Chapter Five
Harper
We slowly made it through the crowd and found our way to the front door. Natalie seemed to be waiting for us there, as if she were already one step ahead. I didn’t care, I was ready to leave. I never should have gone out tonight in the first place.
“Ladies, I’m sad to see you go.” Natalie gave us a brief smile. “I hope everything is alright.”
“Not really.” I barked. I still felt upset and pissed off at the encounter with the so-called man of the hour that every woman had been fawning all over.
Natalie nodded her head in agreement. “I know. Apparently there was a little situation with you and our bachelor? I want to assure you, we’re dealing with him as we speak. Asher is very strict about the rules being broken and our guests not being treated as they should be.”
“Who? Asher?” My raised eyebrows mirrored my confusion. But after a moment, I shook my head. “You know what? Never mind. I don’t care who’s very strict. I’m done here and we’re leaving.” I grabbed Avery’s arm and gave it a tug as I noticed a large security guard taking a step forward.
“That’s fine.” Natalie smiled. “But we’d really like you to come back tomorrow night. I promise, things will be different.”
“No chance.” I answered back without giving it a second thought.
Beside me, Avery chimed in. “We’ll think about it.” She said, smiling warmly. I couldn’t tell if she was being serious, or if she was just trying to be polite.
Natalie dismissed Avery’s confirmation though, staring instead directly into my eyes. “Harper, I really hope you will be back tomorrow.” She motioned to the security guards. “Triple it for them,” she said. “And please, get them a car, not one of those smelly cabs.” She turned her attention back toward us. “Again, I’m really sorry about this Harper.”
The large security guard rustled through some plain white envelopes and handed one to both Avery and I. Without even looking inside, I slipped it into my clutch and muttered, “Thank you.”
Natalie pressed her finger to her ear. “You two should be going now. Xander is being escorted out and we would rather you not have to deal with seeing him.” She nodded again and the security guard opened the front door and pointed to a black town car with tinted windows. “That’s your ride. Just tell them wherever you want to go.”
I was still angry over the confrontation with Xander, but suddenly I wanted to thank Natalie for being such a cordial host. His being an asshole wasn’t her fault, after all But even as I thought the words, it was too late to say them. She had vanished back into the party and we were quickly escorted to the waiting car.
Slipping into the backseat, we waited for the car ahead of us to pull out, but it seemed to just be sitting there. I watched as the front door of the house opened again, and this time two large gentlemen emerged with Xander between them. Their big hands firmly held his arms as they walked him to the car. He broke away from the guards momentarily, however, and our eyes met when he happened to peer through our front window.
“Asshole!” I mouthed to him as the guards grabbed his arms again and led him to the car. I heard him yelling back profanities at me, words I chose to ignore. Instead, I watched as he got into the car and it quickly pulled away.
Our driver looked at us through the rearview mirror and smiled. “Rough night, it seems.” He chuckled a little, but I didn’t see the humor in his comment. Not getting the reaction he wanted from us, he quickly changed his approach. “Where to ma’am?”
“900 Campus way.” I ordered.
“I think we should come back tomorrow,” Avery suddenly said. “Aren’t you insanely curious about what all goes on here? Plus… Natalie seemed like she might be willing to give us the VIP treatment after tonight.”
“She should,” I grumbled.
Avery leaned back into the deep leather seats and exhaled dreamily. “I mean, I know he turned out to be a jerk, but look how quickly they handled it and made sure you were ok. Plus, did you see all those other guys? I bet whoever they have tomorrow night is a thousand times better.”
I didn’t really care. Being set up in a situation like this wasn’t my idea of finding love. But I didn’t have the energy to argue with her now. So instead, I just closed my eyes and leaned back into the seat.
A moment later, I heard the ripping sound of paper, followed by a scream. The driver swerved the car and then quickly corrected himself as I opened my eyes and stared at Avery. “What’s wrong?” I demanded.
She held a wad of cash in her hand and was quickly flipping through each bill, counting. “Fifteen hundred!”
“What?” I shouted. “Avery! We need to bring that back. They gave you someone else’s envelope.”
“No! Open yours!” She fanned herself with the handful of bills.
I hadn’t noticed the thickness of the envelope when I placed it in my clutch earlier, but I noticed now as I reached in to grab it. Ripping it open, I counted the stack of bills inside. “Fifteen hundred.” I whispered to Avery, not wanting to get the attention of the driver. “How is this right?”
“We have to go back tomorrow!” Avery insisted now. “Getting paid to meet hot men!” Her grin was ear to ear. “I mean, I don’t really need the money, but hell, if someone wants to pay me to drink and meet guys, why not?” She giggled to herself and was almost overcome with giddiness.
“I’m not sure.” I shook my head as the driver turned away from the river and began to head back into town.
“Tell me you can’t see that money!” Avery fanned her bills some more, forcing me to look down at my own stack again. “Imagine the clothes you could buy, Harp! And your bills!”
“Let’s just go home.” I exhaled and leaned back into the seat again, squeezing the money tightly in my hand as I closed my eyes once more.
The truth was, I could use the money. I remembered Natalie telling the security guard to triple what we were given, but even at five hundred dollars, it was still more than I could make in almost two weeks at my part-time job.
Without saying a word, I started to convince myself that perhaps there would be no harm in going back.