Accidentally Yours (8 page)

“Okay, Vivling, tell me all about it,” he said when they were well away from the bar and approaching the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the gardens.

She glanced to her left, where the arm that had just been next to hers was now around her shoulder. It had been such a smooth movement she hadn
’t noticed it until after the deed was done.

“
I thought your specialty was emergency medicine. You’re behaving more like a psychiatrist.” She didn’t bother to tell him again not to call her Vivling; something told her it would be no use.

“
If there was a couch here I’d suggest you lie down.” He looked embarrassed at the cynical look on her face. “Oops. Freudian slip. Or just foot-in-mouth.”

Her smile was mischievous.
“You do that a lot, don’t you?”

“
With you I seem to. I’m not sure why.”

“
Why don’t we sit for a few minutes?” She took advantage of the opportunity when her back was turned and treated herself to an ear-to-ear smile. Zack had seemed so vulnerable just now, like a thirteen-year-old with a crush on a classmate.

T
wo vacant chairs flanked a small glass table between the windows, and they took those. “You look real good,” he said.

“
You’re trying hard to say something nice, aren’t you?”

“
What? That wasn’t nice?”

She laughed, already feeling more relaxed.
“It was very nice. Thank you.” Then she saw Glenda and waved. She wore a cream-colored silk jacquard dress, her natural hair crinkled and pinned at the crown of her head. “Oh, shucks. She doesn’t see me.” She hated to leave Zack when things were going so well, but to continue to sit with him wasn’t fair to Glenda.

“
Will you excuse me? The friend I’m meeting is here.”

“
Sure. I’ll catch you later.”

Zack watched as she walked away from him.
On the two previous occasions he’d seen her she looked cute and sexy. Tonight she was elegant and sexy. His instincts had been right. She made every other woman present look ordinary. He wanted to ask her to dance, but not to the finger- snapping kind of music they were playing now. He would wait until they played something slow and dreamy, where he could hold her in his arms.

Vivian and Glenda were both asked to dance at the start of the very next song the deejay played. From that time on they seldom had time to sit
. After an hour Vivian began to develop a thirst. She was about to go to the bar for a plain grapefruit juice when another man approached her. “Would you like to dance?”

“
Sure,” she said, deciding the bar would still be there when she was ready for it.

They joined the other dancers in the center of the room. His movements struck her as being on
the stiff side, but he was kind of cute, tall with curly black hair, a goatee, and glasses.

The deejay played a succession of some of her favorite songs, but after the third Vivian found she was getting sluggish and gestured to her partner that she wished to stop.

He escorted her off the dance floor and thanked her. “May I buy you a drink?”

She hesitated. This
situation could be tricky. It was a nice gesture, but a lot of men felt that the purchase of a single drink for a woman entitled them to monopolize her company for the rest of the evening. She wouldn’t be willing to exchange her freedom for the price of a Remy Martin, much less a simple grapefruit juice. Still, he seemed like a nice enough fellow, and she wouldn’t mind talking with him, at least for a little while. If he didn’t seem willing to let her go, she would manage to tactfully get away. “Thank you, yes.”

They walked over to the bar.

“What would you like?”

“
Just grapefruit juice, please.”

He gave the order to the bartender, requesting a rum and coke for himself, then introduced himself as Bernard Williams. In turn she gave her name, and they carried their drinks to the reception area where it was quiet enough to talk. Vivian learned he was a stockbroker for a major firm in the Financial District and that he lived in Riverdale. In return, she shared with him the same basic information about herself: where she lived and what she did.

She glanced at her watch. She had been talking with Bernard for forty-five minutes, and she was beginning to feel a little restless. But when the deejay slowed his pace Bernard stood and held out his hand, and she took it.

The crowd on the dance floor typically thinned out when the slow jams were played.
Vivian never could figure out the reason for this. Maybe the fellows just didn’t feel like getting that close to anyone. As she stepped into Bernard’s arms, she wondered where Zack was. A glance around at the other couples on the floor did not reveal that he was among them, and in that red jacket he would be easy to spot. Wherever he was, she hoped he saw her with Bernard, who, while not the best-looking man in the place—that honor would ultimately go to Zack—was no slouch in the looks department. He looked every inch the successful businessman in a navy blue suit that seemed perfectly tailored to his tall, thin body. If there was anything that irked her more than seeing women incorporate those dyed fabric shoes—obviously left over from days of serving as a bridesmaid—into their everyday wardrobes, it was a man whose clothes didn’t fit properly.

Zack was standing with a number of other men near the door. He stood slightly behind them so that Vivian would not be able to see him. If she didn
’t see him, she wouldn’t know that he knew she was in the arms of another man. He had received compliments on his ensemble from men and women alike, but now he felt like his red blazer stood out like a fire engine among a group of black limousines.

He had felt a sensuous light flickering between them when they talked earlier. It was like there was no one else in the building but the two
of them…until she had spotted her friend, and then the magic moment passed.

He
’d danced and socialized since then, but all the while kept an eye on where Vivian was and who she was with. Some undernourished-looking dude had latched on to her, and, from the looks of it, wasn’t ready to let go.

“
Hi!”

He turned his head in a lackadaisical manner. He was getting tired of bold females approaching him.

But it wasn’t another brazen husband-hunter who stood before him; it was Vivian’s girlfriend, the one who had been with her at the hospital and whose name he couldn’t remember. “Hello. You’re Vivian’s friend, aren’t you?” He hoped she would furnish her name.

