PARTY ON
Juliet's hands trembled Saturday evening as she sat at the island and watched the caterer work in her kitchen. He'd brought help. There were two of them in her kitchen. Two of them using her appliances, cutting food on her countertops, running the water in her sink. Two of them. Two strangers, two people she'd never laid eyes on in her life--
"Jules, don't be nervous," Beth said to her quietly. "It's going to be fine. And it smells wonderful in here. You want me to pour you some wine?"
"Please," she replied quietly. "Can I get it intravenously?"
Beth giggled as she retrieved two wine glasses from the cabinet and took a chilled bottle from the refrigerator. Beth was the only one who was allowed to do whatever she wanted in her condo. She was allowed to raid her cabinets and rearrange her bathroom and put her feet on the couch. Beth was like her sister and, in some ways, like her mother. The fact that she was three years younger than Juliet didn't matter.
Juliet found herself looking her over as she stood there and poured their wine. Oh, how she would give anything to look like Beth. Juliet's slender frame and D-cup implants didn't make her feel any more beautiful than Beth was. For Beth, it came naturally. She didn't have to buy her body, not like Juliet did. All Beth wore was the right bra and kept her legs waxed. Must have been nice.
Tonight Beth wore her usual uniform of a black, knee-length pencil skirt. The high waist covered the pale, pink sleeveless silk that buttoned up the front and showed just enough cleavage to make one desire more. Beth knew how to be sexy without having to flaunt it. That was something Juliet had never learned.
Juliet looked down at herself and questioned her wardrobe. She chose dark blue jeans, paired with a black V-neck shirt trimmed in lace and a slim, white blazer, trimmed in black with sharp shoulders and three-quarter length sleeves. On her feet were black, platform pumps, but she now feared she was dressed too casually. "I should change," she muttered.
"You look amazing. Here," Beth said, handing her a glass. "Drink this. Relax. That shirt and that blazer make your boobs look magnificent."
"They better look magnificent," she said, raising an eyebrow. "They cost enough."
"You never needed them, you know," Beth offered.
"Yes, I did."
"Only because you thought so."
Juliet's eyes rolled, but her heart warmed at her best friend's compliment. Sometimes she wished that she and Beth were lesbians. Then she'd never need anyone else. Life would be perfect.
But, alas. Beth lacked one single, important appendage...
At the sound of the doorbell, Beth's smile widened and her doe eyes danced underneath her perfect makeup and long lashes. "Your first guest is here!"
"Your first guest," Juliet corrected. "My apartment is merely a shell. A location. It's your party."
"It is not my party--"
"It is--"
"Dammit, Juliet, go get the door!"
Juliet's throat closed up every time the door rang. The more her condo filled up, the worse it got. Juliet had her eyes on everything, though there was seemingly nothing to worry about. Beth had been right when she said it wasn't some frat party--and she knew it wouldn't be. It was merely people talking and drinking and eating the delicious hors d'oeuvres that even Juliet had admitted she was enjoying. However, it had taken her this long just to get used to the caterer. She would be a wreck for the rest of the night, she just knew it.
She clung to Beth as they mingled. She let Beth take the lead, she let Beth play hostess. Juliet knew she wasn't being completely fair and she was dropping the ball on the hosting gig, but she'd never hosted anything before, either. Outside of her condo, Juliet exuded power, confidence, and dominance. But her home was where she let her hair down--and even standing in a room full of people who had come from the outside, she was having a hard time putting her hair back up.
By her second glass of wine, however, she was beginning to loosen up a little. Nobody was spilling anything, she overheard plenty of intelligent conversation, and everyone kept their feet on the floor. She found herself without Beth for the first time that night while she was talking to a couple of women, when she turned her head and spotted the Sun God from earlier in the week walking into her living room. Lord, Jesus, this was exactly what she needed.
Where had he come from? Had Beth doubled back and gotten his number, after all? He didn't look much different from the other night. His blonde hair still hung in a loose mess on his shoulders and his skin glowed beneath the white, V-neck knit sweater that he hadn't bothered to wear anything underneath of. His light blue jeans looked like they might disintegrate in his next move, and his feet...boasted flip flops. In New York. Flip flops. Juliet didn't even care. The man was sex on legs.
She couldn't deny the way his blue eyes slightly disturbed her, but she decided she could get past that. All she wanted to do was feel up his arms and peel his jeans off of him. How soon could she make that happen?
"Oh, my," one of the women said under her breath. It was no mistake, nearly every woman in the room was looking at this hunk of meat that was now shaking hands with another man he was apparently familiar with.
"Do you see that smile?" The other one said. "The man upstairs sure knew what he was doing when he created that one."
Juliet grinned at the two women. "That, ladies, would be my party favor. If you lovelies will excuse me, it seems that I have a little business to attend to."
Business, indeed. Juliet didn't care that she'd completely interrupted the Sun God's conversation when she lightly touched his arm and extended her other hand. "Hello," she said with a smile. "I don't believe we've met. My name is Juliet Carson. This is my home."
He turned and he smiled at her, a smile that cause her loins to catch fire. He reached for her hand and shook it and she ignored the lack of "spark" that she expected to feel from it. "Travis," he replied. "You have a lovely home."
She eyed him a moment more before her smiled widened. "Travis. I do believe we're familiar with one another..."
"Yeah," he replied, his smile transforming into one a little more flirtatious. "I saw you at the bar the other night."
"I knew it," she said in triumph. "I knew I was right."
"Right about what?"
"That you and I are going to have a very good night."
His eyes darkened seductively and he bit his lip with his smile in such a way that she wanted to tear his clothes off of him right then and there. Instead, she carefully hooked her arm around his and turned to lead him to the kitchen. "Right this way, Travis. Why don't I get you a drink and you can tell me all about what shore you surfed here from?"
"Surf?" He said in surprise. "How do you know I surf?"
"Sweetheart, you reek of it," she replied. "I like it."
As she led Travis to the kitchen, happy with her prize for the night, and no longer worried about what was going on in the rest of her condo, something caught her peripheral vision and she turned her head in time to see them. The eyes, the blue ones, the ones that...that ones she couldn't run from, dressed in blue jeans and a black button-down shirt. Was he stalking her? How was he here? Was she crazy? Was she imagining him? Why was her heart pounding and her legs restless? Why...why, all of a sudden, was there some kind of magnetic force field that was making her legs consider stopping right where they were and changing course?
