The Personal Shopper

Rachel glares at me but then smiles. “You so owe me.” Then she turns to Jeff and starts up a conversation heavy with the flirting while Ava is chatting with Becca. Ava doesn’t seem to care. She isn’t even paying any attention to Jeff.

I can’t just sit here now and watch Ava, so I turn to Doug and we talk business and sports.

???

Ava

I kept feeling Parker’s eyes on me during dinner. I tried not to look in his direction, but whenever he was talking with Rachel or Doug, I’d sneak a peek. Strangely, Jeff and Rachel seem to be hitting it off. The problem is it doesn’t bother me. As soon as I realized I didn’t care if Jeff is flirting with another girl, I came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t ever work with us. I know I was just using him to make Parker jealous.

Luckily, after dinner, I have to go make my rounds and chit chat with other guests, so I don’t have to deal with either Jeff or Parker.

After about an hour of mingling, my dad finds me and Jeff and checks in on how everything is going. We are chatting for a minute when his business associate comes up to us. Mr. Spencer. I cringe when I see him and try to get Jeff to lead us away while he talks to my dad.

Mr. Spencer has always given me the creeps. He never actually did anything inappropriate with me, but the way he’d look at me when I was younger and the little comments he would make would make me uncomfortable. The guy is just a straight up creep. My dad doesn’t do business with him often, but since he never actually tried anything inappropriate with me, I never told my dad how I felt about him.

When he starts looking over at me, I already know I am not going to like what he has to say. I try to smile at him, but I can’t seem to make my face be friendly with him. He looks over to Jeff. “Mind if I take your girl for a whirl on the dancefloor?”

I squeeze Jeff’s hand hard, trying to tell him I don’t want to. Jeff doesn’t seem to notice. He just smiles. “Sure, go ahead.”

I let out a breath and let him lead me to the dance floor. I can survive one dance, but I swear if he gets handsy, I will break the man’s nose. A new song just started unfortunately, so I will have to stay here for the next 4 to 5 minutes.

After a minute of awkwardly swaying, Mr. Spencer tries to pull me closer. I am about to make up an excuse to leave, when suddenly out of nowhere, Parker is standing next to us.

“May I cut in?”

Mr. Spencer looks angrily at Parker, but he doesn’t make a scene. “Sure.” He huffs and then walks away, and Parker extends his hand for me to take. I take his hand, and he pulls me close. I lean in even a little closer, completely the opposite of how I danced as far apart as I could with Mr. Spencer. I am still a little stunned he is here. I look up into his eyes and breath out. “

You came.”

He just gives me a small smile. “Of course I came.” Like he wouldn't think twice about coming to rescue me from Mr. Spencer. He leans his head down, and our foreheads connect. We just sway in place for a moment breathing each other in. Then he pulls away and spins me around. When he pulls me back to him, our bodies are even closer than before. I wrap my hands around his neck, and his hand is placed firmly on my lower back.

We don’t say anything to each other for the rest of the dance, but it feels like there are unspoken words flowing between us. The song ends, and it takes a moment for us to pull apart. Finally, I step back and we both clap for the band. Parker is just staring into my eyes. I feel like I can’t breathe, so I just smile at him and then turn and walk quickly away.

I go out into the hall, trying to find a bathroom to escape into for a minute. I walk down a little ways when I hear Jeff’s voice. “Hey, there you are.”

I turn and smile at him. “Here I am.”

“Can we talk a second?”

I look at him confused a little. Usually me and Jeff don’t really have serious talks. “Sure, what’s up?”

He looks down at his feet like he is ashamed about what he is about to say. When he looks back up, I smile to encourage him to continue.

“We’re just friends right?”

I don’t really know how to respond to that. “Of course we’re friends, why what’s up?”

He shuffles his feet a little. “I just....I feel funny asking this, but you’ve told me every time we do this type of thing that we are just going as friends, but I just want to make sure you really feel that way before…” He trails off and looks to the side.

“Before what?” When his eyes make their way back to mine, it clicks what he is trying to say. I gasp, “Jeff, are you trying to take a girl home?” I give him a smirk so he knows I am not offended.

He just shrugs. “Well, I don’t know about that yet, but just in case things get, you know, to that point, I wanted to make sure we were good before.”

I smile and give Jeff a small hug. “You’re sweet Jeff. I am pretty sure for how long we’ve known each other, if we were going to get together, we would’ve by now.”

He just grins back. “Yeah. You’re probably right.” He looks down again and then back up at me. “You’re sure you’re okay with this? I don’t want to ditch you or anything.”

I just laugh. “Perfectly fine Jeff. I have Becca and Doug to bring me home tonight.”