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HOURS LATER, I WAS seven drinks in and feeling much better about my day. Eric turned out to be a delightful drinking buddy. Within the first twenty minutes, we were swapping stories and laughing loudly at each other like a couple of old friends. Thinking on it now, it was very easy to see why he and Jamie were so close. They were a whole lot alike.
“And...no!” he called. “Missed again!”
We were playing darts now. Rather, I was drunkenly throwing things at the wall, and he was laughing hilariously as he recovered them.
“Come on, J—I don’t think you were even trying to aim with that one.” He paced back to me and pushed several darts into my hand, along with a pencil I don’t think he realized he’d picked up off the floor. I threw it anyway.
“I’m always trying to aim,” I slurred, “and they always go exactly where I want them to.”
He laughed. “Then either you have a warped sense of shape, or you really don’t like poor Jeremy over there, because I think you’ve hit him about eight times.”
A giant in the corner glared at me over the corner of his shoulder, and I paled. “Why don’t we go back to our table?” I asked quickly.
“What an ek-sallent idea.”
The two of us stumbled back to our booth. Eric stopped along the way to pick up two more whiskeys, but to be honest, I didn’t know how much more either one of us could take.
When he came back, I sipped mine slowly, gazing at him appraisingly out of the corner of my eye. He saw me looking and flashed me an intoxicated grin.
“What?”
My eyes narrowed. “You know exactly who that was outside the elevator.”
He snorted into his drink. “Of course, I do. I work for Larchwood, as you may recall.”
“Well,” I stumbled to find the correct words, “why did you think that something strange was going on between us?”
He set down the whiskey and looked at me like I was being absurd. “Are you kidding? I felt like I was stuck in a time loop there. In some episode of the Twilight Zone. A mad version of when Harry Didn’t Meet Sally.”
“Okay, okay,” I laughed. “You’ve made your point.”
He looked at me speculatively, sipping his drink through the little straw. “Are you sleeping with him?”
My eyes fell to the table as I considered what to say. Of course, I couldn’t tell him anything, could I? I didn’t even know him. But then again, he was Jamie’s best friend—someone who could be trusted. In the end, it was my unguarded anger with Tom that got me talking.
“We might’ve dated...but not anymore.”
He nodded pensively. “And I take it—it didn’t end well.”
I shook my head, suddenly outrageously nervous as to what I’d confessed. Blame it on the whiskey! He saw the shift in my demeanor and held up his hands reassuringly.
“Hey—I slept with my boss,” he said.
My mind scrambled as I took stock of the PR department. “Trish?” I asked incredulously.
He flashed me a rather mischievous wink. “Derek.”
All at once, several things clicked into place, and I nodded slowly. “Oooooh.”
“Not that you’re not ridiculously attractive in that little dress,” he laughed, “just not my particular cup of tea.”
“So why did you ask me to a bar?” I asked in amazement.
He shrugged. “You kind of looked like you needed a rescue—same way you did at the gym the other day.” He downed the rest of his whiskey. “And I thought, why not spend my first day getting wasted and making Tom Larchwood jealous all at the same time?” He gestured around us. “Hence the bar.”
I laughed, loud and hard. He was totally fearless, this one. And I loved it.
“Aren’t you worried that someone might see? We could get in a lot of trouble.”
He gestured again with a little grin. “Hence this bar. No one from work would ever venture this far into Brooklyn.”
“And as for your first day?” I teased.
“My first day in finance,” he clarified, running his hands over his face, “Oh, boy. And I’m not worried. I’m on temporary loan just like Rosie, and I’m happy to report that she’s already done the lion’s share of the work for the both of us.”
I erupted in a fit of drunken giggles. “Rosie?”
He laughed as well, rubbing his eyes as the liquor took hold. “Yeah, she hates it when I call her that. To be honest, they don’t really need two people, I think Jamie just maneuvered it so that he could force me to listen to him talk about the wedding for days on end.”
I chuckled. “Yeah—he’s pretty ecstatic about it. How long have you guys been friends?”
“We were roommates in college.” He winced his eyes with a sudden grin. “I had the biggest crush on him,” he threw back his head, “I mean—it was torture!”
I cracked up. “I could see that. He’s a crush-worthy guy.”
“Like Tom Larchwood.” Eric’s eyes twinkled. I opened my mouth uncertainly, and he was quick to set me at ease. “Hey—you have nothing to worry about. We’re even. I know your secret—you know mine.”
I hesitated, drunkenly piecing it together. “That you’re gay?”
He laughed as he finished off the rest of his drink. “Everyone knows I’m gay—at least, everyone that isn’t in finance. I meant about Derek.”
I nodded quickly, but something about his words caught my attention.
‘...at least, everyone that isn’t in finance...’
My lips fell open, and I stared appraisingly as he pulled out his wallet to pay our bill.
Handsome—gorgeous, in fact. Charming. Funny. Smart.
And only in finance for the next couple of weeks.
My eyes danced as I reached across the table and took his hand. “Eric, how would you like to help me out with a little scheme...?”