Why was he looking at her like that?
She turned and looked into Travis's face and her heart pounded harder. She glanced again at Blue Eyes, his eyes never leaving hers, and a fear rose in her like no other. 'Please, no,' she willed herself. 'Please, you can't afford a panic attack tonight. Please don't humiliate yourself.'
With that, she diligently led Travis straight into the kitchen where she planned to spend the rest of the party.
__________________________________________
Perfect. Just fucking perfect. Where the hell had he been while Travis wasted no time putting on the moves?
Eric wanted to beat his head against the wall. He should have spoken up. He should have told Travis that he was into Juliet before they came to the party. Because now Terrell had been proven right--Eric had no chance as long as Travis was around. And Juliet was, as expected, hanging on to his every word--and his every body part.
God, she looked incredible. He'd never seen a pair of jeans fit a woman so perfectly in his life. His favorite part, though, was the way her unruly, thick waves of dark hair cascaded town her back against her white blazer. There was something about that visual, something so...tantalizing, as simple as it was. He just wanted to touch her hair. He wanted to run his hands through it and watch her eyes close with the pleasure of it. All he wanted was to make her happy. Nothing more.
After she'd disappeared into the kitchen with Travis, Eric got a look around at his surroundings. Her apartment was spacious--not quite as big as his own, but spacious, nonetheless. The floors were a dark, hardwood and the walls were a simple antique white. And speaking of antiques, he was pretty sure that the only piece that wasn't an antique was the television on the wall--and even then, she let her electronics rest on antique shelving.
Her open floor plan offered easy access to everything. As he'd walked in the front door, the doorway to the kitchen was on his immediate right. Peeking in, he'd found an elongated room, mostly in white, with a single window on the opposite wall. The living room immediately opened up as he stepped inside and around the corner to his right, it stretched out to another window on the other side of the kitchen wall. Immediately in front of him was a wide doorway to a small hallway that was where two bedrooms and a bathroom were located.
He had to smile as the sound of authentic 1940s jazz music surrounded the apartment and filled his ears. It was like stepping into another world, save for all the modern clothing that filled the room. He never would have expected this out of Juliet Carson, not in a million years. However, it made his heart happy to realize just how much more to this woman there really was. Oh, how he longed to learn more. So much more.
As Juliet suddenly came from the kitchen and headed toward the bathroom, he watched her walk across the room, but not without meeting her eye again. He was still figuring out how to make his move. He still had a business to run, after all, and he supposed that if she was going to choose Travis to be romantically involved with, the least he could do was do what he came there to do.
As if on cue, a beer was suddenly shoved into his hand. "Behave yourself," Travis said. "Don't go getting drunk and getting us thrown out of this place."
"Are you kidding?" Eric scoffed. "I'm a saint."
"You're insane? Is that what I heard?"
Eric rolled his eyes at his brother's lameness, careful to keep Juliet's path in his line of vision. "So. Didn't take you long to cozy up to the hostess," he observed.
"She came to me, man," Travis smiled. "This is all her. And I'm gonna take it as far as it's gonna go. And, trust me, I think you and I both know how far it's gonna go."
Eric's stomach churned at the thought. So close. So damn close, yet he was the wrong brother. Story of his life.
Eric wasn't able to respond before they heard the squeal from across the room. "Terrell!"
Both brothers whipped their heads around to see Eric's best friend walking through the door, a bottle wine in hand, and Juliet making a beeline straight for him. Wine. Of course. Eric felt like such a bastard. What was he thinking, showing up empty-handed?
"I'll be damned," Travis said under his breath as he took a swig of his beer, watching Juliet sling her arms around Terrell's neck and him pick her up off the floor. "That asshole's gone and beat me to the punch."
Eric's eyes widened at this observations. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Come on," Travis said, eying his brother skeptically. "How do you think he met her? It's obvious. And that display he put on the other night about respecting women? He's fucking her, come on. Look at them."
They did look cozy. A little too cozy for comfort. Why the hell hadn't Terrell ever brought her up? Well, in Terrell's defense, Eric never brought her up, either. Jesus, this web was getting more and more tangled. Jesse, Terrell, Travis, himself...the more this went on, the worse an idea any involvement with her was becoming.
Who was Eric kidding? If she snapped her fingers and commanded that he get in line, he'd do it. And he'd thank her for it. God, he was wrapped too damn tight and he hadn't even met her, yet.
"Anyway, fuck that," Travis said. "Terrell's going to have to lay off tonight. She and I have something good going."
Eric wanted another beer all of a sudden. "Is that why you're standing here, talking to me?" He sneered. "While Mr. Suave is in there pouring her wine and telling her how beautiful she is in his best Barry White voice?"
Travis turned around and looked at him as if he were contagious. "Dude, what the hell is wrong with you?"
"Nothing," Eric lied. "Nothing at all."
"Now, that one," Travis commented as Beth Knight walked toward them. "That one's more your speed."
Beth's smile lit up the room. There was no mistake, she was beautiful. "Just Eric!" She exclaimed cheerfully. "So glad you could make it!"
Instantly, he felt at ease, the tension from his feelings about Travis and Terrell melting away. "Thank you for inviting me," he smiled.
Travis placed an encouraging hand on his brother's shoulder. "And I'm Travis. Eric, here, is my baby brother."
"Twin brother," Eric corrected.
Travis lowered his voice to a murmur. "I'm two minutes older, don't let him fool you."
Beth raised her eyebrows and she nodded. "Twins...? Well, this just got a bit more interesting."
"Oh?" Travis smiled enthusiastically.
"Well," she smiled sheepishly. "I had no idea Eric had a brother. And I certainly had no idea he would be...you. Um, I had hoped to have the opportunity to introduce Eric to my friend, but..."
Travis's eyes widened as he looked between the two. "Oh, shit. Am I intruding? Did I mess up? Cause, I mean, she approached me and I just went with it--"
"It's business," Eric blurted, shaking his head in a desperate attempt to slow his racing heart.
"Oh," Travis said with a relieved smile. "Of course it is. Silly me..."
Beth narrowed her eyes in confusion. "Business? What sort of business?"
Travis had decided he wasn't letting up. "My brother and I run a company together."
"I run a company," Eric corrected again. "I'm lucky if I can get you to freeload."
Suddenly, Eric cut a look to kill at Travis. He might as well spill it now. Travis had already put him on the spot and slung the door wide open. He could have killed him.
