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And she joined him.
They lay on their backs laughing quietly for a few minutes.
What a ridiculous situation.
She knew she was going to hear it from Al. And probably Asa too. But she’d stayed as long as she physically could.
What kind of a person bolts from a fancy party and dives headfirst over a hedge into the unknown?
Her for sure. And obviously this guy.
“I’m Nikki,” she introduced herself, giving a finger wiggle his direction.
“André,” he replied.
“Nice to meet you, André,” she said, her heart rate finally returning to a normal pace. “I need a drink. How about you?”
“Love to. Just give me a minute to find my wallet. I think it went into the hedge.”
She laughed again but didn’t move to get up. Instead, she took a deep breath and rested her hands on her stomach and gazed up at the moon.
“Nikki?”
She looked back to André.
He was frowning at her, curiously amused. “You appear to have shrimp cocktail in your décolletage.”
She looked at her cleavage, and sure enough, the handful of shrimp she’d stolen before she’d bolted were falling out of the extra room in her bustier.
“Huh. So I do.”
He laughed.
* * *
André cleared his throat, and she was back in the present. Not tucked away in a corner booth of a dive bar with a handsome stranger making him laugh until beer came out his nose.
She used to really make him laugh.
“I’m happy to do it,” André said, holding her gaze.
She took a breath to say something, like “thank you” but that’s not what came out.
“I can go with you to the fundraiser.” Nikki’s chin jerked back. “What I mean to say is, um, I could go with you.”
She’d said it again!
Johnny’s eyes grew round and he covered his mouth with a hand and she just knew he was smiling back there.
André sucked in his bottom lip and bit down. He blinked those dark eyelashes at her and she wanted to fall through the floor.
“For the studio, I mean,” she said quickly. “If the floor is for us, then one of us should go. Right?” she asked Johnny who just nodded slowly. “You could go, Johnny,” she offered. His slow nod changed direction as he declined her idea.
The music playing out of the speakers caught her focus again and she threw her hands in the air. “Richard Hell and the Voidoids?Nobodylistens to them. Whoareyou?” she asked André.
His answering lopsided smile had her even more confused.
He walked past her to the far wall. “I can get all this sanded and taped today. Do you want that one painted too?” He pointed to the wall with the door as if he’d read her mind a few minutes ago.
