Page 80 of Wicked Angel
“You done yet?”
“I’m right.” She shook her head when I tipped the bottle toward her in offering. “I know I’m right, because I know exactly how you feel.”
“Uh-huh.” I tossed a lime wedge into my vodka soda and took a sip.
“You can show up alone, you know.” She followed me again as I went into the living room. “Come on. You’re Johnny O! No one even notices the girl you’re with, believe me.”
I threw her a look as I flopped onto the sectional. “They noticed Brianna. Or did you not read the headlines?”
“Because she’s a semi-famous modeland she was dating your lead singer.”
I flicked on the TV. It was on mute and I started scrolling through the offerings.
“Johnny.” Angeline put her hands on her hips, which was hilarious, because the girl couldn’t get stern with a mosquito. “Trust me, okay? When you walk into a room, people seeyou. Period.”
“And you know this because…?”
She sighed shortly. “Because I’m often in that room when you walk in.”
I kept my eyes fixed on the TV, resisting the urge to gloat that she’d just admitted that she ever noticed me that way. “So? You’re a woman.”
“So!?”
“Of course you notice me. Not everyone sees what you see, Angeline.”
“Wow. You just managed to take arrogant and condescending to a whole new level.”
I looked her in the eye. “Tell me how you really know people notice me, and not my date, when I walk into a room.”
She sighed again, her hands dropping from her hips. “Because I’m about as invisible next to my sister as those girls are next to you. And about as replaceable.”
“That’s what you think?”
“That the women you date are replaceable? Uh, yeah.” She threw her arms out, indicating my home, where no trace of any of the women I’d dated remained.
“I meant,” I said, setting my drink aside, “you really think that you, next to your sister, are replaceable?”
“Uh, let’s see. To anyone who notices her first, which is everyone, I might as well not be there. So yes. I could be anyone or no one. No one cares.”
I clicked the TV off and got to my feet, walking over to her. “That’s what you think?”
“That’s what I know.”
I stood in front of her, studying her for a moment. “Then why would you want to show up with me?”
“I don’t. But since you’re my client, I highly recommend that you get over yourself and go to this party with your sister.”
“I’m not going alone.”
“So you’re saying she is invisible, next to you.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“Then go with Shayla!”
“She’s my sister. She’s not a date.”
Angeline groaned, looking exasperated. “Just come with us, Johnny.”
