Chapter 11

Paige broke away and headed for the bar. To her relief, she found the line a bit shorter than her last visit, since many of the guests had finally settled at tables. She made idle chitchat while waiting her turn, mostly with the escorts or spouses of various classmates, she supposed, since she recognized no faces and they wore no name tags. She preferred it that way—with her nerves already wound tight, she wanted to answer no questions regarding her life. After all, she couldn’t even flaunt her amazing success in the literary world without revealing her pen name, and she felt in no mood to embark on a series of fibs and half-truths to classmates for whom she cared little.

Just as the DJ started playing Madonna’s “Erotica,” Paige felt the warm presence of someone moving in close behind, and hot breath on her ear.

“Miss Gillette, I was hoping we’d run into each other this evening.”