“Whatever,” Renée cried.
Trihn stepped into a shower stall, peeled off her sweat-soaked tights and leotard, and stuffed them into an empty side pocket of her bag. She turned on the water and hurried under the spray when it was steaming hot. Her hair was still tightly held in its bun. She wouldn’t have time to blow it out before meeting her friends. After washing off the hours of practice, Trihn dried off and changed into a pair of tight leather booty shorts and a low-cut V-neck tank before slipping into her favorite pair of heels.
When she stepped back out, Renée just shook her head. “There’s my hooker. Are you man-hunting tonight?”
“Yeah, right. You know me.”
“Reconsider it. You look hot and could have any guy you wanted.”
Trihn shrugged. “Maybe,” she said, giving the same answer she had given Lydia.
When they had gone out last weekend, Lydia had ended up making out with two different male models who were out with them. Trihn had left empty-handed—again.
They hurried down the three flights of stairs and into the marble-tiled entryway. The revolving door was already locked tight for the night, and all but one light had been left on. The rest of the girls had left the building as soon as they could. Some of the management was still upstairs, but otherwise, it was dead.
“Do you want me to walk with you?” Renée asked.
“No. Don’t worry about me. I’ll catch a cab. Get home to your mom.”
“I’m not looking forward to telling her about the shoes,” she said softly.
Trihn grabbed her hand and stopped her before they exited. “I’ll cover it if I have to. It’s only one more week.”
“Thanks, Trihn.”
“What are friends for?”
They stepped out of the building and onto the brightly lit street. Even at eleven at night, people were still strolling the streets, and the sight made Trihn smile. She would never get tired of watching the way her city operated. It was home.
Trihn threw her hand out, and a cab pulled up to the curb. “You take this one,” Trihn told her. She opened the back door and pushed her best friend toward it.
“No! You take it. You have to meet people!”
“I’ll make it. You have farther to go.”
Renée sighed. She could see that she was going to lose the argument, and the cab would leave them if one of them didn’t get in. “Okay, but be careful.”
“I always am,” Trihn said.
She kissed Renée on the cheek, and then after she climbed into the backseat, Trihn shut the door behind her. The car drove off, and she searched for the next cab.
“How’s the shoulder?”
Trihn whirled around in a panic. Her stomach leaped up into her throat. “Jesus!” she cried when she saw who it was. “Don’t sneak up on people like that.”
Preston smiled and held up his hands. “Sorry about that. Can’t seem to get my footing with you.”
“How the hell did you even know I would be here?” she asked suspiciously.
It was kind of creepy, having him show up outside the studio at the exact time that she had finished with dance. How did he even know that I dance here? It was probably about time to get into a cab or else she wouldn’t be heeding Renée’s advice to be careful.
She hedged backward a step.
“I saw your dance bag that day we ran into each other. I was in the neighborhood and thought I would just swing by,” he clarified.
“At eleven o’clock at night?”
“Okay,” he said with a nervous laugh. “You caught me. I actually asked around to see when your class would end, so I could surprise you.”
“You have my phone number. Why didn’t you just call?”
“Can’t a guy surprise a girl anymore?”
Trihn raised her eyebrows. “Probably not at eleven at night after staking out her studio.”
He ran a hand back through his messy blond hair and looked at his feet. This wasn’t going at all the way he had planned it. She figured he had wanted to surprise her and have her think it was cute. And while she couldn’t deny that her heart was beating wildly in her chest at the thought that he had stood out here, waiting just for her, she wasn’t an idiot and didn’t want to end up on a Missing Person poster.
“All right. My bad. I guess…I’ll just head out. I didn’t mean to freak you out,” he apologized.
He shoved his hands down into the pockets of his dark jeans, bunching his black T-shirt up around his muscles and drawing her eyes to his body. He looked back up at her then with those sexy blue eyes, and her stomach dropped out of her body.
“Wait,” she said before he could walk away. “I was just surprised. Why did you really show up anyway?”
“I wanted to check on your shoulder,” he offered.
She rolled it twice. “It was a minor thing. Went away before dance last week.”
“Oh. Oh, okay. Good.”
He smiled again like he might just leave it at that, and in that moment, she decided that she couldn’t let it end. He was undeniably attractive. He had sought her out at dance. There was no way she was just going to let him walk away again. She had been kicking herself for letting it happen in the first place.
“You have plans?” she asked.
“Have something in mind?” He took a step closer to her.
Her body heated at his nearness. Dear God, he was going to be the death of her.
“I’m meeting some friends. You could join…if you wanted,” she offered.
“What am I in for?”
She shrugged, all nonchalant. “Just a regular night in New York City.”
He laughed, and it was beautifully effortless. “This should be interesting.”
IT WAS NOT A NORMAL NIGHT IN THE CITY.
It never was when she had friends in town.
And it definitely was not going to be a normal night with Preston seated next to her in the cab on their way to the Meatpacking District.
She couldn’t keep from stealing glances at him. Mostly, it was because she couldn’t figure out how she had gotten up the nerve to invite him along. She never brought guys to these kinds of events. Plenty of other models would bring dates, but that just wasn’t her. But these were her people, and the only other people she wanted associating with them were family and friends, like Lydia and Renée.
Yet she was about to throw Preston into the middle of this. What the hell am I doing?
The cab stopped at the corner of a large brick building, and before she could do anything, Preston paid for the trip.
“Thank you,” she said as she got out of the car.
“Don’t worry about it.” His smile was genuine when he exited behind her. “Are you going to tell me what I’m walking into?”
“I have some friends in town. They’re throwing a little…party.” She cocked her head to the side and tried not to smile too broadly.
“A house party?” he asked dubiously.
“More like a…work party,” she confided. She opened a heavy metal door. “Coming?”
He followed along, clearly intrigued. “And where do you work? The studio?”
She shook her head. “No, I just dance at the studio. I don’t work anywhere right now. I kind of quit.”
“And you still decided to come to the party?” His eyes widened in disbelief.
“It was an amicable break.”
In truth, it was only sort of amicable. She had quit modeling because she was going to college. She had always seen school as a priority as a forward-thinking woman who wanted to make a splash in the world and prove her worth.
He laughed. “Publishing is not like that.”
“You work in publishing?” she asked as they started up the rickety old stairs that creaked under their steps, bringing a smile to her face.