3. Stephanie
STEPHANIE
“Stephanie Vincent, you say?” The man at the door consulted his list and frowned. “I don’t see that name here. Are you sure you’re supposed to be on the list?”
“Well, not exactly.” Stephanie twinkled. “What I mean is, I should have been included on the list, but I know that I wasn’t. It was an oversight.” She laughed. “These event organizers just have so much to do. I can understand how it happens, but I know it must make your job harder.”
The man eyed her skeptically.
She reached out and rested a hand on his arm.
“I don’t want to make more work for you,” she said.
“And I’m not going to be any trouble. I won’t even stay long.
I really just need to put in an appearance, or my boss will be furious with me.
You know how that is. They never understand that little oversights like this aren’t your fault.
I’ll be hearing for weeks about how I was supposed to be making connections tonight and I failed to do it. ”
The man sighed. “I don’t know,” he said. “I’d like to help you out, Ms. Vincent, but my job is on the line here too.”
“What’s your name?”
“Clive.”
“I won’t tell anyone I saw you, Clive,” she promised. “If anyone questions me, I’ll say I came in the other door.”
He cocked his head to the side. “You know, the guy at that door is a little arrogant. I guess I wouldn’t mind if he caught some heat.”
“No one will catch any heat,” she said. “Everyone is going to be apologetic when they realize their mistake. But if anyone does get in trouble, I promise you I’ll make sure it goes his way.”
“His name is Graham,” Clive said, winking at her and stepping back to let her in. “You have fun now, Ms. Vincent. Don’t make me regret this.”
“Promise,” Stephanie agreed, and stepped through the door and into the party.
The atmosphere was lush and opulent. These people were being honored for business decisions they’d made, but they were very clearly the kind of people who had started life halfway up the ladder to success.
Stephanie was wearing the nicest dress she owned, a black sparkly number that had cost her two months’ earnings, but she still felt underdressed.
A server walked by with a tray of champagne flutes. Stephanie snagged one and swallowed half of it in a single gulp. This was going to be a tough night, and she needed to be loose and relaxed if she was going to face it.
All right. Enough wasting time. You came here for a reason. You wanted to mingle with these people, get your name out there. Do it.
She looked around the room, spotted an ongoing conversation, and ambled up to join it.
The participants were three men she had never encountered before in her life, and they were talking animatedly. Stephanie edged her way into the group. “What’s all the excitement, boys?” she asked, grinning at them, thankful for the fact that men were almost always so easy to charm.
And, indeed, the three of them stopped what they were doing and looked in her direction.
One of them didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was checking her out, looking her up and down as if sampling a meal.
Stephanie tucked her arms behind her back to better accentuate her figure and smiled her most winning smile at them.
“And who are you?” one of the men asked, returning her smile.
“Stephanie Vincent,” she said. “I’m the founder and CEO of SilkSoft Skincare.”
“I’ve never heard of that,” the man said, but it wasn’t dismissive. There was a note of interest in his voice. He was probably only interested because he thought she was hot, but Stephanie would take that. It was a place to start.
“We’re an up-and-coming skincare line,” she told him.
“Are you accepting an award today?”
She gave a self-effacing laugh. “No, no,” she said.
“I wasn’t nominated for anything. Not this year.
But when I received the invitation, I wanted to come just the same, to spend time with the most successful people in San Valentino.
After all, the people at this event are the people I want to be like someday, when I really hit my stride! ”
“Well, stick with us,” said the man who had been looking her over. “We’ll show you the ropes. I’m Greg, by the way. This is Harry and Nate.”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
“We were just talking about the way tables are assigned at these things, and how the same people always end up seated together.”
“Do they?” Stephanie asked.
“Yes,” Greg said. “For instance, I bet you were assigned to a table way in the back, right? Probably some number in the twenties.”
“Twenty-three,” Stephanie lied.
“Right,” Greg said. “That’s where they’ll stick all the people they don’t know.
The first-timers, anyone who hasn’t made a mark yet.
And then tables one and two are going to be full of the most influential people.
You’d think they’d mix it up a bit, let people who haven’t gotten their name out there get to know those who have.
That’s what you’d like, I’d bet… the chance to spend time with some people who can help you advance yourself. Am I right?”
Stephanie hummed noncommittally, filing away the information he had given her. So the most influential and important people were going to be at tables one and two. That was good to know.
She spent the next hour circulating, shaking hands, sharing a few details here and there about her company and getting to know those of the people around her.
She met restaurateurs, microbrewers, and app designers—more app designers than she had ever seen in one room at the same time.
She hadn’t known there were this many apps in the world.
And here she’d thought the skincare market was oversaturated. She hadn’t known the half of it! Thank God she wasn’t trying to market an app, that was all.
Eventually, people started moving toward the dinner tables, drinks still in their hands. Stephanie bit her lip and lingered at the open bar for a moment, making up her mind.
