Ever Enough

Aubrey snickered and flicked her short brown hair behind her shoulder, “Well hello Harper,” and nodded in my direction. “Emilyn. How has life been treating you two?”

“Pretty well thank you,” I replied. “How about yourself?”

Sticking her nose in the air a bit she said, “I just opened the new ta

I saw a little glimmer of nastiness cross her face. “So last I heard Emilyn you were living in Chicago with your lawyer husband. Though I’m still not sure how you snagged a man like him. Weren’t you supposed to go to college or something after high school?” Her little minions perked up. She wasted no time throwing the daggers in my direction. I wouldn’t show her that her comment was below the belt.

Harper however, jumped in to defend me. She leaned in real close to Aubrey across the table. “Em ‘snagged’ Weston the good ol’ fashion way, by letting the man chase her and not spreading her legs on the first date. You wouldn’t understand that though would you?” Aubrey’s mouth was in a thin angry line. I’d known that the situation would likely be awkward but I hadn’t expected Harper to pull out the big guns so early in the evening.

Aubrey’s eyes widened before she snapped. She jumped out of her chair, and I could have sworn she was going to come across the table at us. Instead she got right in Harper’s face. “I’d be careful Harper, I know what you do in those houses you sell. Whoring yourself to get a sale is prostitution isn’t it? Word gets around you little bitch, so I’d keep that in mind.” She turned at looked at her friends, who were now standing but both appeared to be unsure about what Aubrey was doing.

Harper laughed a condescending laugh and looked Aubrey in the eyes. “No need for me to include myself in the sales I make because I’m a professional. Besides, I get plenty of attention outside of work. But I’d re-evaluate your relationship before you go accusing me of whoring myself. I believe it was Gabe that asked me to take him back to my house after drinks a few days ago.” Harper grabbed my hand and started to pull me inside the banquet hall but suddenly changed her mind, paused and turned around. “Oh and by the way, this isn’t high school anymore Aubrey. I’ve grown up and I don’t put up with shit. You want to fuck with me then bring it because I’ll rock your world honey. And seriously, maybe you should stop ta

When we stepped inside the doors it was like stepping back in time. There were streamers coming from the center of the ceiling and going out to different points in the room. There was a DJ in the corner playing music that was popular from the year we graduated. The tables were decorated with a small vase on each with water and a floating candle in each and rose petals scattered over the table tops. Over in the corner opposite the DJ was a bar, and next to the bar was a buffet that servers were currently filling with food.

Harper and I found a table close to the dance floor and set our purses down. “Jesus I need a drink.” She looked stressed. Instead of asking her if she was okay, I decided to follow her over to the bar. She asked, “You want something?”

“A sparkling water, my stomach is a bit upset still after last night.”

Harper told the bartender what we wanted and while we waited for our order to be filled, I had to ask her what Aubrey meant by her sleeping with clients.

“Please tell me you didn’t sleep with Gabe the mechanic. That would be a new low Harper.”

She looked over at me and her mouth dropped open a little bit. “Are you fucking serious? You think that I would actually sleep with him? No way! That man came up to me at a bar one night and practically begged me to go home with him. I knew he was screwing Aubrey and I don’t want that slut’s sloppy seconds.” She tossed back a shot and handed me my water. “Gabe may be easy on the eyes but I do have standards Em.”

We made our way back to our table. “I know, but why did Aubrey insinuate that you sleep with your clients. That’s against the rules right?”

“First of all, it’s my company and I make the rules. One of those rules is that you DO NOT fuck the clients. I don’t run a fucking brothel Emilyn and I don’t need to offer myself up to get the sale of a house. Did you actually believe her?” Harper looked hurt.

“No of course I didn’t believe her. I was just worried she was starting rumors that you don’t need to deal with. And I am relieved that you didn’t sleep with Gabe.” I said laughing to lighten the mood. “I know you run a professional business Harper. I just don’t like people talking about you like that. You know?”

She threw her arm around my shoulder effectively dismissing her change of moods. “I know. Let’s go mingle! I saw Marya

As we made our way over to the buffet line, out of the corner of my eye I saw the banquet door open and in walked Finley and Kyler. Oh my god! I froze in place, causing Harper to run into the back of me.

“What the hell Emilyn. Why’d you stop walking?”

I had no words. For the second time in less than twenty-four hours I was speechless. Fi

I noticed he was sca

I turned my attention back to Harper. “Sorry, let’s get our food and go sit down. Can we catch up with Marya

“Yeah… sure.” She didn’t seem to believe me, and when her eyes followed to where I had been looking moments previously, I saw her shake her head and mumble something like ‘dickwad’ under her breath. I didn’t want to get her riled up again, so I chose to ignore it.

The buffet had a wide array of food to choose from. It all looked great, but seeing Fi

We made our way back to our table and sat down. I picked at my di