Travis took the hint. "So, uh, I'm gonna go make sure my date is still my date. Catch you guys later." He didn't disappear before giving Beth one last once-over, though, and then Beth and Eric were alone.
"Well," Beth said, raising an eyebrow. "Apparently there is ground we didn't get to cover last weekend, Just Eric."
His eyes darted around nervously. He wasn't sure why he was so nervous. It wasn't like he'd even attempted to approach Juliet tonight. Though he supposed his little stalking act at last weekend's benefit hadn't helped much, either.
Suddenly, he didn't have the heart to go through with it. This just wasn't the time. "It's not--I mean, I was just trying to get him off my back..."
"You're a horrible liar, you know that?"
He furrowed his brow. "We just met. That's harsh."
"Correction. We met last week. The fact that you came to my--Juliet's--party, makes you my friend. And it also gives me a right to find out what you're up to. Besides stalking my best friend, I mean."
"I'm not...I'm not stalking anyone..."
"Please. I remember you from this summer. I remember you because it's the only time I've ever seen fear on that woman's face. She had a panic attack then, she had one at the benefit, and I'm willing to bet that the first time she lays eyes on you tonight, there will be another one. Although now that I think about it...you're a twin and she's not freaking out over your brother."
"She's too wrapped up in him to freak out," he muttered sorely as he drank his beer.
"Well, either way. It's all too weird, so you have some explaining to do."
Eric shrugged his shoulders in defense. "That's just it! I think she's beautiful! I didn't even know who she was that night in the restaurant until somebody told me her name, and even then I had no clue who she was. I just wanted to meet her. And then I was afforded a second chance last weekend and she freaked out again. I don't know, I can't tell you what the deal is. But I'm beginning to think there's something wrong with me."
Beth's expression softened as she studied Eric's face. "You're, um, you're different," she said gently.
He scowled at her, already annoyed that he'd even said that much. "What are you talking about?"
"I don't know, you're just...different. I can't put my finger on it. But I like you--"
"Well, I'm sorry--"
"No, not like that. I mean, not--not for me...Jesus, this is the second time I've tried to play matchmaker for that woman this week and the first time was with your brother..."
"Congratulations, you've succeeded," he said sarcastically.
Beth let out a sigh and she searched his eyes. "Eric, you seem like good people. Not like...well, I mean there are a lot of superficial assholes in this city. And I love Juliet, with all my heart. But I gotta tell you...you can't go introducing yourself to her and expecting to...you know, get something out of it. She's...I think she has trust issues. She doesn't like to get close, she doesn't...men go into it expecting something they aren't going to get with her and they end up disappointed. Like I said, she's my best friend and I don't want to say anything rude about her, but honestly, I have no idea why she is the way she is. She just...is. But she is a good person, otherwise. She really, truly is. And the man that gets to see that side of her someday will be a very lucky one."
He stared at her, taking in her words. Beth was apparently more intuitive than men gave women credit for. Or was he just that obvious?
"Why are you telling me this?"
Placing a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, she replied, "Because I don't want to watch you crash and burn."
As she walked away, he glared at her back, turning up the last of his beer. Little did she know, he already had.
He needed another beer. He should probably heed Travis's warning and not do any heavy drinking, but his night wasn't getting any better. Wiping his palms on his jeans, he walked toward the kitchen where he knew his best friend and his brother were, along with his dream girl. When he walked in, he spied Beth with them and they looked like such a happy little foursome, with Eric as the spare fifth wheel. He wanted to ignore them and trade out his empty beer bottle, but Terrell wasn't having it. He supposed his greeting was better than watching Travis sit on the barstool and Juliet take up the space between his legs.
"Hey!" Terrell said cheerfully, crossing the room to greet him. "I can't believe you guys are here!"
"Feeling's mutual."
"How do you know Juliet?" He asked.
In response, Eric glanced at her and caught her watchful brown eye. "I don't," he said flatly. Then he turned back to Terrell. "Beth invited me."
"Nice. Nice."
"What are you doing here?"
"Juliet and I are pals," he smiled. "Right, Jules?"
"Right," she said, nonchalantly. God, even her voice sent shivers down his spine.
Eric caught her eye again before she abruptly turned her head and started running her hands up Travis's arms. Eric would have been infuriated at the gesture had he not spied the uncertainty in her eyes as she locked them with his. For a split second, he thought he could see her. He thought he saw her hiding behind her eyes, behind the blazer and the heels...and Travis.
"Hey," Terrell lowered his voice to a whisper. "Why are you looking at him like that?"
Eric snapped out of it and looked up at his best friend. "At who, what?"
"At your brother. Like you want to take his head off?"
"Look, I just came to get another beer," he replied, exasperated.
"How many have you had?"
"Does it really matter?"
"Yeah, if you don't want to make an ass of yourself."
"Again, does it really matter?"
"Come on." Terrell took Eric by the shoulder and turned him around, leading him casually to the far corner of the living room by an antique bookcase that stood from floor to ceiling. "What's going on with you, bro?"
"How do you know Juliet?"
"I already told you--"
"You sat there the other night at the bar, knowing she was there, listening to the guys rag on her, sitting there letting Travis have his way with her in there right now, and yet she's supposed to be your friend."
"She's a big girl, she can take care of herself."
"You're my best friend, you're not supposed to lie to me."
"Maybe I'm not a kiss and tell kind of guy."
Eric's eyes widened in disbelief. "You've always been a kiss and tell kind of guy!" He hissed.
"We met at the gym. Okay? We met at the gym, we hit it off...we really hit it off...and then we decided that it would be best to just be friends. That's it."
"So you fucked her."
"One time."
"Jesus Christ..."
"What's it to you?"
Eric stopped and looked up at Terrell, shoving his hands in his pockets. Suddenly, his entire situation seemed completely petty. All it was, was a crush. A stupid, little schoolboy crush, and here he was brooding over his friends getting lucky with a woman who had gotten lucky with half of Manhattan. What he should have been was unsurprised and expectant.
"Eric," Terrell said gently. "You got a thing for her or something?"
"I don't even know her," he muttered guiltily.
"Well, you know where she is. Walk in and introduce yourself."
"It's not that easy."
"Sure it is...I mean, you'll have to pry Travis off of her..."
"I mean I've already tried. A couple of times. She doesn't want anything to do with me. I don't even know why I'm here, to be honest."