“Here you are, ma’am.” The bartender pushed her scotch and soda across the counter toward her.
Stephanie nodded her thanks and made her decision. She had come here for a reason. If she wasted an opportunity—any opportunity—she would be failing herself. She took the drink and walked over to table number two.
Luck was on her side. There was an empty seat there.
She sank into it, grabbing the place card on the napkin and balling it up in her fist without looking at it.
It wouldn’t have her name, but whoever was supposed to be sitting here was obviously somewhere else.
Maybe she wasn’t the only person who had decided to get creative with their dinner seating.
Then again, maybe whoever it is will show up any minute and order me to move.
Well, she might as well make the most of this while she was here. She smiled around at her tablemates. “Evening,” she said. “This is a great party, isn't it?”
A couple of them stared at her, clearly mystified. But the man sitting next to her returned her smile.
“Hell of a party,” he said. “But you’re not Oliver Norcross.”
Her stomach hollowed out. No way. Was that whose seat she was in?
She forced a laugh. “You got me,” she admitted, trying to make it seem as if the whole thing was funny. “How could you tell?”
“He’s taller than you are.” The guy smiled, though. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anybody. He’s over at table one, schmoozing. I think he pulled up a chair with them, actually, and I’m sure he’ll just tell the servers to bring him a plate there. They’ll do it, too. He gets whatever he wants.”
“You know him pretty well,” Stephanie realized.
“Well, sure. I should,” the guy said, and now his smile was almost a grimace. “He’s my father.” He held out a hand. “Elijah Norcross.”
“Oh, God.”
“Don’t worry,” Elijah Norcross grinned at her. “I’d rather sit next to a cute girl than my father anyway. Truth is, he kind of dragged me here tonight. But I wouldn’t have put up such a fuss if I had known I was going to meet you. I’m sorry, I haven’t gotten your name yet.”
“Stephanie,” she said. She thought about offering her last name, but then decided against it. On the off chance Oliver Norcross didn’t see her here, she didn’t want to bring to his attention that the woman he’d met with earlier today was now sneaking into parties she hadn’t been invited to.
She regarded Elijah Norcross instead. He was an attractive guy, in an old-money way—a muscular physique that he inhabited as naturally as if he had been born with it, well-conditioned hair that had obviously benefited from an expensive cut but hadn’t been tended to in a little while.
If she hadn’t known who his father was, she probably would have been flirting.
Well, and why should that stop me? Oliver Norcross already turned me down for the loan I wanted. It’s not like he’s going to reconsider now, just because I held off on flirting with his son. I might as well loosen up and have a little fun while I’m here.
One thing she felt sure of was that Elijah Norcross wasn’t going to be able to help her progress in her ambitions.
That much was clear just from the way he spoke.
He wasn’t here because he was successful in his own right.
He was here to support his father—and then only because his father had forced him to be here.
He had no interest in business on his own, and no success to speak of.
But that was all right. Not every interaction needed to be all about how a person could help her. Some people could just be a good time. And Elijah Norcross was, bar none, the most attractive man at this party.
“Are you sure it’ll be all right if I sit here?” she asked. “I wasn’t trying to take your father’s seat. It looked empty, and I didn’t want to try to see everything from the very back of the room.”
“No, it’s fine,” Elijah said. “I appreciate the hustle, to be honest. Everyone else here takes everything so seriously. It’s nice to meet someone else who’s able to be a little relaxed about the formalities.”
Stephanie nodded and settled in.
“That dress is gorgeous, by the way,” he added, making a point to take it in.
Oh, very smooth. Now he was checking her out, just as Greg had done, but because he hadn’t led with that and because he had paid her a compliment about her dress, it seemed so much classier.
Even though she understood what he was doing, she found that she didn’t mind. She actually enjoyed it a little.
Dinner was served. Elijah had a steak, and she herself had been given a fillet of salmon. “It’s what my father ordered,” Elijah explained. “It’s better for his heart. But did you want steak? We can share if you like.”
She looked at him. “Are you sure that’s all right? It’s an awfully nice offer, considering we don’t know each other.”
“It’s what I’d want someone to do if I was in your shoes,” he said. “Go on, I want to try the fish.”
So she cut it in half and slid a portion of it onto Elijah’s plate, then held her own plate out to receive the share of steak he was giving her. “There we go,” he said, flashing her a look at his perfect, even teeth. “Surf and turf.”
Stephanie laughed. “Not bad if you can get it.”
“No, it isn’t,” he agreed, and began to dig in.
She watched him for a moment, then turned her attention to her own food, reflecting that even if nothing at all came out of this stolen evening, at least she had gotten some good from it. At least she’d had the chance to eat a delicious meal and speak to a handsome, interesting man.
And that’s better than I would have gotten if I had just stayed home. So no matter what else happens from here, coming out tonight was the right choice.