Page 9 of Some Kinda Romance

“Nope, not yet. Bring that. We’re going out.”

“Now? I didn’t bring any clothes. I kind of thought maybe you’d changed your mind about not just drinking here.”

“Nope. We’re going out.” I smirked at her as I stood up. “Since when are clothes a problem? I’m pretty sure I have enough.”

Julie laughed and shrugged. She got up and followed me to the master bedroom on the top story. It had a magnificent view of the ocean and the lights twinkling to life in the city, but neither of us paid much attention to that as we strode to my walk-in closet.

For now, the his section of the massive his-and-hers changing suite was decidedly empty, but her eyes darted in the direction of the shelves that had once been occupied by Ethan’s things anyway. “Hey, uh, he hasn’t tried to contact you again, right? That’s not what this is about?”

I shook my head. “We’re not talking about him tonight. This is a celebration, remember?”

“Sure, but as far as I’m concerned, every night for the rest of our lives can be a celebration of the fact that you finally kicked him to the curb. That man was rotten.”

I rocked my head from side to side, but I couldn’t disagree with her. Julie had been the first person to warn me against Ethan, way before I’d even married him. She’d never liked him. Never trusted him. And for a long time, that had put some serious strain on our friendship.

I still didn’t know how to make it up to her. I should’ve listened, but I hadn’t. Not until it was too late and I’d found myself crying in this very closet, five years into a marriage that had broken the very foundation of who I was.

Shaking the thoughts out of my head, I decided to take my own advice and focus on the celebration. After changing into brand new, sparkling party dresses that had no bad memories attached to them, we touched up our makeup. By then, the car service I’d arranged was waiting downstairs to take us to an upscale nightclub.

Oblivion was the kind of place I’d frequented before Ethan. When I’d been filming my show and living what I’d later realized had been the good life. Since I was trying to get back to that person, the girl I really was, I was pushing myself to do more stuff like this again.

Even so, anxiety thrummed through me when we stepped into the darkened main area of the club. Strobe lights flashed overhead and the pounding bass of the music thumped in my chest like it had replaced my heartbeat.

For just a moment, I was nervous, but then Julie wrapped her arm around mine and dragged me to the bar. We ordered a couple of beers, thankfully not having to wait too long to get served, but I turned when I thought I heard my name being called.

“Serenity?”

My heart jumped into my throat. I completed the turn to see Dash St. Clair behind me, a buff but not overly attractive guy next to him. I paused for a minute to wonder if I knew this guy. I figured I might since the social circles Dash and I traveled in weren’t that different, but when I came up dry on his friend, I glanced back at the man himself.

“Dash! We’ve got to stop meeting like this.” I laughed, but he didn’t even crack a smile in return.

Those honey-colored eyes were dead serious on mine. “I agree. You should watch where you’re going. You never know if you’re going to run into the wrong person.”

The friend looked me over, doing a quick double-take before he interjected, stepping forward with his hand outstretched to introduce himself. “Hi. I’m Lance and he’s just made this really awkward, so can we please pretend he didn’t say anything?”

Dash’s dark eyebrows twitched upward, but he simply strode past me to the bar and didn’t even look at Julie to greet her. Rolling my eyes at him, I smiled at his friend and smacked my palm into his. “Serenity. It’s nice to meet you, Lance. If you want some better company later, come find us.”

He chuckled, the grin coming quick and easy, telling me that he probably provided a bit of balance to his incredibly grumpy friend. Lance nodded, greeting Julie with an equally friendly smile before he waved at us, surging forward through the crowd to meet his friend at the bar.

Julie wrinkled her nose at me, leaning in close to be heard above the music. “Okay, I see what you mean. He’s really unpleasant.”

I laughed, widening my eyes for emphasis as I nodded. Even so, I glanced at him across the dance floor every so often as the night progressed, wondering what had happened to him to have made him this way. Other than the unexpected loss of his father, our quick Google search yesterday hadn’t yielded any results, and it would have if he had any skeletons in his closet.

It seemed the tabloids loved his family almost as much as they loved me, and even if it did look like his brothers were a lot more sociable than he was, he was followed enough that they’d have unearthed any scandals relating to him. So maybe he’s just a prick by birth.

Either way, I kept looking at him, taking in the strong slant of his jaw and the way those shoulders filled out his suit. It’s such a damn pity about his personality.

Eventually, I made myself stop ogling the forbidden fruit and focused on my friend instead. We drank and danced, toasting the day we’d had and having fun until the tequila started going to my head.

We didn’t see Dash or Lance again until we walked out. All four of us somehow emerged at the same damn time. Like a real gentleman, Lance motioned for us to precede them and I flashed him a smile, inclining my head in thanks just before we hit the sidewalk.

A sidewalk that was, as usual, covered in paparazzi lying in wait. Whether it was just for me this time or if there were other people in there they were interested in, I didn’t know. I ducked, let my hair fall in front of my face, and kept walking.

Flashes went off, lighting up the night, but Julie and I were both so used to it after the craziness that had followed me around since the divorce that neither of us took much notice. Dash, on the other hand, did not appear to be pleased.

He cut me a sideways glare as if this was all my fault and I was the only public figure between us who could possibly be responsible for such drama. He quickly separated himself from the rest of us and stole away while Lance at least sent us an awkward wave as we climbed into the car.

“God, why is he so weird?” I groaned as exasperation slid through me. Sure, he was hot, and physically, I couldn’t deny that I was attracted to him, but we were going to have to spend the next couple months working pretty closely together and I really didn’t know how we were going to get through it.

Julie laughed, shaking her head as the car pulled away from the curb. “Don’t sweat it. I’ve decided he was simply born an asshole.”

“I was wondering about that earlier,” I admitted.

She shrugged, flashing me a slightly lopsided grin that betrayed how tipsy she was as she waggled her eyebrows at me. “Enough of the bad. Let’s just focus on the good. We killed it today, and that’s all that matters.”

I nodded but I was still staring down the barrel of two solid months in that guy’s non-company. The mere thought of it brought a bitter taste to my mouth, but then I thought of the look Ethan was going to have on his face when he learned I’d brought in a five-million-dollar wedding.

I couldn’t lie. That brought my smile back with a vengeance. It felt amazing to be doing what he had said I never could. For that reason alone, today had been a damn good day—and so would every day that I proved to him just how well I could do what he’d explicitly told me so many times I never would.

I wouldn’t fail, no matter how much of a pain Dash was.