The VIP Room(111)

"Lauren, I see the band has begun. Would you like to dance?"

Lauren took a long sip of her wine. She looked up at Cade and smiled. "Yes, I would."

Cade helped her out of her chair and Derek once more watched helplessly as they walked off to the dance floor. I should have walked to the bar with Cade and told him straight out that Lauren is my girl instead of trying to steal her away while he was gone. He stared stonily at the couple on the dance floor, when he felt a tug at his arm.

"Come on, Derek, dance with me." Carly was practically dragging him toward the dance floor.

Derek let himself be pulled along. Once on the dance floor, he quickly led Carly over to his brother and Lauren and tapped Cade on the shoulder. "How about giving me a chance to get to know Lauren, too?"

The song ended and the bandleader asked everyone to return to their tables for the appetizer.

Cade snickered. "Tough luck, Derek. The music has stopped." He led Lauren back to the table, his hand on the small of her back.

It took all the control Derek could muster not to go over and punch his brother out cold.



* * *



Lauren continued to refuse to make eye contact with Derek, although she felt his angry glare from across the table. She was half listening to Cade, who droned on about his business and who he knew.

Lauren drank quickly in an attempt to get over her anger and hurt. Not only did Derek lie about where he'd be tonight, he was involved with Carly after all. And if he or his brother were here for membership, they had to be worth millions.

Suddenly Cade's voice broke off, and she realized he was waiting for her to say something.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't quite hear what you said. Could you repeat it?"

"Where did you go to school, Lauren?"

"I went to Stanford for both my undergrad and Masters degrees," she said.

She was bored with Cade. He certainly was good looking enough and well built, although not as tall or broad as Derek. He was like the rest of the simpering fools who pretended interest in her so they could advance their careers with her father or hook up with her in hopes of getting their hands on her money. He clearly didn't need her money, so it must be her father he was after.

She smiled and nodded at his light conversation, trying to decide how she could screw things up for these brothers. New members, indeed! She should write letters to the review committee and tell them to be more selective.

Her eyes drifted across the table. She wanted to look at Derek while she decided how to humiliate him for what he did to her. His seat was empty, as was Carly's.

Lauren sighed when she realized her motivation was jealousy and revenge. It wasn't worth it to cause a scene. She'd embarrass her parents. And her father--no small man himself--would come after Derek if he knew how he'd broken her heart.

She turned back to Cade who was still going on and on about something that didn't interest her.

"I'm sorry," she interrupted him. "But, a little earlier, before I met Carly, I was feeling ill and thinking about going home. I thought I might feel better after eating something, but it hasn't helped. Please excuse me, I'm going home now."

Cade stood up and held her chair. "Let me walk you out and wait with you while they bring your car around. Are you sure you're all right to drive?"

She shook her head. "I came with my parents. If you don't mind, I'll have my father call me a cab."

She hurried away before Cade could say anything else, hoping not to run into Derek or Carly on the way out.





Chapter 5





Lauren paid the driver with the twenty dollars her father slipped her before putting her in the cab. He had wanted to drive her home, but she convinced him to stay for her mother.

Once inside the house, she tossed off her shoes and stripped naked, leaving her clothes in a pile at the door. She headed directly to the wine rack and pulled out a vintage bottle of wine that she had received as a housewarming gift. She'd been saving it for a special occasion and planned to share it with Derek.

"Ha, so much for that little romantic notion," she said and laughed wildly. She unceremoniously uncorked the bottle of vino worth several hundred dollars and quickly drank a glassful and poured another. She hadn't eaten much at the dinner and begun to feel woozy. She grabbed the bottle in one hand and her glass in the other and headed into the kitchen to see what she could find in the refrigerator. She intended to keep drinking and knew she had to eat something or she'd be sick.

Lauren sat on the stool at the breakfast bar and looked out her kitchen window while drinking her wine and picking on some cold leftover spaghetti.

"Oh, God," she slurred. "Every stinking plant out there is going to remind of him. I hate those pretty little flowers, all cute and perky--like Carly."

She stumbled over to the closet in the hallway off the kitchen that housed her washer and dryer. She reached into the dryer and pulled the contents onto the floor until she found a pair of shorts and an old tee shirt. She pulled the clothes on over her bare bottom and breasts and wobbled out to the backyard with a huge garbage bag.

Lauren started to pull the plants out one by one, trying to stuff them in the garbage bag, but at least half missed the opening and fell back down to where they had been planted. The ground was wet from all the watering she'd been doing, and she got sidetracked by the mud squeezing up through her toes.