Platinum (All That Glitters #3) (9 page)

Her mother never let her live it down that she’d left NYU, one of the best fashion programs in the country, to go to LV State. The program was top-notch after Teena Hart had taken it over, but it still didn’t compare NYU. Not to mention, being that close to the US fashion mecca came with benefits and networking opportunities that just weren’t available in Las Vegas.

As Trihn was about to get her things together to leave for class, the doorbell rang. She hurried over to answer the door, worried that it might wake up her roommates. The doorbell rang again, and she cursed aloud. It was too early for all of that.

“Coming!” she called. She yanked the door open to find a delivery man standing there. “Can I help you?”

“I have a package. Sign here, please.” The man held out an electronic signature pad.

Trihn scribbled on the pad and then took a vase of red, pink, yellow, and white tulips along with a small box from the man.

“Um…thanks,” she said before toeing the door closed behind her. “Bryna! Eric is spoiling you again!”

Bryna ambled out of her bedroom in nothing but a tiny black baby-doll and yawned loudly. “This’d better be good for waking me up.”

“Looks like Eric sent you flowers.” Trihn placed the flowers and the box down on the table and slid them toward Bryna. “What’s in the box? Some kinky sex toy for later?”

Bryna’s eyes lit up. “We can only hope.” She grabbed the box and started to unwrap the paper but then stopped. “Um…Trihn, this isn’t for me.”

“What?”

Bryna held it out to her. “It has your name on it.”

“It does not! Who would send me anything?” Trihn asked.

“Open it, and find out.”

Trihn tore the paper off the box and opened it up. Inside was an envelope and exactly one Hershey’s Kiss. She held it up for Bryna to see, and she shrugged.

Trihn opened the envelope and retrieved the note within.

TRIHN,

IT MEANT SOMETHING TO ME.

DAMON

Trihn just stared at the message until it became blurry before her eyes.

“Well?” Bryna demanded. She grabbed it out of Trihn’s hands and then immediately started laughing.

“What’s going on out here?” Stacia asked. “You guys are so fucking loud.”

“Trihn got flowers from Damon.”

Stacia’s eyes popped. “Really? How romantic.”

“And a Hershey’s Kiss,” Bryna added.

“I guess that counts as chocolate?” Stacia asked.

“It doesn’t mean anything,” Trihn said with a shake of her head.

Truthfully, she had no idea what any of it meant. Of course Damon was contradicting the last statement she had made to him before leaving his place the day before. She had just figured that would have been the end of it.

How could a guy who had just met her want to push so hard for her?
He hardly knew her. They’d barely talked. Sure, they’d had amazing sex—more than once. She just hadn’t believed him when he said that he was going to try to change her mind. Guys didn’t fight for her. They usually fought with her.

“I’m pretty sure flowers and…chocolate mean something,” Stacia said.

“Plus, the card says it means something,” Bryna reasoned.

Trihn snatched the card out of Bryna’s hand and stuffed it into the box. “Well, it doesn’t mean anything to me. I have to go to class.”

“Forget class. Call this guy, and blow him,” Stacia said. “Guys do not put in effort like this in the real world, Trihn.”

“As ever, Stacia, your logic is impeccably sound.” Trihn shook her head at her friend and then hurried to the door.

“Hey, don’t forget your Kiss!” Stacia called.

Trihn held her hand out, and Stacia plopped the Hershey’s Kiss into her palm. She popped it into her mouth with a tight smile, flipped her two roommates off, and then left for class.

TRIHN’S FASHION DESIGN CLASS
reignited her passion for her work. All the art and textile classes she had taken were really helping out with her new classes. A lot of it was basic, but she knew that they would move into more difficult and complicated techniques as the semester went on.

The most exciting part was that all the design majors would get to help with the annual Teena Hart Fashion Show. Advanced design students would put together a selection of their best pieces and would get to feature them on an actual runway. The winner of the fashion show would take their designs to New York City in the summer to compete against the top programs from all over the country. The grand prize was that the line would be picked up by a large market. Last year, it was Macy’s!

Trihn had been selected to help with the models throughout the entire process. She wasn’t all that surprised, given her background in modeling. She just wished she’d have more hands-on experience in working with the actual designs, but her day would come.

The best part about being so busy was that it didn’t leave her as much time to sit around and obsess. Part of her really missed Neal. She knew how much her roommates hated him and that he had been a jerk to her, but she still missed him. And she didn’t know if that was just because she didn’t like to be alone, especially while Bryna and Eric were so happy together and Stacia was always content with the various men in her life.

Not to mention, there was Damon. Nearly a week had passed, and he hadn’t reached out to Trihn since he had sent the flowers. She tried not to be disappointed. She had pushed him away after all, and it was too early to be interested in someone else.

Her thoughts were clouded with their one-night stand when she made it home on Friday afternoon.

“Get dressed, bitch. We’re going out,” Bryna said when Trihn opened the door.

“God,” Trihn said, jumping backward. “Don’t you and Stacia have cheer practice or something?”

“Nope. Canceled for tonight since the football season is over. We’re getting ready for competition, but haven’t really geared up yet.”

“What about basketball season?”

Bryna gave her a blank stare. “Does anyone care about that?”

Trihn laughed. “I hear some people do.”

“Well, we have a B squad for basketball because they suck, and no one here gives a shit. Now, get changed. We’re going out,” she repeated.

