“How are you?” he asked.
“Fine,” she replied, her tone soft and sweetly alluring.
“Join us, Topaz,” Casey urged.
“Thanks, sweetie, but I’m here with someone,” she explained, looking over at Alex in time to glimpse the narrowing of his gaze. The striking potency of the look sent her heart soaring to her throat.
“Well, um, I’d better be getting back,” she decided, smiling shakily. “It was nice meeting you all,” she said while squeezing Casey’s shoulder. “Good night,” she whispered to Alex, her lovely gaze lingering and unintentionally seductive.
Alex tugged at the edge of his maple suit vest as he resumed his seat. His eyes followed Topaz, until she had disappeared to the other side of the dining room.
FIVE
“We really want you to be there, girl.”
“All this for an engagement party?”
“What can I say? My man wants to show me off.”
“Well ... Simon was just telling me I need to get away.”
“Well ... I’d say he’s right. Besides, as one of the few female friends you have, I suggest you not disappoint me.”
“Hush,” Topaz ordered Cicely Grays.
“So? What do you say?” Cicely persisted.
Topaz leaned back in her desk chair. “An entire weekend, Cice?” she groaned.
“Girl, don’t even try it,” Cicely warned. “This party is gonna be so incredible. A weekend stay at Scott’s uncle’s cabin in the mountains?” she cried, referring to her fiancé. “It’s gonna be quite the gathering,” she boasted.
“Do I have to scrounge up a date for this thing?”
“We have it all planned. No pressure,” Cicely assured her friend.
“Mmm-hmm. Why doesn’t that set me at ease?”
“I have no idea, but you better get it together. We want everybody to have a fantastic time, and we mean everybody.”
“All right, all right,” Topaz sighed, jotting the date on her calendar. “It does sound nice.”
“All right! That’s what I wanted to hear before I got off the phone,” Cicely blurted.
Topaz laughed. “So happy I could please.”
“Seriously, though, girl. I gotta go. I’ll talk to you soon, all right?”
“All right. I love you.”
“Love you too.”
Topaz settled the phone back on the receiver, just as the garage intercom buzzed.
“Yes?” she playfully drawled.
“This is Darryl. Your car is ready, lady.”
“Yes!” Topaz hissed, clenching her fist.
“Does that mean you’d like to come and take it for a spin?”
Topaz had already grabbed her purse and sunglasses and was out the door.
“I thought this would take longer.”
Darryl smiled as he watched Topaz peer over into the hood. “Other than a busted radiator hose, she’s in prime shape. You take pretty good care of your car ... for a woman,” he teased.
Topaz grinned. “I know a good mechanic,” she said, slamming down the hood. Her eyes focused on something across the street and she removed her sunglasses. “What the ...”
Darryl followed the line of her gaze. “They been over there two hours already. Didn’t you see ’em when you came in for work?”
“I came in from the back,” Topaz absently responded, watching the three moving vans and over fifteen workers at the restaurant across the street. “What’s goin’ on over there?”
Darryl shrugged and set about wiping excess oil from his hands. “Guess Sallie’s goin’ out of business.”
“Out of business? Why? I know things have got to be good—everybody in town stops by her place for lunch, and everybody who works on this block eats there.”