“
Yes. Glenda.” She grinned. “How’ve you been, Doc?”

“
I’m well. Call me Zack.”

“
I understand you were on the ski trip.”

“
You were there, too?”

“
Yes. I’m not an experienced skier like you and Viv. That’s why you didn’t see me. I was with the novices who had to take a lesson on a little baby slope.”

He nodded.
“One lesson makes it hard to get into, unless you’re there for a few days and have the time to really get into it.”

“
I guess that explains why I didn’t care for it much.” Glenda scanned the couples dancing. “Oh, there’s Viv. I was wondering where she was.” She turned to Zack. “I’m afraid she might be trapped.”

“
What do you mean, trapped?”

“
I think she might be having trouble shaking this guy she’s talking to. She signaled to me a few minutes ago, just before they started dancing. After they finish I’ll make an excuse to go and get her. We do this type of thing for each other all the time.” She patted his upper arm. “I just wanted to say hello. See you later.”

“
Good seeing you, Glenda.” Zack looked at Vivian again. She appeared to be enjoying herself, but he wasn’t fazed. Glenda had just provided him with valuable information, and he had news for her. He would be the one to get Vivian away from her dance partner. Maybe it wasn’t in the same league as rescuing her from a burning building, but he was sure she would be grateful just the same.

He walked over to where Vivian and the stranger were dancing and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Excuse me. May I cut in?”

The man, as he expected, looked stunned. It certainly wasn
’t a request one heard at every function, but he quickly recovered and acquiesced, with a parting smile Vivian’s way.

“
This is a surprise,” Vivian said as she and Zack fell into step. His timing couldn’t have been better. It was almost as if he knew she was scheming up a way to make a graceful break from Bernard, not because she disliked him, but just so she could do a little more socializing. There was no reason why she couldn’t meet two new men in a single evening. This was only February, but her average so far was zero, and she needed to double up; it would increase her odds of meeting her goal of getting the life partner she sought. Could it be that Zack was interested in being a contender after all?

She loved being so close to him. He had a delicious, musky scent, and the fabric of his blazer—it felt like a wool blend to her palms—was so soft and welcoming. How wonderful it would be to be able to claim this
highly desirable man as her very own.

By the time they had made a single revolution, she became aware that the eyes of various women standing or moving about on the sidelines were fix
ated on her and Zack. They probably all knew him from NBP, but, of course, she was new to the group. Some of the stares were more obvious than others, and while some were curious, others were outright hostile. That meant she and Zack must make an attractive couple.

“
I hope you didn’t mind my breaking in,” he said.

“
I thought it was very sweet. I’m flattered.”

The music began to fade out
, to Vivian’s colossal disappointment. That meant the slow jams were over and the dance music was about to return, and she and Zack had barely had a chance to say two words to each other.

The strains of the next song began as the music they were dancing to grew fainter.
“Oh, no, you’re not going anywhere yet,” Zack said in a playful tone when she broke away from him with the intent of going to the sidelines. “This is a great tune.”

She had to agree. The deejay favored what was generally referred to as classic R&B, music that had been at the top of the charts about twenty years before, but sounded as good to her ears and her sense of rhythm at thirty
-four as it had at fourteen. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one who felt that way. The crowd around them became thick, but their space wasn’t reduced. The nice thing about having an event in a banquet room at a hotel or country club was that there was plenty of room in the center of the floor, unlike nightclubs with a hundred or more people trying to squeeze on parquet dance floors measuring perhaps twelve-by-twelve feet.

Zack was a wonderful dancer whose moves seemed effortless. Vivian found herself working hard to keep up with him. She had been moving conservatively while dancing previously, conscious of her outfit
. Certain moves, while perfectly appropriate in a T-shirt and jeans, one just didn’t make when all gussied up. Ordering a beer was one of them, even though a cold beer was a great thirst quencher. Getting down on the dance floor was another. She wanted her movements to be smooth, not jerky.

“
Had enough?” Zack asked after about ten minutes.

She nodded and began to lead the way out of the dancers surrounding them. They had barely made it to the sidelines when, with her peripheral vision, she saw a flash of red zoom in toward Zack.

“Zack, I’ve been waiting for you to dance with me all night. Let’s do it now.”

Vivian turned sharply to see who this interloper was. The woman
’s dress was belted at the waist and the skirt had a scalloped hemline. Curiously, the bodice was long-sleeved on one side and cut into a halter style on the other, giving it an oddly asymmetrical look. In spite of three-inch red pumps she barely stood five-four, but she was perfectly proportioned. She took hold of his arm, and, for such a petite woman, demonstrated remarkable strength pulling him back into the crowd.

It all happened so quickly that Vivian was left alone. Her mouth dropped open in shock, and she quickly shut it. What had happened just now?

She quickly realized she couldn’t just stand there like an abandoned child, so she moved forward, toward the sidelines. She heard someone call her name. A look in the direction of the voice revealed that it was Bernard.

“
I want to introduce you to my buddy,” he said, gesturing to a balding brown-skinned man. “Vivian St. James, this is Terry Terrell.”

“
Terry Terrell?” she repeated uncertainly as she shook his hand.

“
My real first name is something I keep secret from my own mother,” Terry said with a smile.

She returned the smile.
“I’ll bet you don’t tell her how old you are, either.”

The three of them laughed, and Bernard asked if she wanted another drink.