“Well, I see why you did,” Maya said.
Maya nudged her forward a little, and Trihn nearly fell across the invisible threshold. That drew the guy’s heated gaze, and he gave her that same knowing look. He smirked at her stumble, and she felt her heartbeat skyrocket. She wanted to believe it was from embarrassment and not the hot guy in front of her.
“Maya! God!” Trihn cried.
She pressed back into the throng of people once more. She didn’t want to be noticed.
“Seriously, how do I know him?” Bryna cried. “This is going to bug me. I’m need to talk to him. Stacia, go shake your ass or something.”
“With pleasure,” Stacia said.
Trihn grabbed her hand. “Don’t go out there. You’d just be perpetuating the stereotype that the only girls who can dance are girls who shake their asses.”
“And?” Stacia said in confusion.
“Well, you’d be feeding into the patriarchy.”
Bryna busted out laughing. “That is how she’d be feeding into the patriarchy?”
“She has a point, Trihni,” Maya said. “Admit that you just don’t want Stacia dancing with the hot guy looking at you like he wants you for dessert.”
“You guys are unreal.” Trihn glanced back over at the guy.
Some girl had just entered the circle before Stacia could and was trying to dance up on him. He moved his hips around a couple of times before gliding his feet across the floor, as if he were floating and moving away from her. He relinquished the dance floor to the girl. When his head popped back up, he was looking at Trihn.
“He’s staring at you,” Maya said.
“No, he’s not.”
But he was.
“GIVE IT UP FOR MY MAIN MAN, Damon, killing it on the dance floor!” the DJ called over the speakers. “Damon will be back in the DJ booth, bringing you all your favorite mixes, after this break.”
“Oh my God!” Bryna shrieked. “That’s how I know him!”
“How?” Trihn asked.
Maya laughed. “This should be good.”
“Not like that actually,” Bryna said.
She turned her fierce gaze on Maya, but Maya just rolled her eyes. She could deflect Bryna like no other.
“Would it have really surprised anyone though?” Stacia asked.
“I suppose, he isn’t her type. She liked them older and filthy rich,” Maya said. She laughed and tipped back her drink.
Bryna shrugged her shoulders, unperturbed. “He was the DJ at my party last year when I moved into the mansion. I just couldn’t remember his name, but that’s definitely him.”
Trihn looked up at Damon again. He had this air about him, like nothing could change his good time. He was so carefree and utterly intoxicating to watch. He wasn’t even the best dancer that Trihn had seen before, but he’d moved with such confidence that everyone in the place cheered for him.
“Are you sure it’s the same guy?” Trihn asked. She found it hard to believe that she wouldn’t have noticed someone like that at one of Bryna’s parties.
“I’m positive that he is the same guy,” she said.
“Hmm…” Trihn shrugged and backed out of the circle as it started to close in on itself.
Damon caught her eye in a way that said he knew all her secrets.
She shied away from his gaze. It wasn’t like she wanted to jump into the middle of the circle and take over. Her best friends were more likely to do that than she was. It’d be better to forget all about Damon and just walk away.
So, she did.
The girls followed her back to the bar where Maya promptly ordered them all drinks. Trihn sipped on her gin and tonic and pushed her hair off the back of her neck. It was boiling hot inside. The dancing certainly hadn’t helped to cool her down.
Some guy started talking to Stacia, and then she promptly disappeared onto the dance floor, dragging Bryna with her. Ever since Stacia and Pace Larson—Bryna’s stepbrother and the backup quarterback for the LV State football team—had broken up, Stacia had been all over the map. Sometimes, she’d mess around with other people. Other times, she’d slip off to try to make amends with Pace even though she had been the one to break it off, only to come home and cry herself to sleep over the loss of her quarterback because she’d decided it would be best for them not to work it out. Trihn suspected she hadn’t seen the end of them while Bryna thought it was all done with.
As Trihn danced with Maya near the bar, she kept the girls in her line of vision. She finished off her drink and dropped it off on the counter. She was getting ready to drag Maya out on the floor when someone sidled up next to her.
“Hey,” he said. His voice was rich and deep with a posh British accent that sent shivers down her spine.
She slowly turned around, already knowing who she was going to see. When she got a full look at him, she had to pull back a step because they were basically on top of each other. She hadn’t realized how close he was.
“Um…hey,” she said with a smile.
“I was waiting for you.”
She laughed softly. “Waiting?” she asked, thinking she had heard him wrong.