The audience reaction is as expected, wide eyes, hard swallows, even a few red faces.
No one needs an interpreter to figure out what I mean by complete and total dick in that scenario.
A-plus performance, Honey Dewberry. Marilyn Monroe herself would be proud.
I perk up and give him a sardonic smile.
“Then of course I could phrase it another way which has an altogether different connotation.” I once again look Todd dead in the eye, narrowing my eyes with contempt. “Complete. And total. Dick.” The disdain in my voice is so thick I can practically cut it with a knife.
Todd is red-faced. His friend to the right just looks on in awe, no doubt still wondering how one phrase can be so versatile.
The one with the darkest hair has an amused but subtle appreciation. He even lifts his glass slightly toward me.
My face brightens into my usual dazzling smile and sparkling eyes: no offense meant!
“See? It’s simply a matter of how you say a thing!”
“Yeah well, I didn’t come here tonight to debate semantics with some—”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I interrupt before he can finish his thought and spur me to do something worse than bruise his ego. “You just seemed like the type who could handle it.”
“Honey, you alright?” Giuseppe comes up behind me.
His eyes are pinned on Todd as he hands me a flute of champagne.
“Oh yes,” I say with a reassuring smile as I take it. “These gentlemen and I were just having a minor debate on semantics.”
Giuseppe looks from me to them, then back to me. “Three against one, that hardly seems fair.” I see the tiny grin on his lips and know exactly what he’s saying.
I feel my heart do a little backflip and meet his with a tiny grin of my own.
We both turn back to the trio, who look even more disgruntled.
“It was so nice meeting you…sweetheart,” I say, pouring that Georgia girl on nice and thick.
“You too, honey,” he says with a humorless smirk.
“That’s my name, don’t wear it out,” I sing in a taunting voice as Giuseppe leads me away. A wee bit immature but I’m kinda feelin’ myself.
I want to laugh at the sudden confusion that comes to Todd’s face as he wonders if Honey is really my name.
That felt good, all the more so since Giuseppe seemed to have the same assessment of the trio as I do.
“Sorry you had to deal with them.”
“Nonsense, I can certainly handle myself around a couple of…” I pause, wondering how to put it in the most diplomatic way. These are still the people he works with, after all.
“Shitheads,” Giuseppe finishes for me, making me laugh. “Don’t worry, not everyone I work with is as bad as they are.”
“Oh, and I was having so much fun,” I pout.
Giuseppe laughs.
Yes, I’ve totally got this.
Chapter Twenty-Five Giuseppe
Based on the faces of Todd & Co. Honey must have worked some serious voodoo on them. I only hate that I had to miss most of it.
“We can find our tables if you’d like to sit.”
“As you are wont to say, ‘nonsense’,” she says, giving me a daring smile. “We both know the point of this thing is to schmooze, and you certainly didn’t bring me to play window dressing. So let’s schmooze.”
Before I can say another word, she has me circling the room.
Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, she seems to bring color everywhere we go. There isn’t a person she passes that doesn’t get a vivacious smile and enthusiastic greeting, leaving them starstruck with bewilderment.
“How do you do it?” I ask in wonder. The thought of being so social is enough to have me wanting to be shipwrecked on a deserted island.
“One thing I’ve learned about people is that everyone likes to feel acknowledged and appreciated. I have yet to meet the person who pooh-poohs an enthusiastic greeting. We all want to feel special,” she says looking around as she sips her champagne.
I could kiss her right now and not give a damn what anyone here thinks.
Honey’s eyes fall on someone past my shoulder.
“He looks important,” she says, gesturing with her glass.
I turn to see Doug Hancock and his wife chatting with David Winters.
“They’re both senior partners.”
“Well, well, well,” Honey says, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “Time for me to do a little song and dance, no?”
She leads the way before I can say anything.
I brace myself, instinctively slipping into “Jesse” mode as though I’m at work, which technically I am.
“Jesse,” Doug says, considering me with a politely indulgent smile. His eyes slide to Honey and, after a brief flicker of surprise, no doubt at the fact that she’s black, they settle with interest. “I see you brought a date.”
“Doug, this is—”
“Albertha,” Honey says, daintily reaching a hand out. “Albertha Dixon.”
I give her a quick look, but her attention is firmly on Doug.
“Pleasure to meet, you Albertha,” he says, briefly taking hold of her fingers.
“The pleasure’s mine, I’m sure,” she says with a conspiratorial smile.
A slow grin spreads his lips, one I don’t particularly like.
“Oh what a gorgeous pattern on your dress!” Honey gushes as she quickly shifts her attention to his wife. “It works well with the color, especially in this lighting, enough to bring out how pretty your eyes are.”
Doug’s wife is practically giggling, though she’s well past the schoolgirl age. “How sweet of you to notice.”
They both offer light laughs and chitchat, which Honey guides along with ease. She turns her attention over to David, working the same magic on him and his wife.
Somehow she also manages to work me into a short conversation with all of them, something that would never happen if left to my own devices.
I can practically see the likelihood of partner inching closer and closer as the minutes tick by.
When we finally escape, I’m left just as hypnotized by Honey’s charms as they were.
“I think you may have singlehandedly secured my future at ABC.”
She beams at me. “Hopefully that’s at least good for another glass of
