Carly stood in the entrance to the ballroom and searched for a safe place. A place to have one token drink and bide her time until she’d done her duty by appearing at the firm’s annual ritual of no fun whatsoever.
“Hey, Pachett, you just get here?”
Damn. Carly managed a smile for Keith Worthington, but it was totally fake. Keith, one of the other associates at the firm, loved to give her a hard time about how little she enjoyed the firm’s social functions. Unlike her, he lived for free cocktails and apps handed out by sleek cater waiters. Tonight he had a date on his arm—a tall, size zero blonde with a little too much Botox for her age—the perfect date for Keith since she wouldn’t be fighting him for the free food.
Carly wouldn’t mind these social events if they didn’t happen so often, but it seemed like every month there was some after-hours drain on her time that had nothing to do with billable hours and everything to do with making small talk with people she wouldn’t care to spend time with outside of the office. Keith loved the schmoozing. He’d been at the firm four years and already had his eye on a partnership spot to which Carly silently said, get in line. She was well into her fifth year at Sturges and Lloyd, and when Jane and Mark, the senior partners, decided to add a name to the partner roster, she expected to be at the top of the list. She didn’t have a lot of hands-on litigation experience, but she excelled at negotiations and her win record on appeal was unparalleled. She’d earned her spot at the top. The only less-than-stellar feedback she got at year-end bonus time was that she would do well to loosen up a little, muck it up with clients to bring in more business. She’d assured them she would do her part, even if it killed her, which was why she’d decided to put in an appearance tonight at the firm’s annual holiday gala.
“Where’s the bar?” she asked Keith, who insisted on leading the way. She gave in, figuring it would save her being buttonholed by firm clients if she looked like she was with a group, even if the group was Keith and his flavor of the month. Her plan failed miserably as Keith stopped at every cluster of people along the way to show off his date, Mia. He’d announced she was a model so often that Carly could recite her resume of photo shoots, and by the time they made it to the bar, she needed a double. She ordered a vodka and soda and wandered over to the side of the bar to recover from way too much interaction until she could escape unnoticed.
The party was the perfect place to people watch. Jane and Mark worked the room like pros, sometimes apart, often together, tag-teaming their way through the throngs of guests, stopping long enough to make everyone feel personally welcome. When they made their way over to her, Carly braced for a talk about mingling with the other guests.
“Hi, Carly, are you having fun?” Jane asked while signaling to one of the tray-carrying waiters. She grabbed three glasses of champagne and handed one to Mark and one to her. Carly set down the now empty rocks glass and took the bubbly. She didn’t care for champagne, but people didn’t say no to Jane, and she’d learned which battles were worth fighting on her personal route to the top.
“Let’s toast,” Jane said. “To a new year full of new possibilities for the firm and for you, Carly.”
Carly raised her glass and clinked each of theirs, suppressing a knowing smile. It was so like Jane not to say the words, but a partnership was in her reach. It had to be. She started to make some comment about how much she was looking forward to what the new year held, but a commotion at the door to the ballroom diverted their attention. A tall blond woman smiled at the doorman, who frowned in response. The blonde just smiled harder and clapped him on the shoulder in a friendly gesture, seemingly undeterred by his attempts to keep her from crashing the party. The blonde looked around the room, her gaze settling on Carly. Her smile was intoxicating, and despite Carly’s best efforts at staying calm and cool, her body hummed as she basked in the stranger’s attention.
Jane turned to Mark. “Did you know she was coming up for the party?”
“No. Probably didn’t RSVP,” Mark said. “You know how she hates to commit. I’ll take care of it.” Mark strode briskly to the door, and Carly kept watching, riveted as Mark swept the stranger into a hug and shrugged off the doorman, who stepped to the side to let them pass. Mark escorted the woman toward the bar, but it took them forever to make the trek because everyone they passed stopped to greet them. It quickly became clear Mark wasn’t the one they were greeting.
“Who is she?” Carly asked, almost in a whisper to herself. Almost.
“That’s Landon Holt, from the Austin office. She started just a few months before you.”
Landon Holt. Carly rolled the name over in her mind. Of course she’d heard the name. The business of the Austin and Dallas offices intersected on occasion, and she’d met several of the partners and associates from Austin, but never Landon. Word was she never came to Dallas, and rumors swirled around the office as to why that was the case, but Carly didn’t spend her valuable time paying attention to idle gossip.
As Landon made the rounds, Carly found it surprising Landon didn’t spend much time in Dallas since she worked the room like she owned the place. She treated everyone to an intense smile, a lingering handshake, and fully focused attention. Landon talked and laughed and handled each interaction like it was the most important meeting she’d have that day, and for a moment Carly forgot her usual reticence about social events and wished she was on the receiving end of a Landon Holt encounter.