"If you did, I'd worry. Oh, look, Summer's going shopping. Double chug!"
220
"I say we do body shots instead," Jeremy said, pouring another shot of Cuervo and handing her a wedge of lime. "Hmmm ... where will I do mine?" he asked, lifting up Eliza's shirt to expose her pierced belly button. She had gotten it in Greenport one afternoon when he told her he thought they were sexy. He pulled down her skirt a bit to expose her jutting hip bones and bent his head to lick her in the shallow of her stomach.
"That tickles!" Eliza giggled, ruffling his hair and squealing as he began biting her belly.
The door clicked open, and Eliza froze. In the darkness she saw a couple feverishly making out and groping their way to the pool table. A flurry of limbs began throwing items of clothing to the ground. Apparently, she wasn't the only one who knew about the room.
"We're not alone!" she told Jeremy, putting a finger to her lips.
Jeremy smirked when he saw the other couple. "I guess someone else had the same idea," he whispered. They giggled quietly.
"Let's go," she told him, straightening her skirt and collecting the shot glasses and tequila bottle. They inched their way to the doorway, laughing as the couple began making lurid, disgustingly wet sloppy noises along with unintentionally comic expressions of discomfort. "Ow! Not there! Oops, I think I'm sitting on the remote control! Oh, that's you!" "Honey, please, stop pinching ..." "That's better. Oh, wait, is that your leg or mine?"
The light suddenly switched on, filling the room in a blaze of light.
221
The two couples blinked. Taylor and Lindsay stood at the front of the room. They were roaming the house, trying to find the source of the music in order to change the CD. The speaker system was wired to the entire house, and you could only take so much vintage Puffy.
"I think they keep the Crestron in here," Lindsay said, meaning the universal remote that controlled all the electricity in the house, including the lighting, stereo, televisions, burglar alarm, and even the microwave.
"Oh! Sorry!" Taylor said.
Eliza finally got a clear picture of the room's other amorous inhabitants. "Charlie! Sugar!"
Sugar, splayed out between two Barcaloungers, was topless in a Cosabella thong. She was, indeed, straddling the remote control. Charlie was dressed in his polka-dot boxers and nursing his foot. Talk about compromising positions.
Sugar sat up and shook out her hair, casually sliding her completely see-through cami back on. Eliza willed herself not to look and see if Jeremy was staring.
"Eliza, what are you doing here?" Sugar asked coolly. "And hey, aren't you our pool boy or something?" she said, noticing Jeremy as she reached for her pack of cigarettes and patted out a stick.
Charlie grabbed at his pants on the floor and pulled out his lighter. He lit her cigarette and assessed the situation, observing Eliza's crimson face and rumpled clothes and her partner's stony expression and some kind of Pizza Hut uniform.
222
"Liza," Charlie drawled, obviously still drunk. "I didn't know you had it in you to go slumming."
Eliza recoiled from Jeremy, shaking off his protective hand on her elbow. "I didn't know you did either, Charlie," she said, looking pointedly at Sugar. Let her whine to Anna and get her fired. Eliza didn't care.
Jeremy balked. "When are you going to stop pretending you're still part of this world, Eliza?"
"Excuse me?" Charlie asked, not sure what he just heard. The dude was obviously some blue-collar trash. And Eliza Thompson was Park Avenue born and bred.
Eliza turned to Jeremy, completely horrified that he had just blown her cover. "You don't even know me," she spat.
Jeremy's face hardened. He couldn't believe keeping her status with her so-called friends was so important to her. "You're right, I definitely don't know you at all." He pushed his way to the door without giving her a second glance.
Lindsay and Taylor were utterly speechless with shock and schadenfreude. Eliza? Poor? Could it get any better than this?
Sugar, dumb as she was, said matter-of-factly, "God, you guys didn't know that? Eliza's been working here as an au pair all summer. Her family's totally bankrupt. Hey, don't you have to go burp my brother or something?" she said snidely.
Tears in her eyes, Eliza mumbled something unintelligible and ran out the door as fast as her three-inch-heel Jimmy Choos could carry her.
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luke and leo are rich white boys who think they're straight outta Compton