At that moment, Travis and Juliet emerged from the kitchen, but not before her eyes went directly for Eric's. He felt his heart thud against his chest. That was deliberate. He wasn't seeing things and he knew it. She deliberately sought him out--especially since she had to turn her head a certain way to see him. In an instant, his anger melted away and was replaced with a sort of warmth--and almost comfort--in the way her eyes looked at him.
But, yet...she continued to cling to Travis.
"Shit," Terrell whispered. "You got it bad..."
"I'm fine," Eric said. "I'm...this is stupid, I'm okay. There are plenty of fish in the sea, right?"
"Sure, sure...I mean, she does have that cute friend, right?"
"Sure," Eric shrugged.
Attempting to avoid Terrell's knowing stare, Eric turned around to face the shelf they'd been standing in front of. There were books for miles. Mostly books on design and architecture. Some were art books, some were about the art of sketching, and the rest were a mixture of fiction and non-fiction.
Below the books was a small section of CD's. Finding himself more interested than he should have been, he scoured her small collection. The majority of the music was much like the jazz that played softly in the room now. Music from the 1930's and 1940's prevailed, everything from blues to jazz to big band swing and everything in between. It was interesting how her music choices mirrored her home décor. It was as if she purposely put herself in an entirely different world when she walked in off the busy city streets.
A collection within the collection caught his eye, however, and caused an amused smirk to cross his lips. They were all from the same group, the plentiful little lot of them, and he plucked one off the shelf, curious to see if it was what he thought it was. Turning the case over in his hand, the smirk turned into a grin as he read the track listing. Sure, enough. Juliet Carson had a bit of a secret affliction for flaxen-haired nineties pop groups, it seemed. Or at least this one, anyway. Hell, he hadn't even been aware this group had done anything after the one song, much less produce an entire collection's worth of albums. Curiosity got the best of Eric, and now he found himself plucking each CD off the shelf and checking the copyright dates. Interestingly, this group had kept it up, all the way till the present, and it was apparent that Juliet had teeny-bopped right along with them. The idea of it made his heart melt and it made him smile bigger.
"You don't have anything else better to do than snoop?" Travis snorted from behind him.
Startled, Eric turned around to face him. "You don't have anything better to do than hang all over the hostess?"
"Dude," Travis finally accused him. "What is your fucking problem? I feel like I've heard nothing but shit out of you all night long. Did I, like, fuck up your business plan or something?"
"No," Eric muttered.
"Then what...oh my god," he said, recovering as quickly as he asked. "You fucking lied when you said it was business. It's personal business, that's what it is. Holy shit, why didn't I see it sooner? Are you having a hard time getting a meeting because you're more worried about getting in her pants? Is that what this is about?"
"Watch your mouth," Eric threatened.
"Okay, okay. Why the hell didn't you tell me? If I had known you were into her, I would have laid off. I, uh, I'm kinda into her friend, anyway."
Eric could have killed him. He wanted to kill him. He stood there and he plotted his brother's death while the opening of the front door interrupted him.
The man that walked in was tall. Medium build, pale skin, short, dark hair. He wore a light-colored suit that even Eric, who wasn't much into fashion, thought was a little out of place for this time of the year. It was well tailored, however, and his cheeks were slightly flushed from the wind chill. He was popular, apparently. Both Juliet and Beth came at him from different directions. Juliet got to him first.
"What in the hell are you doing here?" She asked menacingly.
"I was invited."
"Like hell, you were. I've never invited you to my home and I didn't invite you now!"
Eric's hair stood on end and his body was itching to react. Call it intuition or a twin thing, he didn't know, but Travis suddenly reached for his arm and held him back.
The man scoffed at her patronizingly. "Well, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, sweetheart, but I did receive an invitation--"
"I invited him," Beth said quietly. "Before, um, before we broke up."
"You mean before you dumped me and hung me out to dry. And then wouldn't have the common decency to give me a chance to explain--"
"To explain what?" Beth said, all of a sudden. "To explain how many zip codes you had whores waiting on you in? To explain how you were never faithful to me since day one? About how I was good to you and I was loyal and committed and you never once gave a shit about me to think twice about your indiscretions? To explain how big of a jerk you are?"
"Come on, baby," he smiled. "You knew it was only going to be a matter of time before you turned into your friend, here. You would have fucked around on me just like she fucks around all over--"
"SHE WOULD HAVE NEVER FUCKED AROUND ON YOU, YOU SNIVELING, WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!" Juliet suddenly exploded, stepping toward him boldly, her entire body shaking with anger. "SHE CARED ABOUT YOU AND YOU TOOK ADVANTAGE OF HER, YOU TREATED HER LIKE TRASH!"
"This is between me and Beth--"
"Not in my house, it isn't!"
"How many men in this room have you fucked, Juliet?" The man teased. "How many did you cheat on with each other? How many of them did you allow to treat you like the filthy...cheap...tramp...you...are?"
Eric was hot with rage. He took a step forward and Travis's grip tightened on him.
Juliet's face was blood red. And then she charged at him. "YOU GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" She screamed, his head dodging her physical advances. From behind her, Terrell finally stepped in and attempted to physically remove her from the situation, but she kept fighting, even over his strong arm. "YOU GET OUT OF MY HOUSE OR I SWEAR TO GOD I'LL TEAR YOUR DISEASE-RIDDEN DICK OFF AND SHOVE IT DOWN YOUR GOD DAMNED THROAT! DON'T YOU DARE EVER INTRUDE ON MY HOME AGAIN OR YOU'LL NEVER MAKE IT OUT ALIVE, YOU PIECE OF SHIT, MARK MY FUCKING WORDS!"
"Oh," the guy smiled. "Are we communicating threats, Miss Carson?"
"It would be in your best interest to see yourself out," Terrell said to him. "Because I don't live here. And if I have to step over that threshold, there, it's gonna be a whole different ballgame, man."
As quickly as the man had entered, he turned and left, leaving the entire party in absolute silence. Terrell cleared his throat and turned around, but the two women were already lost in their own worlds, trying to console each other. It was evident, even when the man walked in the door, that the party was over. Slowly, one by one, people began gathering their belongings.
Juliet, however, had disappeared in the midst of the bustle. As the party thinned out, she remained completely out of sight.
"Look, uh, I don't think Beth needs to be alone," Travis whispered. "I think I'll stick around for a little bit, if you don't mind."
Eric only nodded. 'Good plan, man,' he thought to himself. 'Good plan.'