Twenty minutes later, Bryna, Stacia, and Trihn piled into Bryna’s Aston Martin and drove to the Strip. The girls generally avoided the madness of the tourist trap, but some necessities could only be found in The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace.

They passed Tiffany & Co., and Bryna shot it a wistful look.

“You really don’t need anything else from there,” Trihn said, grabbing her arm and tugging her away.

“I met Hugh there,” she said with a sad smile.

“Didn’t you just see on the news that he’s dating some movie producer? He’s fine.”

“It was fun while it lasted though,” Stacia said with a giggle. “How about that mansion?”

“Feels like a lifetime ago,” Bryna said.

“Well, I’m speaking for everyone when I say, I prefer you with Eric than as a gold-digging bitch,” Trihn told her.

Bryna shrugged. “He is pretty great.”

“He’s, like, godlike status,” Stacia chimed in.

“Ah!” Bryna said. “We’re here!”

Trihn looked at the entrance to La Perla, and it made her miss home where upscale boutiques were lined up on Fifth and Madison. Nowhere really compared to New York City in her eyes.

“What’s the occasion?” Trihn asked as they stepped inside.

“I don’t need an occasion to get sexy lingerie. I pretty much live in it, but
you
need to get fucked tonight. So, we’re going to work on that,” Bryna said. She breezed by Trihn with a confident strut in her step.

“Whoa! Rewind. I am not having sex tonight.”

“You’re going to see Damon at Posse tonight and repeat last weekend until you feel better again.”

“I’m fine!”

Even Stacia’s look was withering. “You’re so far from fine.”

“We had two options—ask ask you to talk about it, which we knew you wouldn’t, or take you lingerie shopping for the hot sex you’re going to have this weekend.” Bryna exchanged a look with Stacia. “We obviously chose the latter.”

A sales clerk approached them with wide eyes, clearly having just heard their conversation. “Can I help you, ladies?”

“Yes. I need a new lingerie set, and my friend here needs something to get fucked in.”

The woman smiled shyly but hardly batted an eye at Bryna’s language. Trihn wasn’t surprised. Bryna smelled like money. The clerk had probably seen it when she walked through the door.

Her father was a famous movie director, and her mother was an actress. They’d met at LV State, which was why she had come to the school. She was a legacy.

Trihn’s parents were on the opposite of that spectrum. Her father had skipped college to pursue photography and became a professional fashion photographer. He’d met her mom at
Glitz
where she was currently a senior executive for the fashion magazine. Her sister, Lydia, had followed in their dad’s footsteps while Trihn had ended up on the more artsy side of fashion rather than the business end.

That was why, despite the fact that she had no intention of sleeping with anyone this weekend, she tried on all of the La Perla lingerie the girls had thrown at her and left with a bagful of goodies that could totally get her laid.

“Damon’s not here.”

Trihn raised her eyebrows. “Hi. It’s nice to see you, too, Maya.”

“Oh, yeah. Hi. Here’s a gin and tonic. Damon’s not here,” Maya said, pushing a drink her way.

“Well, I didn’t come here for him tonight. I come here every weekend.”

“You so want to get fucked tonight. I mean, you’re wearing a corset top.”

“Nothing to do with Damon!” Trihn cried. She snatched her drink up and took a long swig. It burned on the way down, leaving behind a floral aftertaste.
Good stuff.

“I do love that fucking skirt though,” Maya said, leaning over the bar to examine it. “Where did you get that?”

Trihn beamed. “I made it!”

“Look at you, Miss Fashion Designer. Well, I’ll take one of those when you have a chance.”

“Sure. I’ll get to it in my spare time,” Trihn said.

“Good.”

“So, wait,” Trihn said before Maya could go pour someone else a drink, “he’s really not here?”

Maya flashed her a bright smile. She looked Trihn up and down, as if taking her measure. “I knew you were here to get some ass.”

“Oh my God, honestly?”

“Honestly, he’s not here.”

Trihn nodded and tried not to think about that. She didn’t even know what had compelled her to ask Maya about Damon. She wasn’t interested. It had been a one-night stand. That was that.

A couple of drinks later, “Heartbreaker,” her favorite new Chloe Avana song, came on. She grabbed Bryna and Stacia and forced them out onto the dance floor. Their bodies grinding against each other were every guy’s wet dream.

Trihn let the freedom of the dance take over. It was practically hypnotic, the way the mixture of the alcohol, music, and movements could relax her like nothing else—except for sex. And since it was pretty clear she wasn’t going to be having any of that…

“I love this version!” Stacia cried.

Bryna shrugged. “Chloe is…okay.”

Trihn knew that Bryna had some issue with Chloe, who had been in a movie with Bryna’s ex-boyfriend Gates Hartman, but she really didn’t know what it was. Bryna was a buzzkill for Chloe’s music though.

“This version should be on the radio,” Stacia said.

Trihn realized where she had heard this before. Her eyes traveled up to the DJ booth. This was the mix that Damon had said he created when she went to see him in the booth last weekend.

Damon was here.

She was one hundred percent sure of that now.

Trihn spent the next hour wondering if and when Damon was going to come down from the DJ booth to see her. She was sure Maya had lied and said that he wasn’t there to keep her from obsessing about it.

She had just gotten another drink from Maya when she saw a circle forming on the other side of the club. Stacia was occupied with Marshall, who seemed to be giving into her antics. She guessed it was an off-again time for Stacia and Pace. Bryna was glued to Eric against the bar, making a sickeningly cute display for everyone to see.