I watched them as they talked and laughed looking all masculine and confident. Occasionally a club chick would pass by wearing a dress that was too short, too tight and too revealing, and one or more of them would check her out. Braden didn’t look interested, though, which made me very happy. It was only a couple of minutes but it was enough time to see what kind of impact they made on their surroundings. Suffice it to say, by the looks they were getting from the other women who saw them, I didn’t think any of them would want for partners to help them unwind.
I started walking in their direction. Just then Drew looked up and I saw him mouth the words, “holy shit.” I almost stopped in my tracks. I looked quickly behind me in case I was about to be mugged or something. There was nobody there, though. Was one of my boobs hanging out? They all looked up then and by the looks on their faces I realized that it was probably just that the sexy designer dress and shoes had been a good choice. I did glance down to make sure it wasn’t the boob, though.
A few things happened in the next couple of seconds. Braden’s eyes glazed over; Adam’s eyes fixed on my six inch heels, and Mark’s eyes just got wider. Cam and Drew immediately started a conversation between the two of them that included a lot of eye contact. I figured it was because they were Braden’s relatives and likely assumed that they were in the most possible danger if caught ogling, so they were taking precautionary measures.
“Hey guys,” I said with a smile. Braden continued to stare openly but the other guys quickly snapped out of it and looked curiously at him. Were they waiting for him to do something? What did they expect, that he would throw me down on the carpet and share our love with the crowd? When he didn’t appear to be doing much of anything, they just looked anywhere but at me.
“Hi, Gabrielle,” Cam said, talking to the ceiling. There was a chorus of ‘Hi, Gabrielle’s’ addressed to various locations around the room. Braden seemed a little stunned.
“I don’t think we should stay much longer,” he said, sounding very distracted. His eyes dropped to my body and his gaze slowly traveled back and forth from my boobs to my six inch heels. Several hundred times. He looked like he had just seen a miracle performed. What, did I normally look like a bag lady or something?
“We just got here,” I reminded him. “Jess and Lily aren’t even out of the bathroom yet.”
“Right,” he mumbled. Just then I heard someone call out to him.
“Braden! Where the hell have you been?” Two tall, well-dressed, exceptionally good-looking guys who were leaving the lounge came sauntering over. They had an air of wealth and good breeding about them, just like he did. When they noticed me, they stopped in their tracks. They both checked me out, but a bit more subtly than Braden, who was still checking me out.
“Well, hello,” said the blonde guy who had called out. The look he was giving me practically screamed ‘player’. I figured there would be a line coming momentarily.
“Girlfriend!” Cam suddenly exclaimed, sounding like he was shouting, ‘abandon ship!’
“This is your girlfriend, Cam?” the other guy, who had dark hair, asked.
“Mine? No! She’s just my friend! I swear!” The two newcomers looked understandably confused. Cam collected himself and went on. “She’s Braden’s girlfriend!”
“Ah!” blonde guy said, and they both nodded politely as if that explained Cam’s little outburst. “Wait, his girlfriend?” he asked dubiously looking at Braden for confirmation. Normally, this would have been the point where Braden would have come over to drape a possessive arm around me but he was still busy making the visual journey up and down my body. I think that he might have been experiencing some kind of fugue state.
“Gabrielle, this is Kurt van Ryland and Kevin Bryce. We grew up together,” Braden said still sounding very distracted.
“Evan. Evan Bryce,” said dark haired guy who Braden had grown up with, but whose name he apparently didn’t know, while reaching out to shake my hand. “We also went to college together.”
“Yeah, they went to Howard,” Braden mumbled.
“Harvard,” Kurt corrected with a smile as he shook my hand.
“Gabrielle went to Yale,” Cam put in. “That’s where we became friends. Just friends!”
Kurt and Evan were looking at Braden and Cam like they thought that maybe they were high or something. Drew decided to help out at this point. So, of course, things just went downhill from there.
“Kurt, Ev, this is Gabrielle Ginsberg, who’s Braden’s actual girlfriend. She’s like the only woman he’s sleeping with now. And Cameron’s not sleeping with her at all anymore.” Well, I was glad he had cleared that up. I saw Cameron look up at the ceiling. He may have been praying. Luckily, Braden still wasn’t really completely with us.
“Any relation to Ruth Bader Ginsburg?” Evan asked, tactfully avoiding Drew’s little revelation. Kurt was looking back and forth between Braden and Cam with what looked like confused amusement.
“Uh, no, sorry. Just Ben and Judy Ginsberg,” I said with a smile.
“Not Ben Ginsberg, the CEO of Marlton Radcliff?” Kurt asked, suddenly turning his attention back to me and looking very intrigued.
“Yeah, he’s my dad,” I answered and I saw Kurt and Evan share a surprised look. Then they looked at Braden like he had just become their new hero.
“Uh, wow. It’s nice to meet you!” Evan said with what sounded like suppressed excitement. “We read about that PoliCon case in the Wall Street Journal. Your dad’s really a brilliant man.”
“Yeah, we’re both admirers!” Kurt explained. “I work in finance myself and Evan is a legislative aid. That case is going to lead to some interesting business reform in New York.”
“What case was that?” Mark asked.
“PoliCon,” Kurt explained. “Marlton Radcliff was considering a buyout and when the CEO, Ben Ginsberg, took a good look at everything he figured out that the company had been involved in an incredibly complex money laundering scheme. The whole business was a front for illegal activity and nobody knew.”
“He tipped off the authorities and now he’s helping them to create some new regulations and legislation to make sure nobody else can ever do something like that again,” Evan added. “It’s really groundbreaking stuff.”
“Uh oh, we were supposed to meet friends of ours ten minutes ago,” Kurt said, looking at his watch. “I guess we had better run. It was a pleasure meeting you, Gabrielle, everyone. Nice seeing you guys, especially out together.”