Juliet's hands trembled Saturday evening as she sat at the island and watched the caterer work in her kitchen. He'd brought help. There were two of them in her kitchen. Two of them using her appliances, cutting food on her countertops, running the water in her sink. Two of them. Two strangers, two people she'd never laid eyes on in her life--
"Jules, don't be nervous," Beth said to her quietly. "It's going to be fine. And it smells wonderful in here. You want me to pour you some wine?"
"Please," she replied quietly. "Can I get it intravenously?"
Beth giggled as she retrieved two wine glasses from the cabinet and took a chilled bottle from the refrigerator. Beth was the only one who was allowed to do whatever she wanted in her condo. She was allowed to raid her cabinets and rearrange her bathroom and put her feet on the couch. Beth was like her sister and, in some ways, like her mother. The fact that she was three years younger than Juliet didn't matter.
Juliet found herself looking her over as she stood there and poured their wine. Oh, how she would give anything to look like Beth. Juliet's slender frame and D-cup implants didn't make her feel any more beautiful than Beth was. For Beth, it came naturally. She didn't have to buy her body, not like Juliet did. All Beth wore was the right bra and kept her legs waxed. Must have been nice.
Tonight Beth wore her usual uniform of a black, knee-length pencil skirt. The high waist covered the pale, pink sleeveless silk that buttoned up the front and showed just enough cleavage to make one desire more. Beth knew how to be sexy without having to flaunt it. That was something Juliet had never learned.
Juliet looked down at herself and questioned her wardrobe. She chose dark blue jeans, paired with a black V-neck shirt trimmed in lace and a slim, white blazer, trimmed in black with sharp shoulders and three-quarter length sleeves. On her feet were black, platform pumps, but she now feared she was dressed too casually. "I should change," she muttered.
"You look amazing. Here," Beth said, handing her a glass. "Drink this. Relax. That shirt and that blazer make your boobs look magnificent."
"They better look magnificent," she said, raising an eyebrow. "They cost enough."
"You never needed them, you know," Beth offered.
"Yes, I did."
"Only because you thought so."
Juliet's eyes rolled, but her heart warmed at her best friend's compliment. Sometimes she wished that she and Beth were lesbians. Then she'd never need anyone else. Life would be perfect.
But, alas. Beth lacked one single, important appendage...
At the sound of the doorbell, Beth's smile widened and her doe eyes danced underneath her perfect makeup and long lashes. "Your first guest is here!"
"Your first guest," Juliet corrected. "My apartment is merely a shell. A location. It's your party."
"It is not my party--"
"It is--"
"Dammit, Juliet, go get the door!"
Juliet's throat closed up every time the door rang. The more her condo filled up, the worse it got. Juliet had her eyes on everything, though there was seemingly nothing to worry about. Beth had been right when she said it wasn't some frat party--and she knew it wouldn't be. It was merely people talking and drinking and eating the delicious hors d'oeuvres that even Juliet had admitted she was enjoying. However, it had taken her this long just to get used to the caterer. She would be a wreck for the rest of the night, she just knew it.
She clung to Beth as they mingled. She let Beth take the lead, she let Beth play hostess. Juliet knew she wasn't being completely fair and she was dropping the ball on the hosting gig, but she'd never hosted anything before, either. Outside of her condo, Juliet exuded power, confidence, and dominance. But her home was where she let her hair down--and even standing in a room full of people who had come from the outside, she was having a hard time putting her hair back up.
By her second glass of wine, however, she was beginning to loosen up a little. Nobody was spilling anything, she overheard plenty of intelligent conversation, and everyone kept their feet on the floor. She found herself without Beth for the first time that night while she was talking to a couple of women, when she turned her head and spotted the Sun God from earlier in the week walking into her living room. Lord, Jesus, this was exactly what she needed.
Where had he come from? Had Beth doubled back and gotten his number, after all? He didn't look much different from the other night. His blonde hair still hung in a loose mess on his shoulders and his skin glowed beneath the white, V-neck knit sweater that he hadn't bothered to wear anything underneath of. His light blue jeans looked like they might disintegrate in his next move, and his feet...boasted flip flops. In New York. Flip flops. Juliet didn't even care. The man was sex on legs.
She couldn't deny the way his blue eyes slightly disturbed her, but she decided she could get past that. All she wanted to do was feel up his arms and peel his jeans off of him. How soon could she make that happen?
"Oh, my," one of the women said under her breath. It was no mistake, nearly every woman in the room was looking at this hunk of meat that was now shaking hands with another man he was apparently familiar with.
"Do you see that smile?" The other one said. "The man upstairs sure knew what he was doing when he created that one."
Juliet grinned at the two women. "That, ladies, would be my party favor. If you lovelies will excuse me, it seems that I have a little business to attend to."
Business, indeed. Juliet didn't care that she'd completely interrupted the Sun God's conversation when she lightly touched his arm and extended her other hand. "Hello," she said with a smile. "I don't believe we've met. My name is Juliet Carson. This is my home."
He turned and he smiled at her, a smile that cause her loins to catch fire. He reached for her hand and shook it and she ignored the lack of "spark" that she expected to feel from it. "Travis," he replied. "You have a lovely home."
She eyed him a moment more before her smiled widened. "Travis. I do believe we're familiar with one another..."
"Yeah," he replied, his smile transforming into one a little more flirtatious. "I saw you at the bar the other night."
"I knew it," she said in triumph. "I knew I was right."
"Right about what?"
"That you and I are going to have a very good night."
His eyes darkened seductively and he bit his lip with his smile in such a way that she wanted to tear his clothes off of him right then and there. Instead, she carefully hooked her arm around his and turned to lead him to the kitchen. "Right this way, Travis. Why don't I get you a drink and you can tell me all about what shore you surfed here from?"
"Surf?" He said in surprise. "How do you know I surf?"
"Sweetheart, you reek of it," she replied. "I like it."
As she led Travis to the kitchen, happy with her prize for the night, and no longer worried about what was going on in the rest of her condo, something caught her peripheral vision and she turned her head in time to see them. The eyes, the blue ones, the ones that...that ones she couldn't run from, dressed in blue jeans and a black button-down shirt. Was he stalking her? How was he here? Was she crazy? Was she imagining him? Why was her heart pounding and her legs restless? Why...why, all of a sudden, was there some kind of magnetic force field that was making her legs consider stopping right where they were and changing course?
