Find Me Alastar(86)

“Oh, epic. Cool. You probably should shag someone, then.” I widen my eyes in disgust.

He smirks and nods as his eyes scan ahead of us. “I could not agree with you more.”

“You can pay for my cab, though, if you do,” I mutter as he grabs my elbow and leads me toward the music.

“Deal.”

We walk out to the back garden and I stop dead in my tracks. Oh shit. This is a bit more than I expected. There are around one hundred and fifty beautiful people all gathered around. The sound of laughter and chatter can be heard everywhere, and a violin player is down below on the grassed area. A huge pool sits in the center, and the back yard is terraced into different levels with a large stone staircase down the center to each level. It’s about 4pm and the sun is just starting to disappear behind the trees. The bottom level has a marquee set with the tables and chairs for the soon-to-be-served dinner. Huge trees line the large entertaining area, and I have to stop my mouth from dropping open.

“What shall we do?” James smiles excitedly.

I frown as I look around at all the people. “To be honest, I kind of want to go home.”

“No.” He drags me toward the stairs. “Let’s go find our seat at the table and have a drink. You are not wrecking this night for me. We are going to have fun.” He smiles excitedly.

“I guess.” I sigh.

We walk down to the marquee to find waiters circling the room with glasses of champagne, and a doorman with a seating schedule at the entry. We walk over to him.

“Hello.” He smiles.

“James Williams and Emerson Mathews.”

He goes through his list and James glances at me. We are so not going to be on this list. This could be embarrassing.

“Ah, yes, table twenty-one.”

“Thank you.” I smile gratefully and we make our way to the back.

“Oh, man. We are on the shit table,” James whispers, annoyed.

I smirk. “What did you expect? We don’t know a soul here. We are the losers, here by default.”

“Speak for yourself. One of these society girls will be my bitch tonight,” he murmurs as he takes two champagnes from a passing tray.

I smirk as I take mine from him. “I kind of think you will be the bitch in the equation, to be honest.”

He raises his eyebrows and smiles cheekily as he looks around. “That will work, too.”

We sit at the table and people watch for a while as the sun continues to set. Large fire lanterns are now being lit around the perimeter.

“This is ridiculous wealth, right?”

“I know,” James mutters. “Come on, let’s go check it out. We are being unsocial.”

We stand and make our way back out of the marquee and head up the stairs to level two. A cocktail bar is situated front and center, and waitresses are walking around with trays of appetizers. I take a lobster ball. “Even the snacks are flash.” I smile as I eat it in one go.

We stand for a few moments when two guys walk over. One is tall with dark hair. The other is blonde and really short. “Hello.” They smile.

“Hi,” we reply.

“This is a great turn out, isn’t it?” The blonde man says.

“Yes, fantastic,” James replies, excited that someone wants to talk to us.

They start to talk while I glance around at our opulent surroundings. This really is something else. I’m on my fourth champagne when the tinkering of the dinner bell sounds and everyone starts to make their way back down to the bottom level to the marquee. James has been talking to these two men for about an hour now. He is being so pathetically nice I may puke any moment. Instead, I have remained relatively silent. Honestly, I just don’t have it in me to even make the effort to talk to men at the moment. We take our seat in the packed dining area and introduce ourselves to everyone we are among. They all seem nice enough, and we enjoy our beautiful meal.

Dessert is just being served and the table is in conversation when a good-looking older guy gets up on stage. The crowd all clap loudly. I glance over to see James is smiling broadly while clapping.

I tap him on the leg and he frowns at me in question.

“Aren’t you supposed to be taking photos and stuff?” I whisper.

His eyes widen. “Shit, yes. I forgot I’m working.”

I giggle. “You’re an idiot. How could you forget?”

He shuffles around and retrieves his camera from his bag before he stands and walks closer to the stage.

The elderly good-looking man holds his hands up and everyone laughs. I don’t know who he is, but everyone else seems to. He’s clearly very popular. I smile into my champagne glass.

“Thank you everyone for coming tonight. Welcome to the annual sixth Art Collaboration Fundraiser. To date this team has raised thirteen million pounds” He smiles broadly and the crowd all cheer and whistle.

Wow, that’s impressive. They must work hard. The waitress places a piece of cheesecake in front of me, and a huge slice of mud cake in front of James. I smile and immediately swap them over so I have the chocolate cake.

He holds his hand out to the side. “May I present our committee?”

Everyone claps loudly.

I shovel my first mouthful of chocolate cake into my mouth as I look up to see the team of six walk onto the stage.

The blood drains from my face.