Page 51 of Finding My Charming

I looked down at it with trepidation. “I saw someone.”

“A ghost? I sure hope so, because that’s the only excuse for—”

“No. I… um…”

“Out with it, Benson!”

“Remember the delivery guy from work I told you about?”

“Yeah, the jerk who wasn’t actually a jerk, but you still hold an unnecessary grudge against him anyway.”

I shot her a look that I hoped was threatening. “Yes. That one. He was there.”

“Delivery boy was where?”

“Dallin was at the party.”

She dropped the section of hair she was curling and looked at me, not in the mirror this time.

“Dallin was at the party?”

I picked up her phone and held it out to her. “That’s him.”

“Holy crap.”

My eyes dropped to the screen then back to hers. “You don’t think this means anything, do you?”

“Do I think that the guy you’ve been complaining about and randomly mentioning all week showing up in the pictures from the party where you met your true love means anything?”

I bit my lip and nodded.

“No. Of course not.” She was walking in circles in her bathroom, waving her arms around while talking. “It doesn’t seem at all like fate stepping in and slapping you across the face for not noticing him the first time.” She finally stopped and leveled me with her look.

“But what about Vincent?”

She flung her arms in the air once more and let out an exasperated sigh. “You’re in quite the conundrum, aren’t you?”

this party was even more crowded than the last. We descended the stairs that were already packed with people overlooking the crowd. I had the best friend in the entire world for going through this again for me. It helped that her parents were hardly home, and she had a cleaning company on call.

Ari was forging a path through the throng of people crammed into the foyer. She checked over her shoulder a few times as if I was suddenly going to disappear. No way was I was letting her out of my sight this time.

Given the number of people surrounding me, I was bound to know some people here, but I wasn’t interested in roaming around alone all night, again.

Granted, the last time had proven to be monumental to my life. Maybe I have better luck on my own. I shook away the thought. No way would I do this without Ari if I could help it!

Finally, we entered a room with more open space. Calvin and a few other guys from our class stood around a pool table.

Apparently, Ari knew what she was doing and wanted to get right to the point of the evening. She walked over directly to them and smiled. “Hi, guys.”

In that moment, I wished, and not for the first time, that I had one ounce of the confidence she radiated.

All five heads turned in unison and unabashedly roamed their eyes over her. I wasn’t even disgusted. Even I had to admit she looked amazing tonight. She wore a black high-necked lace dress that clung to her curves and cut off mid-thigh with modest nude pumps. Her waist-long golden hair was curled into loose, voluptuous curls, and her naturally pouty lips would make any celebrity jealous. She’d skillfully highlighted her best features in a way that made unsuspecting males fall to their knees.

Years of being her best friend had desensitized me to her beauty. She was just Ari to me, but on nights like this, I was reminded that no matter the makeup and flashy clothes I wore, I was still the ugly duckling compared to her.

Calvin was the first to snap out of the Ari-haze and return the greeting. The other four followed his lead, and within moments, things seemed to go back to normal.

I recognized three of the guys from school, but Vincent wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Maybe he wouldn’t be here after all. I settled onto one of the chairs, feeling just a little bit defeated. All of this, and he didn’t even show?