see you again, gorgeous.”

“You too,” I said. Though I didn’t know why I was going along with it. I wasn’t ashamed of my job.

“How has the alone time at the beach been?”

“Rejuvenating. I started a new book.”

“So, you’re an author?” Thomas asked. “Have I read anything by you?”

Lewis slung an arm around my shoulders. “We’re keeping her under tight wraps right now.”

“Ah, so she’s with Warren then?”

“Obviously.”

I chewed on my bottom lip and said nothing. I remembered the horrible rejection letter that I had recently gotten from Warren. And now, I was standing around with the owner’s son.

“What do you do?” I asked to get the heat off of me.

“I’m a senior executive for St. Vincent’s Enterprises,” he said smoothly with a wide grin at Lark.

“Wow.”

The boyfriend working for her parents. Not exactly original. But it seemed like so much of this Upper East Side world was incestuous. Not that I had any room to judge. I’d only gotten into vacation home watching because I started with Amy’s parents’ place. At least I’d worked my way up on my own.

Penn cleared his throat. I turned to face him, and he was staring very pointedly at Lewis’s arm still around my shoulders. I hadn’t even noticed really. I wasn’t sure if I was reading his look right because it couldn’t possibly be that he was…jealous. Lewis was his best friend. He wouldn’t do that to Penn. And we were just friends. Me and Penn and Lewis. Friends.

Still, I shrugged Lewis’s arm off of my shoulders and glanced down at my empty champagne flute. “How did that happen?”

Penn held his hand out. “Why don’t we dance?”

“Uh,” I muttered.

Déjà vu hit me like a two-by-four. I remembered the time we had ballroom danced in Paris. The feel of his body against mine. The almost kiss that had left so much to the imagination. Dancing with him, even thinking about dancing with him, was putting me in uncomfortable territory. It was making me think not-so-friend-zoned thoughts.

We stood there for a second with his hand held out and mine half to him and half away. And then Katherine appeared, easily breaking the ice as she slid between us.

“There you are, love,” she said to me, playfully linking our elbows. “I lost you in the crowd.”

“I found her,” Penn said.

“Ah, thank you for keeping her safe for me,” Katherine said with a toothy smile. He didn’t return it.

“We were just about to dance.”

“Sorry to disappoint, but she’s my date, not yours. And we have things to do, people to see.”

Rowe snorted from where he had silently stood this whole time with his face buried in his phone. “Typical.”

“Can’t we just have one good night?” Lark asked on a sigh. “The mayor is here, and I can’t have us fighting. Not when the First Lady is coming into the city next week.”

“We’re not fighting,” Katherine said cheerfully. “And why ever would the First Lady come to the city? President Woodhouse has New York locked down. Shouldn’t they be spending more time in swing states for his reelection bid?”

Lark grinned. “It’s like you’ve actually been listening to me.”

“Don’t hold your breath,” Rowe muttered.

“His challenger is from the Northeast, and he just wants to shore up his bets. Give a show of good faith.”

“Plus, Elena Woodhouse loves my mother,” Penn said. “They went to Harvard Law together.”

My head was spinning with all the important talk. I had never felt more like a nobody from nowhere.

“You…know the First Lady?” I asked.

Penn shrugged. “I suppose.”

Katherine rolled her eyes. “Enough with this. Come on, Natalie. I have some other people I want to introduce to you.”

“I…okay,” I barely managed to get out before Katherine dragged me away from the rest of the crew.

“So, the first person I want you to meet is a model friend of mine, Tara. And then there’s this designer. You would so love her work. I also think Elizabeth is here. She designed the dress that you’re wearing, of course.”

I half-listened to her ramble on about a world of people I would meet and probably forget their names in a heartbeat. And I had no idea why it was even happening. Did she think, somehow, I was going to become her? Because I could wear her clothes, but this could never be my life.

Still, I followed in Katherine’s vivacious wake. She knew everyone. In a room full of people, she wasn’t just a magnet. She was a tornado. People didn’t just gravitate to her. They were sucked into her vortex. I had never seen anything like it. It was both incredible and terrifying.

And exhausting.

Really exhausting.

Though she seemed totally energized by the experience. I had clearly spent way too much time alone the last year to feel this excited about so many strangers.