In The Heat Of Los Angeles [H.S.]

Drunk Girl (Something Corporate)

"You know I'm in," I replied. "It's been what a week since we had dinner there?" I asked. It was where we often had father/daughter dinners, which we tried to do every week if we were both in town.

"I was there Saturday," he said sheepishly.

"Really?" I asked as I grabbed my purse so we could head out. "Date night with someone?"

"Shut up," Dad replied. Normally he'd answer, we were pretty open about our dating life with each other unless there were people around. We headed out the door of my office.

"Hey Eliza, will you take my stuff home with you tonight? My bag should be mostly packed."

"Of course," she said. "Have a good dinner." When we took potential clients out it was rare that Ty and Eliza came out with us. If it was just Kammi and I doing the entertaining we'd have them tag along on occasion but never if it was both Dads. While they understood that for us it was important to have an assistant that we trusted they were from the generation that didn't treat their executive assistant like a personal assistant. Kammi and I both did. Ty had purchased bras, panties and tampons more time than any man ever should.

"Why don't you girls leave your cars here and take the car service with Nick and Harry," Cameron suggested. They were so cautious about if Kammi and I were out drinking that we were to have a car service, which was awesome. It helped that the company employed one that could be used by us 24 hours a day.

"Sounds perfect," Kammi replied. We were all crammed in to the elevator together, which was less than ideal. While it was a huge elevator we had six of us in here and no one wanted to stand super close, except Kammi and Nick. Yet somehow I was still close enough to Harry to smell his cologne. At this point I'd settle on the fact that it was Tom Ford, I only knew this because Nick must be wearing Burberry today and they didn't smell the way. I watched as Kammi's fingers flew across her iPhone screen and Nick laughed a little at what she typed. Then I felt my Apple Watch buzz. I looked down and that little green text icon popped up,. Directly under it was the name K-Money Mackin, her doing not mine, she thinks she's funny.

What is it about elevators? 😉😘

I could kill her. She knew me too well. She knew that standing this close to him I was analyzing the way he smelled. The way it sounded when he cleared his throat. The way he shifted on his feet. She could fucking read me like a book. I was attracted to him in a way that was completely wrong. She had always been able to do this. The first time we hung out with Nick and his brothers she had somehow figured out that I thought Joe was cute, thus the repeated attempts to hook us up over the last ten months that I'd been single. She also had made a trip to Chicago for a few days during a break at school her freshman year to see her family and me. She met Drew for the first time when she'd gone with me to a party at Sigma Chi, his fraternity. We weren't even out the door when she asked me how long I'd wanted to bang him. Subtlety wasn't a virtue of hers. I quickly responded to her text with a preprogrammed text.

Fuck off 🖕🏻

Yup, I had a preprogrammed text that said fuck off, complete with middle finger emoji. It was mainly for moments that I needed to quickly respond to Kammi, but often got used to Ty and Eliza, occasionally even Nick or my Dad. I was the slightly neurotic one of our 'family' so of course everyone picked on me. I mean look at me, I'm having a conversation with myself in my head while in an elevator. Finally the doors opened and I walked out in to the lobby. I heard Harry clear his throat behind me and turned around.

"Hi." And just as before I couldn't get a full fucking sentence to come out of my mind or mouth.

"Hi." Okay, stop responding to me dude. I need to not think about your voice unless I'm thinking about what songwriters you need to work with on your debut album. Definitely not how just the simple sound of a two letter word gives me goosebumps. Tonight is going to be rough. He smiled and I nearly tripped. He reached forward and grabbed my arm. "You okay?"