“No matter,” Gray interrupted. “I’d like to continue with my dinner plans as soon as possible.”
Sophie rolled her eyes at the sheer injustice of it all. It figured that the world’s biggest jerk was apparently some sort of VIP.
“Very good, sir,” Mr. Clinksy said. The man was practically bowing. “Mr. Wyatt, of course, your dinner will be on the hotel after this harrowing experience. We don’t know what happened, but rest assured we have every possible technician looking into what affected your elevator…”
Gray shot him a cold look, and the manager stopped his ass-kissing abruptly. Silver eyes shifted to Sophie, and for the briefest moment she thought she saw something slightly human. Regret? An apology? Pity?
Oh God, please don’t let it be pity.
He held her gaze for a moment before nodding his head slightly in the barest form of acknowledgment. And then he walked away.
Without a word.
Without an apology.
Without giving her a chance to explain that she was not who he thought she was. Or what he thought she was.
She waited for him to look back. Waited for him to realize that at the very least, some verbal acknowledgment of their minicatastrophe was required. But he kept walking.
A gorgeous shithead in a beautiful suit.
“Will you be joining Mr. Wyatt tonight?”
It took Sophie a moment to realize that the ingratiating Mr. Clinksy was talking to her.
“Oh! No. Definitely not. We’re not together.” Not even if he paid me. “Just two strangers stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Ah, I see.” Was it her imagination, or did the hotel manager look slightly disdainful? The skimpy attire that had seemed like a good-natured joke in her hotel room now felt horribly demeaning. She longed for a sweatshirt.
“Well, I’m very sorry about all this, Ms.…”
“Dalton,” she responded with a faint smile. “Sophie Dalton.”
“Are you a guest here? If there’s anything we can do…”
Ten minutes later, Sophie had a handful of complimentary drink vouchers in her clutch, but her pride was hanging on by a thread. As she numbly wandered toward the bar, she had the oddest sense that something extraordinary had just happened. Something beyond getting stuck in an elevator.
Sophie was no stranger to embarrassing herself. Hell, for that matter, she was no stranger to embarrassing others. Just ask her family.
But Sophie had always been in charge of those perceptions. Always decided the when and the where of her impropriety.
Until now.
After years of carefully selected choices on the path of mediocrity, a stranger had just succeeded where her friends and family had failed.
Sophie had just been introduced to rock bottom.
And this time, she hadn’t even been looking for it.
CHAPTER THREE
Two weeks later, Sophie was in an entirely different sort of hell. One commonly known as “dinner with the parents.”
“William, stop eating all the shrimp. They’re for the salad,” Sophie’s mom said, slapping at the hand of her favorite dinner guest.
Sophie raised an eyebrow at the uncharacteristic behavior. Not that Marnie Dalton wasn’t the type to slap hands. She totally was. Sophie’s career-focused, take-no-prisoners, cloth-napkins-only mother ran her home with the rigid precision of Fort Knox.
But Marnie usually made an exception for Will. Hell, all women made exceptions for William Thatcher III. It was sort of nauseating, but Sophie had gotten tired of dry-heaving over her best friend’s manipulation of the female population somewhere around college. After all, it really wasn’t his fault that all women turned to simpering puddles of swoon around him.
All women except for Sophie.
Sophie’s mother scurried out of the kitchen, muttering something about crass fingerprints on the napkin rings.
“What’s up with your mom? She’s high-strung tonight,” Will said, busying himself once again with the shrimp.
“Just tonight?” Sophie asked with a snort.
“You know what I mean. More than usual,” he corrected, snagging another shrimp.
Sophie shrugged. She’d stopped trying to figure out what made her mother tick. Other than lecturing her daughters and spying on the neighbors, of course.
“Have you told your parents you quit your job yet?” Will asked as he tossed a shrimp tail in the garbage disposal.
Sophie winced. “Eh…not exactly.”
Will shook his head and reached for the croutons. “Well, warn me before you do so I can clear out. Having an unemployed daughter in the house is going to go over about as well as a zit before prom.”
Sophie made a grab for the wine bottle and topped off her glass. “Best friends are supposed to be encouraging.”
“They’re also supposed to be honest,” Will replied. “But if you need a little ‘bright side,’ how about this: your parents are going to be thrilled that you’re not serving up Irish car bombs at Stump’s anymore. Once they get over the whole lack of health insurance and 401(k), that is. Oh wait, you never had either of those in the first place.”