“So, are we gonna address the elephant in the room here?” Ryan asked, drawing his knees up and placing his beer on the bench next to him.
“Which elephant would that be?” I asked sweetly, sipping my wine.
“Oh, please—the fact that the guy thumping the headboard off your bed is the hottie across the way, girl!” Mimi squealed, almost tossing her drink in Neil’s face. He laughed along with her, but pried the glass out of her hand before she could do any real damage.
“There really isn’t anything to talk about,” Simon said. “I have a new neighbor. Her name is Caroline. That’s it.” He nodded, eyeing me across the fire. I raised my eyebrow and sipped my wine.
“Yeah, it’s nice to know Pink Nightie Girl has a name. The way he described you…wow! I wasn’t sure you were real, but you’re as hot as he said you were!” Neil hooted at me appreciatively, trying for a moment to fist bump Simon through the flames before he realized how hot they were.
My eyes shot to Simon. He grimaced at the description. Interesting…
“So, you were the guys banging back at us tonight? Listening to the Guns N’ Roses?” Sophia asked, nudging Ryan.
“You were the girls singing along, I suppose, yes?” He nudged back, smiling.
“Small world, isn’t it?” Mimi sighed, gazing up at Neil. He winked at her, and I saw quickly where this was going. She had her giant, Sophia had her pretty boy, and I had my wine. Which was disappearing by the second.
“Excuse me,” I muttered and stood up to find a waiter.
I made my way through the dwindling crowd, nodding at a few faces I recognized. I accepted yet another glass of wine and strolled back outside. I’d started back toward the fire pit when I heard Mimi say, “And you should have heard Caroline when she told us about the night she banged on his door.”
Sophia and Mimi leaned together and said breathlessly, “He…was…still…hard!”
They all dissolved into laughter. I needed to remember to kill those girls tomorrow, with pain.
I groaned at my public humiliation and spun around to stomp off into the gardens when I saw Simon in the shadows. I tried to back away before he saw me, but he waved.
“Come on, come on, I don’t bite,” he scoffed.
“Yeah, sure, I guess,” I answered, walking toward him.
We stood quietly in the night. I looked out over the bay, enjoying the silence. Then he finally spoke.
“So I was thinking, since we’re neighbors and all—” he started.
I turned to look at him. He was giving me a sexy little grin, and I knew that’s what he used to make the panties drop. Ha—little did he know I wasn’t wearing any.
“You were thinking what? That I’d want to join you some night? See what all the fuss is about? Hop on the welcome wagon? Honey, I have no interest in becoming one of your girls,” I answered, glaring at him.
He said nothing.
“Well?” I asked, tapping my foot angrily. The nerve of this guy…
“Actually, I was going to say, since we’re neighbors and all, maybe we could call a truce?” he said quietly, looking at me in a very irritated way.
“Oh,” I said. It was all I could say.
“Or maybe not,” he finished and started to walk away.
“Wait, wait, wait, Simon,” I groaned grabbing him by the wrist as he pushed past me.
He stood there, glaring.
“Yes. Fine. We can call a truce. But there will have to be some ground rules,” I replied, turning to face him. He crossed his arms over his chest.
“I should warn you now, I don’t enjoy women telling me what to do,” he answered darkly.
“Not from what I’ve heard,” I said under my breath, but he caught it anyway.
“That’s different,” he said, the cockiness beginning to reappear.
“Okay, here’s the thing. You enjoy yourself, do your thing, hang from the ceiling fans, I don’t care. But late at night? Can we keep it down to a dull roar? Please? I gotta get some sleep.”
He considered for a moment. “Yes, I can see where that might be a problem. But you know, you don’t really know anything about me, and you certainly don’t know anything about me and my ‘harem,’ as you call it. I don’t have to justify my life, or the women in it, to you. So no more nasty judgments, agreed?”
I considered it. “Agreed. By the way, I appreciated the quiet this week. Something happen?”
“Happen? What do you mean?” he asked as we walked back to the group.
“I thought maybe you were injured in the line of duty, like your dick broke off or something,” I joked, proud to use my zinger again.
“Unbelievable. That’s all you think I am, isn’t it?” he retorted, his face angry again.
“A dick? Yes, in fact,” I snapped back.
“Now look—” he started, and Neil appeared out of nowhere.
“Nice to see you two have kissed and made up,” he chided, pretending to hold Simon back.
“Can it, anchorman,” Simon muttered as the rest of the newly paired-off reappeared.
“Cool it with the anchorman, huh?” Neil said, and Sophia whirled on him.
“Anchorman! Wait a minute, you’re the local sports guy on NBC, right? Am I right?” she asked.
I watched his eyes light up. Sophia may have been a classical music kind of girl, but she was also a huge 49ers fan. I was pretty sure the 49ers were a football team.
“Yeah, that’s me. You watch a lot of sports?” he asked, leaning toward her, bringing Mimi along. The way she was clinging to his arm, it was unavoidable. She stumbled a little, and Ryan swooped in to steady her. They smiled at each other as Sophia and Neil continued their football talk. I coughed, reminding them that I was, in fact, still here.
“Caroline, we’re taking off!” Sophia giggled, now leaning on Ryan’s arm. I glared at Simon one more time and stalked toward the girls.
“That’s good. I’ve had enough fun for tonight. I’ll call for the car, and we can head out in a few,” I replied, reaching into my bag for my phone.
“Actually, Neil was telling us about this great little bar, and we were going to go that way. Do you two want to come?” Mimi interrupted, stopping my hand. She squeezed it, and I saw her shake her head almost imperceptibly.
“No?” I asked, raising both eyebrows.
“Great! Ol’ Wallbanger here’ll make sure you get home okay,” Neil said, clapping Simon roughly on the back.
“Yeah, sure,” he said through clenched teeth.
Before I could even blink, the four of them were on their way to the hillevator, saying sloppy goodbyes to Benjamin and Jillian, who just laughed and shared a high five.
Wallbanger and I stared at each other, and I suddenly felt exhausted. “Truce?” I said tiredly.
“Truce,” he said, nodding.
He looked over at me. “No, no, it’s not like that,” he said quickly. “It’s nothing bad. It’s just that, well, Jillian adores you. And she adores me—of course, right?”
I rolled my eyes, but played along.
“And well, she might have…mentioned a few times…that she thought I should meet you,” he dragged out, only to wink at me when I met his eyes.
“Oh. Ohhhh,” I breathed as I realized what he meant. I blushed. Jillian, that little matchmaking shit. “Does she know about the harem?” I asked.
“Would you quit with that? Don’t call them the harem. You make it sound so shady. What if I told you those three women were incredibly important to me? That I care a lot about them. That the relationships I have with them work for us, and no one else needs to understand it—got it?” he said, pulling the Rover to an angry stop at the curb outside our building.