Normally, something like this could be easily overlooked with a simple apology but Vivica's loud exclamation drew everyone's attention to the spectacle.
Lisa wished the ground would open up and swallow her.
There was nowhere to hide and the most Lisa could do was shield herself behind Vivica's body.
In a bid to hide herself out of sight from where everyone was craning their necks to watch them.
"My apologies Mr. Shadowhurst," said Vivica placatingly. "She's new to the company and is in no way a reflection of CTA's standards, I will personally see that she is let go for this."
Lisa didn't like the look of sheer joy on Vivica's face at her innocent mistake.
In fact Lisa couldn't help but roll her eyes at the other woman's outrageous behavior.
Bane admonished, "No need to go that far, just speak to her manager and get her properly re-trained."
"As you wish. You are so magnanimous Mr. Shadowhurst," sweet-talked Vivica Knox, "no wonder you are the face of the company and a pinnacle of success."
He inquired, "I'm running late, so where can I find the others?"
"Right this way, Mr. Shadowhurst."
As the couple moved, the crowd parted like the red sea.
Guests that had been openly staring and whispering a few minutes ago were now deliberately trying to not look at them.
Vivica thrived on gossip and being the center of attention, she was practically glowing in the spotlight.
It was now time for a live performance and the music started as if on cue drawing away some of the attention of the crowd.
Embarrassed, Lisa had no choice but to meekly follow behind them while holding her head down with shame and wishing the evening would soon be over.
The two brothers were as different as night and day, one inspired happiness while the other brought despair.
Lisa couldn't understand why, when it concerned the Shadowhurst brothers her thoughts felt so jumbled.
Her hands still shook uncontrollably, while her heart raced within her chest.
When she resumed her seating beside Tristan, sitting across from her was Bane with his expression grim and one of scrutiny.
"I see you met my brother," drawled Tristan.
"Bane Shadowhurst?" whispered Chandra, while flicking a wayward strand of hair from her little pixie haircut behind her ears.
She swung around from her conversation with Lucas at the hint of Lisa meeting Bane.
Chandra inquired, "What happened?"
Her curiosity and a reminder of a time that Lisa would rather forget made Lisa squirm in her seat.
"I was hoping Lisa would be immune to my brother's charm but it seems just the mention of his name brought a flush of color to her cheeks," replied Tristan knowingly.
Lisa wanted to argue that her blush was more from embarrassment than excitement but her lips remained sealed.
She didn't want her faux pas earlier to overshadow the fact that Tristan wanted them to attend the opening of their newest hotel.
Chandra filled her in on what she had missed while Lisa went to the bathroom.
Squealing with delight, Chandra told her that it would be an all expense paid trip to Las Vegas.
They would even get some free time to explore the city on their own.
Knowing that she would probably run into Bane Shadowhurst again dampened Lisa's enthusiasm regarding the upcoming trip.
Currently the Shadowhurst brothers were in charge of a multi billion dollar empire that had their hooks into several kinds of business.
From what Lisa gathered Tristan was in charge of the Entertainment side of the business.
While Bane handled the larger portfolio which dealt with hotel and tourism ventures.
Ignore him, Lisa told herself as she answered Tristan's offhand questions softly.
Whatever her response was, it made Tristan laugh out loud and she wasn't even focusing on the conversation.
Tristan seemed to be over the moon about the prospect of showing Lisa around Las Vegas since she had never traveled out of the city before.
Just knowing that Tristan wanted her made her feel stimulated and her heart was just a little racy.
There was definitely something blossoming between her and Tristan and she felt tiny pricks of anticipation flood her veins at the thought of hanging with him that week.
Tristan was a decent, well spoken hunk, just absolutely gorgeous and so far he checked off everything on her list that Lisa ever wanted in a man.
The only disconcerting thing about being around Tristan meant that she would also be around his awful brother Bane.
After seeing how he carried on over a simple accident, if there was ever a guy she detested it was Bane.
Just then her attention was diverted by Bane as she watched him pluck a cherry from his drink and popped it into in his mouth.
With a flicker of his tongue then slowly twisting out the stem before he swallowed the cherry.
It was such a harmless but erotic movement and she felt like Bane was deliberately toying with Lisa since she did her best to ignore his presence.
Still, she felt like a helpless mouse being stalked by a cat.
His silence was unnerving, just sitting there sipping his liquor and not contributing to the conversation.
Just watching her openly and she was just as bad, because her eyes kept stealing glances at Bane from the corner of her eyes.
The other hostesses working the tables nearby kept coming over to offer Bane refreshments.
One mundane look from those piercing dark eyes of his and the women wet their panties.
Literally bending over backwards to cater to his every need.
Just the mere hint of a smile and anything female, even a few males came rushing over to his side to worship at his feet in adoration.
Thanks to him, her manager Robert had pulled her aside to inform her that news of the debacle with Bane Shadowhurst had reached his ears.
Robert chastised her for her behavior and made her feel terrible.
By saying her poor actions could also affect his career and reflected on him horribly.
He even reminded her to stop eating like a pig since the last thing she wanted to get was fat.
Lisa was pretty sure that this opportunist bastard was the reason why the former owner of this body was diagnosed with body dysmorphia.
Tomorrow would have been an off day for her to stay at home and rest but thanks to Bane she had to attend a seminar on 'conduct and deportment' in the afternoon.
Frankly speaking, Lisa was livid at the thought even on the ride home with Robert.
The only good thing about tomorrow was that Chandra, who did nothing wrong, was also mandated to attend the seminar.
After the session both ladies wanted to go shopping for their upcoming Las Vegas Trip.
Being around Bane, did nothing to her pulse rate in fact, the further she stayed away from Bane the better.
Too bad, she hadn't learnt her lesson.