Why was he looking at her like that?
She turned and looked into Travis's face and her heart pounded harder. She glanced again at Blue Eyes, his eyes never leaving hers, and a fear rose in her like no other. 'Please, no,' she willed herself. 'Please, you can't afford a panic attack tonight. Please don't humiliate yourself.'
With that, she diligently led Travis straight into the kitchen where she planned to spend the rest of the party.
__________________________________________
Perfect. Just fucking perfect. Where the hell had he been while Travis wasted no time putting on the moves?
Eric wanted to beat his head against the wall. He should have spoken up. He should have told Travis that he was into Juliet before they came to the party. Because now Terrell had been proven right--Eric had no chance as long as Travis was around. And Juliet was, as expected, hanging on to his every word--and his every body part.
God, she looked incredible. He'd never seen a pair of jeans fit a woman so perfectly in his life. His favorite part, though, was the way her unruly, thick waves of dark hair cascaded town her back against her white blazer. There was something about that visual, something so...tantalizing, as simple as it was. He just wanted to touch her hair. He wanted to run his hands through it and watch her eyes close with the pleasure of it. All he wanted was to make her happy. Nothing more.
After she'd disappeared into the kitchen with Travis, Eric got a look around at his surroundings. Her apartment was spacious--not quite as big as his own, but spacious, nonetheless. The floors were a dark, hardwood and the walls were a simple antique white. And speaking of antiques, he was pretty sure that the only piece that wasn't an antique was the television on the wall--and even then, she let her electronics rest on antique shelving.
Her open floor plan offered easy access to everything. As he'd walked in the front door, the doorway to the kitchen was on his immediate right. Peeking in, he'd found an elongated room, mostly in white, with a single window on the opposite wall. The living room immediately opened up as he stepped inside and around the corner to his right, it stretched out to another window on the other side of the kitchen wall. Immediately in front of him was a wide doorway to a small hallway that was where two bedrooms and a bathroom were located.
He had to smile as the sound of authentic 1940s jazz music surrounded the apartment and filled his ears. It was like stepping into another world, save for all the modern clothing that filled the room. He never would have expected this out of Juliet Carson, not in a million years. However, it made his heart happy to realize just how much more to this woman there really was. Oh, how he longed to learn more. So much more.
As Juliet suddenly came from the kitchen and headed toward the bathroom, he watched her walk across the room, but not without meeting her eye again. He was still figuring out how to make his move. He still had a business to run, after all, and he supposed that if she was going to choose Travis to be romantically involved with, the least he could do was do what he came there to do.
As if on cue, a beer was suddenly shoved into his hand. "Behave yourself," Travis said. "Don't go getting drunk and getting us thrown out of this place."
"Are you kidding?" Eric scoffed. "I'm a saint."
"You're insane? Is that what I heard?"
Eric rolled his eyes at his brother's lameness, careful to keep Juliet's path in his line of vision. "So. Didn't take you long to cozy up to the hostess," he observed.
"She came to me, man," Travis smiled. "This is all her. And I'm gonna take it as far as it's gonna go. And, trust me, I think you and I both know how far it's gonna go."
Eric's stomach churned at the thought. So close. So damn close, yet he was the wrong brother. Story of his life.
Eric wasn't able to respond before they heard the squeal from across the room. "Terrell!"
Both brothers whipped their heads around to see Eric's best friend walking through the door, a bottle wine in hand, and Juliet making a beeline straight for him. Wine. Of course. Eric felt like such a bastard. What was he thinking, showing up empty-handed?
"I'll be damned," Travis said under his breath as he took a swig of his beer, watching Juliet sling her arms around Terrell's neck and him pick her up off the floor. "That asshole's gone and beat me to the punch."
Eric's eyes widened at this observations. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Come on," Travis said, eying his brother skeptically. "How do you think he met her? It's obvious. And that display he put on the other night about respecting women? He's fucking her, come on. Look at them."
They did look cozy. A little too cozy for comfort. Why the hell hadn't Terrell ever brought her up? Well, in Terrell's defense, Eric never brought her up, either. Jesus, this web was getting more and more tangled. Jesse, Terrell, Travis, himself...the more this went on, the worse an idea any involvement with her was becoming.
Who was Eric kidding? If she snapped her fingers and commanded that he get in line, he'd do it. And he'd thank her for it. God, he was wrapped too damn tight and he hadn't even met her, yet.
"Anyway, fuck that," Travis said. "Terrell's going to have to lay off tonight. She and I have something good going."
Eric wanted another beer all of a sudden. "Is that why you're standing here, talking to me?" He sneered. "While Mr. Suave is in there pouring her wine and telling her how beautiful she is in his best Barry White voice?"
Travis turned around and looked at him as if he were contagious. "Dude, what the hell is wrong with you?"
"Nothing," Eric lied. "Nothing at all."
"Now, that one," Travis commented as Beth Knight walked toward them. "That one's more your speed."
Beth's smile lit up the room. There was no mistake, she was beautiful. "Just Eric!" She exclaimed cheerfully. "So glad you could make it!"
Instantly, he felt at ease, the tension from his feelings about Travis and Terrell melting away. "Thank you for inviting me," he smiled.
Travis placed an encouraging hand on his brother's shoulder. "And I'm Travis. Eric, here, is my baby brother."
"Twin brother," Eric corrected.
Travis lowered his voice to a murmur. "I'm two minutes older, don't let him fool you."
Beth raised her eyebrows and she nodded. "Twins...? Well, this just got a bit more interesting."
"Oh?" Travis smiled enthusiastically.
"Well," she smiled sheepishly. "I had no idea Eric had a brother. And I certainly had no idea he would be...you. Um, I had hoped to have the opportunity to introduce Eric to my friend, but..."
Travis's eyes widened as he looked between the two. "Oh, shit. Am I intruding? Did I mess up? Cause, I mean, she approached me and I just went with it--"
"It's business," Eric blurted, shaking his head in a desperate attempt to slow his racing heart.
"Oh," Travis said with a relieved smile. "Of course it is. Silly me..."
Beth narrowed her eyes in confusion. "Business? What sort of business?"
Travis had decided he wasn't letting up. "My brother and I run a company together."
"I run a company," Eric corrected again. "I'm lucky if I can get you to freeload."
Suddenly, Eric cut a look to kill at Travis. He might as well spill it now. Travis had already put him on the spot and slung the door wide open. He could have killed him.
