“Olivia, I would like for you to meet my date. Giselle Winters, this is Olivia Harper.” Giselle raises her head and smiles nervously.
“Oh my goodness!” Olivia claps excitedly. “I didn’t know you two were coming together. I thought you couldn’t make it.” Olivia wraps her friend up in a hug.
Giselle’s eyes bounce from Olivia to me, clearly unsure of what to say, so I answer her instead. “She’s doing me a favor. My date couldn’t make it.”
Nick eyes me accusingly, silently calling bullshit, and I shake my head once, telling him to drop it. “We’re glad you both could make it. Killian, I want to show you something. Join me?” It comes out like a question, but it’s anything but.
“I think it would be rude to leave our dates—” I begin to say, but Nick cuts me off.
“It will only be a minute.” He gives Olivia a kiss on her cheek with a promise to be right back.
“Where’s Reed?” I ask as we walk back over to the auction tables.
“He passed out an hour after we arrived, so Shelby took him back to Olivia’s place.” We stop in the corner, and Nick turns to face me, hitting me with a hard stare. “Did you say something to Giselle about her moving out?”
“No,” I start to say, but then I remember when I was babysitting and Giselle came home, we had words. “Yeah.”
“Dammit, Kill. Giselle told Olivia tonight she’s moving out.”
“And that’s a bad thing, why?”
“Because she’s put her mom’s house up for sale, and even if it does sell, she can’t afford a place in the city.”
“Trust me, Giselle is making more money than you think. Besides, it’s not like she’s your concern.”
“It doesn’t matter if she’s a fucking millionaire. She and Olivia got into it because of whatever you said to her, and now Olivia is upset. I get you don’t like Celeste and Giselle, and I’m pretty sure it’s a mixture of you looking out for me and you refusing to deal with whatever you’ve been running from since college. But no more treating them like shit for me. I accept both of those women the way they are. Just like I don’t know what’s going on with you under the surface because you refuse to talk about it, the same can be said for them.”
Damn it, he’s right. I’ve been projecting my issues onto Giselle and Celeste, when the truth is, I’m not fucking perfect, and I definitely have no right to judge other people.
“I’m not sure why Giselle agreed to be your date, but maybe you can use it as an opportunity,” Nick says.
“An opportunity for what?” I ask, confused.
“To actually get to know the woman you’re on a date with. Who knows? Maybe Giselle will shock you. It’s not often you bring a date you didn’t have to pay to join you.” Nick smirks. If only he knew the truth…
“I went on a date recently. Fuck you very much,” I say in my defense.
“That model Christina set you up with? That doesn’t count. We both know she was too busy modeling for the paparazzi to actually pay any attention to you. You would’ve been better off with one of your paid escorts.”
He’s got me there. Christina might be down to earth, but her friend definitely wasn’t. She barely said two words to me the entire time, more concerned with who was taking our photograph or interviewing us. It was obvious she was using me to get back into the spotlight. And the few words she did speak to me were about how much men suck.
“Don’t you think it’s time to deal with whatever has been eating you up inside? Maybe you could give someone a chance. Let someone in. Not every woman is a gold-digger.” I want to explain to him that it’s more than them being gold-diggers… it’s about protecting myself. But if I say that, he’ll want me to explain, and I’m not prepared to go there.
“Maybe not, but most women aren’t anything like Olivia,” I point out.
“How would you know if you refuse to give anyone a chance?” Nick pats me on the shoulder. “I’m going to dance with my fiancée. Be nice to Giselle.” He gives me a pointed look.
“Yes, sir!”
I follow him back over to where the women are standing and talking. Nick leads Olivia onto the dance floor, and Giselle is left standing there alone. I take a moment to look at her—really look at her. With her hair down in waves and minimal makeup on her face, there’s no denying she’s a beautiful woman. Her dress is elegant and classy, yet with the back completely bare and the front cut just low enough that the swells of her breasts peek out, it screams sexy and wild. What Nick said about not knowing what’s under the surface suddenly comes to the forefront of my mind. He’s right, I won’t talk about what happened, and too many times since I’ve met Giselle I’ve thought there might be more to her than what meets the eye.