Page 37 of It's a Widow Thing

“It’s more than the goal,” Donovan said. “Wehaveto be open by then.”

“It all sounds so great. I’m incredibly excited. Thank you for inviting me to take part,” Sabrina said.

“We should probably keep making the rounds, Lela,” Echo said. “It was so good to meet you, Sabrina. We’ll be in touch. There’s a lot we’ll need from you leading up to the opening.”

“Yes. Definitely,” Lela said.

“I look forward to it.” Sabrina watched as they made their way over to another group of people. She turned to Michael, feeling a little shellshocked. In a good way.

“Well? How amazing was that?” he asked.

“Pretty damn amazing.” She realized she needed to address the elephant in the room. “Is it okay that I called you my boyfriend?”

A quizzical look crossed his face. “Are you kidding? I’m thinking about having it put on my driver’s license.”

She drifted in to him, unable to contain her smile. “It just felt right. I wasn’t trying to catch you off guard or anything.”

“You can catch me off guard any time you want.” He pressed a soft, hot kiss to her lips. “Another glass of champagne?”

“That would be wonderful. Thank you.”

He pecked her on the cheek. “I’ll be right back.”

“Sabrina?” A vaguely familiar woman’s voice called her name. “Oh, my God,” she squealed from somewhere in the crowd.

Sabrina turned, and a familiar face popped out of the throng of people. “Jules? What are you doing here?” Sabrina rushed over to her former assistant and wrapped her up in a hug. “I thought you were in London.”

“I was. I just moved back to the city a few weeks ago. I meant to reach out, but it’s been crazy.” She tucked her long silky black hair behind one ear.

“What are you up to?”

“I took a job with Echo Echo. I’m part of the marketing team. Is Chelsea Mayhem going to be one of the partners in Echo Beauty?”

Sabrina nodded, feeling so proud. Jules had been Sabrina’s assistant before Lucy, during the earliest days of the company, when there wasn’t much more than a lot of ambition and ideas. “We are.”

Jules clapped her hands and her eyes lit up. “That is so amazing. They kept the list secret from everyone outside of the executive team. Otherwise, I would’ve seen the name and I would’ve been bragging to everyone in the office that I used to work for you. That is so cool.”

“What about you? How are you doing?”

“Well, I have an awesome new job, so that’s all good, and we totally lucked out because Austin’s company let him transfer back to Manhattan. He couldn’t be here tonight. He had a work thing. Also, I have some news.” Jules turned to the side and rolled her hand over the tiniest protrusion from her belly. “We have a little one on the way.”

Sabrina wrapped Jules up in another embrace. She couldn’t have been any more thrilled for her friend. “Congratulations. That’s so exciting.”

“Thank you. It feels like a lot of new things all at once, but I guess that’s good, right?”

“I feel like I just walked into a party within a party.” Michael strolled up with two glasses of champagne. “Hi. I’m Michael,” he said to Jules. “Can I offer you my drink? I’m happy to go get another.”

“No champagne for me tonight, but thank you,” Jules replied.

“Jules, this is Michael.” Sabrina took her glass of champagne from him. “Jules used to be my assistant. Years ago. When Chelsea Mayhem first started.”

Michael shook her hand. “It’s really nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too.” Jules eyed Michael. “Do you work with Sabrina?”

“Nope. I’m uh…” He slid Sabrina a sly smile. “I’m herboyfriend.”

A breathy laugh left Sabrina’s lips. As hesitant as she’d been to use the word, it felt a little more right every time it was put out into the world.