Travis took the hint. "So, uh, I'm gonna go make sure my date is still my date. Catch you guys later." He didn't disappear before giving Beth one last once-over, though, and then Beth and Eric were alone.
"Well," Beth said, raising an eyebrow. "Apparently there is ground we didn't get to cover last weekend, Just Eric."
His eyes darted around nervously. He wasn't sure why he was so nervous. It wasn't like he'd even attempted to approach Juliet tonight. Though he supposed his little stalking act at last weekend's benefit hadn't helped much, either.
Suddenly, he didn't have the heart to go through with it. This just wasn't the time. "It's not--I mean, I was just trying to get him off my back..."
"You're a horrible liar, you know that?"
He furrowed his brow. "We just met. That's harsh."
"Correction. We met last week. The fact that you came to my--Juliet's--party, makes you my friend. And it also gives me a right to find out what you're up to. Besides stalking my best friend, I mean."
"I'm not...I'm not stalking anyone..."
"Please. I remember you from this summer. I remember you because it's the only time I've ever seen fear on that woman's face. She had a panic attack then, she had one at the benefit, and I'm willing to bet that the first time she lays eyes on you tonight, there will be another one. Although now that I think about it...you're a twin and she's not freaking out over your brother."
"She's too wrapped up in him to freak out," he muttered sorely as he drank his beer.
"Well, either way. It's all too weird, so you have some explaining to do."
Eric shrugged his shoulders in defense. "That's just it! I think she's beautiful! I didn't even know who she was that night in the restaurant until somebody told me her name, and even then I had no clue who she was. I just wanted to meet her. And then I was afforded a second chance last weekend and she freaked out again. I don't know, I can't tell you what the deal is. But I'm beginning to think there's something wrong with me."
Beth's expression softened as she studied Eric's face. "You're, um, you're different," she said gently.
He scowled at her, already annoyed that he'd even said that much. "What are you talking about?"
"I don't know, you're just...different. I can't put my finger on it. But I like you--"
"Well, I'm sorry--"
"No, not like that. I mean, not--not for me...Jesus, this is the second time I've tried to play matchmaker for that woman this week and the first time was with your brother..."
"Congratulations, you've succeeded," he said sarcastically.
Beth let out a sigh and she searched his eyes. "Eric, you seem like good people. Not like...well, I mean there are a lot of superficial assholes in this city. And I love Juliet, with all my heart. But I gotta tell you...you can't go introducing yourself to her and expecting to...you know, get something out of it. She's...I think she has trust issues. She doesn't like to get close, she doesn't...men go into it expecting something they aren't going to get with her and they end up disappointed. Like I said, she's my best friend and I don't want to say anything rude about her, but honestly, I have no idea why she is the way she is. She just...is. But she is a good person, otherwise. She really, truly is. And the man that gets to see that side of her someday will be a very lucky one."
He stared at her, taking in her words. Beth was apparently more intuitive than men gave women credit for. Or was he just that obvious?
"Why are you telling me this?"
Placing a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, she replied, "Because I don't want to watch you crash and burn."
As she walked away, he glared at her back, turning up the last of his beer. Little did she know, he already had.
He needed another beer. He should probably heed Travis's warning and not do any heavy drinking, but his night wasn't getting any better. Wiping his palms on his jeans, he walked toward the kitchen where he knew his best friend and his brother were, along with his dream girl. When he walked in, he spied Beth with them and they looked like such a happy little foursome, with Eric as the spare fifth wheel. He wanted to ignore them and trade out his empty beer bottle, but Terrell wasn't having it. He supposed his greeting was better than watching Travis sit on the barstool and Juliet take up the space between his legs.
"Hey!" Terrell said cheerfully, crossing the room to greet him. "I can't believe you guys are here!"
"Feeling's mutual."
"How do you know Juliet?" He asked.
In response, Eric glanced at her and caught her watchful brown eye. "I don't," he said flatly. Then he turned back to Terrell. "Beth invited me."
"Nice. Nice."
"What are you doing here?"
"Juliet and I are pals," he smiled. "Right, Jules?"
"Right," she said, nonchalantly. God, even her voice sent shivers down his spine.
Eric caught her eye again before she abruptly turned her head and started running her hands up Travis's arms. Eric would have been infuriated at the gesture had he not spied the uncertainty in her eyes as she locked them with his. For a split second, he thought he could see her. He thought he saw her hiding behind her eyes, behind the blazer and the heels...and Travis.
"Hey," Terrell lowered his voice to a whisper. "Why are you looking at him like that?"
Eric snapped out of it and looked up at his best friend. "At who, what?"
"At your brother. Like you want to take his head off?"
"Look, I just came to get another beer," he replied, exasperated.
"How many have you had?"
"Does it really matter?"
"Yeah, if you don't want to make an ass of yourself."
"Again, does it really matter?"
"Come on." Terrell took Eric by the shoulder and turned him around, leading him casually to the far corner of the living room by an antique bookcase that stood from floor to ceiling. "What's going on with you, bro?"
"How do you know Juliet?"
"I already told you--"
"You sat there the other night at the bar, knowing she was there, listening to the guys rag on her, sitting there letting Travis have his way with her in there right now, and yet she's supposed to be your friend."
"She's a big girl, she can take care of herself."
"You're my best friend, you're not supposed to lie to me."
"Maybe I'm not a kiss and tell kind of guy."
Eric's eyes widened in disbelief. "You've always been a kiss and tell kind of guy!" He hissed.
"We met at the gym. Okay? We met at the gym, we hit it off...we really hit it off...and then we decided that it would be best to just be friends. That's it."
"So you fucked her."
"One time."
"Jesus Christ..."
"What's it to you?"
Eric stopped and looked up at Terrell, shoving his hands in his pockets. Suddenly, his entire situation seemed completely petty. All it was, was a crush. A stupid, little schoolboy crush, and here he was brooding over his friends getting lucky with a woman who had gotten lucky with half of Manhattan. What he should have been was unsurprised and expectant.
"Eric," Terrell said gently. "You got a thing for her or something?"
"I don't even know her," he muttered guiltily.
"Well, you know where she is. Walk in and introduce yourself."
"It's not that easy."
"Sure it is...I mean, you'll have to pry Travis off of her..."
"I mean I've already tried. A couple of times. She doesn't want anything to do with me. I don't even know why I'm here, to be honest."
