Ariana blushed and lowered her lashes. “What can I say? He needs me,” she lied.
Shelly shook her head and sighed as she started applying a topcoat to Ariana’s nails.
“Ah, young love. I remember what that was like. I think.”
Ariana, Soomie, and Lexa laughed, while Tahira and Maria made skeptical faces.
“How do you know it’s love?” Tahira asked Shelly. “Maybe she’s just in lust.”
“Oh, no. It’s love. I can tell by the look on her face,” Shelly joked back.
Ariana grinned. She really was falling for Jasper. Even the help could tell. The question now was, what was she going to do about it?
She lifted her phone and quickly texted back.
JUST GIVE ME SOME TIME TO FIGURE IT ALL OUT.
The answer came almost instantly.
HOW MUCH TIME?
Ariana smirked, flattered by his impatience. She texted back.
I’LL GIVE YOU AN ANSWER AT THE BALL.
“Ana, you look drop-dead in that gown,” Tahira said as the girls walked down the hall to the elevator on Saturday evening. “I hope you know a good dry cleaner because Palmer is going to drool all over it.”
“Thanks, T,” she said, grinning.
But I’m no longer in the market for Palmer’s drool, she thought, imagining how Jasper was going to react when he saw her stepping out of the elevator. She had decided that tonight was the night. She was going to break up with Palmer at the ball, where he wouldn’t make a scene, where he would have plenty of alcohol in which to drown his sorrows, and plenty of friends around to drown them with.
And where she could disappear in the crowd with Jasper afterward. Because she knew that as soon as the deed was done, she wouldn’t be able to wait another second to be with him.
Ariana stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the lounge area, checking her hazy reflection in the glass, turning this way and that to see the full skirt of her gunmetal gray, strapless taffeta gown swish around her. The skirt was wide and stiff and accentuated her tiny waist. She’d adorned her neck with a real diamond necklace she’d purchased at Cartier the day before. Noelle had one just like it—except hers was peppered with sapphires—which she always used to wear to the Ryans’ Casino Night party down on St. Barth’s over Christmas break. Ariana smirked slightly, wishing her old friend could see her, could know who her friends were, how much she was worth. It was next to impossible to make Noelle Lange jealous, but Ariana had a feeling that she’d actually turn green if she knew. And green was so not her color.
“You’re looking pretty drool-worthy yourself,” Ariana added.
Tahira had gone with a low-cut, black velvet dress that hugged every curve. Ariana wasn’t a big fan of the leave-nothing-to-the-imagination look, but it was very Tahira, and Ariana was slowly starting to get used to her new friend’s style.
Tahira executed a twirl, holding her silver clutch purse out at her sides. “I know,” she replied, lifting one bare shoulder.
“Everyone ready?” Lexa asked, sweeping out in her black gown.
Ariana smiled with satisfaction at the sight of her friend, who looked well-rested and happy. Her skin glowed, and she was eye-circle-free for the first time in days. Maybe the massage and facial had really relaxed her enough for her to get a good night’s sleep. Maria trailed behind her in a silver halter-neck dress, her arm crowded with at least ten diamond tennis bracelets. Then Soomie emerged in a tight, black-and-gray-striped strapless with an ankle-length pencil skirt and a slit up the back. Her dark hair was pulled back into a coil at the nape of her neck.
“Damn, we clean up well,” Maria said, looping her arm around Soomie’s.
“We do, don’t we?” Lexa added, taking Maria’s other arm.
“Well, we’re already fifteen minutes late,” Arian
a said, checking her phone. “The boys should be sufficiently agitated.”
The girls giggled as Ariana led them to the elevator. Her heart beat a nervous rhythm as she hoped that Jasper would be waiting downstairs with the others. She knew Palmer would be there, as planned. As would Landon, Rob, Conrad, and Adam, who had agreed to be Soomie’s date. But maybe Jasper would want to see her first thing too. She hoped so.
“The guys just have no idea what it’s like for us,” Maria said as the elevator whisked them toward the lobby. “All the things we put ourselves through to look this hot. All they have to do is shave, put on a tux, and done.”
“And some don’t even bother to shave,” Tahira groused, giving the bodice of her dress a tug.