VELVET

THREE IS DEFINITELY A CROWD
He hung up on her. She couldn’t believe it. Hope slammed the phone on her desk. He better have a good, no great reason for his rudeness. But she had to stay cool. She needed the exclusive. Hope could hear Wendy laughing as the small group of fawning fools surrounded her cubicle space. Utterly ridiculous. The woman was a pea-brain; nothing floating around up there but gumdrops and lollipops.

*

“I was hoping you would come back.” Dara stood in the doorway. She couldn’t believe she said it, but it was true. She moved aside to allow him to enter and led him to a small den he assumed she used for client meetings. “You’re not here to tell me I don’t have a date for tomorrow night, are you?”
“Of course not.” He answered too quickly. Easy big guy. Take it easy.
She smiled at him; a sweet smile that made him think about the two of them in a house with a few little Dara’s and maybe a little Chuck running around. He really needed to focus on the case.
“That’s nice to hear. Can you be here by six? I have to make sure everything is set up properly and gala goes off without any surprises. I was thinking,” she adjusted a few magazines on the coffee table. “You might get some good snooping in even before the party starts.”
“That’s my hope.” He’d been there for almost forty-five minutes, and he still hadn’t been able to completely rid himself of butterflies. His phone vibrated, and when he looked at it, his jaw tightened. It was Hope, again. He was happy to see her earlier, but sitting in Dara’s home was where he wanted to be.
“Sorry about that.” he shoved the phone back into its case. “I was also hoping you could give me a heads up on these guests.
Dara knew each of them well, unfortunately. “You’ve got your work cut out for you. I can tell you that much. They’ve already called their lawyers.”
“That’s what I was afraid of.”