At that moment, Travis and Juliet emerged from the kitchen, but not before her eyes went directly for Eric's. He felt his heart thud against his chest. That was deliberate. He wasn't seeing things and he knew it. She deliberately sought him out--especially since she had to turn her head a certain way to see him. In an instant, his anger melted away and was replaced with a sort of warmth--and almost comfort--in the way her eyes looked at him.
But, yet...she continued to cling to Travis.
"Shit," Terrell whispered. "You got it bad..."
"I'm fine," Eric said. "I'm...this is stupid, I'm okay. There are plenty of fish in the sea, right?"
"Sure, sure...I mean, she does have that cute friend, right?"
"Sure," Eric shrugged.
Attempting to avoid Terrell's knowing stare, Eric turned around to face the shelf they'd been standing in front of. There were books for miles. Mostly books on design and architecture. Some were art books, some were about the art of sketching, and the rest were a mixture of fiction and non-fiction.
Below the books was a small section of CD's. Finding himself more interested than he should have been, he scoured her small collection. The majority of the music was much like the jazz that played softly in the room now. Music from the 1930's and 1940's prevailed, everything from blues to jazz to big band swing and everything in between. It was interesting how her music choices mirrored her home décor. It was as if she purposely put herself in an entirely different world when she walked in off the busy city streets.
A collection within the collection caught his eye, however, and caused an amused smirk to cross his lips. They were all from the same group, the plentiful little lot of them, and he plucked one off the shelf, curious to see if it was what he thought it was. Turning the case over in his hand, the smirk turned into a grin as he read the track listing. Sure, enough. Juliet Carson had a bit of a secret affliction for flaxen-haired nineties pop groups, it seemed. Or at least this one, anyway. Hell, he hadn't even been aware this group had done anything after the one song, much less produce an entire collection's worth of albums. Curiosity got the best of Eric, and now he found himself plucking each CD off the shelf and checking the copyright dates. Interestingly, this group had kept it up, all the way till the present, and it was apparent that Juliet had teeny-bopped right along with them. The idea of it made his heart melt and it made him smile bigger.
"You don't have anything else better to do than snoop?" Travis snorted from behind him.
Startled, Eric turned around to face him. "You don't have anything better to do than hang all over the hostess?"
"Dude," Travis finally accused him. "What is your fucking problem? I feel like I've heard nothing but shit out of you all night long. Did I, like, fuck up your business plan or something?"
"No," Eric muttered.
"Then what...oh my god," he said, recovering as quickly as he asked. "You fucking lied when you said it was business. It's personal business, that's what it is. Holy shit, why didn't I see it sooner? Are you having a hard time getting a meeting because you're more worried about getting in her pants? Is that what this is about?"
"Watch your mouth," Eric threatened.
"Okay, okay. Why the hell didn't you tell me? If I had known you were into her, I would have laid off. I, uh, I'm kinda into her friend, anyway."
Eric could have killed him. He wanted to kill him. He stood there and he plotted his brother's death while the opening of the front door interrupted him.
The man that walked in was tall. Medium build, pale skin, short, dark hair. He wore a light-colored suit that even Eric, who wasn't much into fashion, thought was a little out of place for this time of the year. It was well tailored, however, and his cheeks were slightly flushed from the wind chill. He was popular, apparently. Both Juliet and Beth came at him from different directions. Juliet got to him first.
"What in the hell are you doing here?" She asked menacingly.
"I was invited."
"Like hell, you were. I've never invited you to my home and I didn't invite you now!"
Eric's hair stood on end and his body was itching to react. Call it intuition or a twin thing, he didn't know, but Travis suddenly reached for his arm and held him back.
The man scoffed at her patronizingly. "Well, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, sweetheart, but I did receive an invitation--"
"I invited him," Beth said quietly. "Before, um, before we broke up."
"You mean before you dumped me and hung me out to dry. And then wouldn't have the common decency to give me a chance to explain--"
"To explain what?" Beth said, all of a sudden. "To explain how many zip codes you had whores waiting on you in? To explain how you were never faithful to me since day one? About how I was good to you and I was loyal and committed and you never once gave a shit about me to think twice about your indiscretions? To explain how big of a jerk you are?"
"Come on, baby," he smiled. "You knew it was only going to be a matter of time before you turned into your friend, here. You would have fucked around on me just like she fucks around all over--"
"SHE WOULD HAVE NEVER FUCKED AROUND ON YOU, YOU SNIVELING, WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!" Juliet suddenly exploded, stepping toward him boldly, her entire body shaking with anger. "SHE CARED ABOUT YOU AND YOU TOOK ADVANTAGE OF HER, YOU TREATED HER LIKE TRASH!"
"This is between me and Beth--"
"Not in my house, it isn't!"
"How many men in this room have you fucked, Juliet?" The man teased. "How many did you cheat on with each other? How many of them did you allow to treat you like the filthy...cheap...tramp...you...are?"
Eric was hot with rage. He took a step forward and Travis's grip tightened on him.
Juliet's face was blood red. And then she charged at him. "YOU GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" She screamed, his head dodging her physical advances. From behind her, Terrell finally stepped in and attempted to physically remove her from the situation, but she kept fighting, even over his strong arm. "YOU GET OUT OF MY HOUSE OR I SWEAR TO GOD I'LL TEAR YOUR DISEASE-RIDDEN DICK OFF AND SHOVE IT DOWN YOUR GOD DAMNED THROAT! DON'T YOU DARE EVER INTRUDE ON MY HOME AGAIN OR YOU'LL NEVER MAKE IT OUT ALIVE, YOU PIECE OF SHIT, MARK MY FUCKING WORDS!"
"Oh," the guy smiled. "Are we communicating threats, Miss Carson?"
"It would be in your best interest to see yourself out," Terrell said to him. "Because I don't live here. And if I have to step over that threshold, there, it's gonna be a whole different ballgame, man."
As quickly as the man had entered, he turned and left, leaving the entire party in absolute silence. Terrell cleared his throat and turned around, but the two women were already lost in their own worlds, trying to console each other. It was evident, even when the man walked in the door, that the party was over. Slowly, one by one, people began gathering their belongings.
Juliet, however, had disappeared in the midst of the bustle. As the party thinned out, she remained completely out of sight.
"Look, uh, I don't think Beth needs to be alone," Travis whispered. "I think I'll stick around for a little bit, if you don't mind."
Eric only nodded. 'Good plan, man,' he thought to himself. 'Good plan.'