“You went to Riverdale?”
A beet red Lexi nodded her head. “Go Spartans,” she feebly cheered, pumping an unenthusiastic fist into the air.
“What year did you graduate?”
“She was in our class!” Anna rubbed her temples, her brother’s idiocy wearing on her patience. “Yes, our graduating class. I worked with her on the yearbook for two years. She was in every one of your classes, I’m sure. She was almost valedictorian, but that girl Michelle somebody beat her by the smallest margin in Riverdale history or something. Don’t you remember any of this? How can we be twins?”
“Did we have any classes together?” Vincent ignored his sister, his attention focused solely on Lexi.
“A few.” Lexi’s heart thundered in her chest. She would never admit it, but she knew for a fact they had four classes together senior year and could name each one and where he sat in the classroom. If she tried hard enough, she could probably remember his entire schedule from senior year, including his locker number.
Stalker.
“Don’t you remember, the middle of junior year, a new girl moved to town and people went goofy over it?” Anna’s attempts to jog his memory didn’t appear to be working.
“You used to cheat off of me in Government senior year, if that helps.”
He paused, then shook his head in disbelief. “No, I cheated off this new junior who was taking government a year early for some reason.”
“No, that was me.” Lexi smiled at the memory. “You sat one row over to the left and when you didn’t know the answer you would drop your pencil into the aisle between us and peek at my paper as you picked it up.”
Now it was Vincent’s turn to blush.
“My brother cheated? Ha! I knew you didn’t pull an A in Mrs. Blackstone’s class on your own! And you teased me about my B.” Anna mocked her brother, who just kept staring at Lexi.
“It was you … but I don’t remember you.” He looked away and his brows furrowed. He remained quiet for a very long time, his face scrunched in concentration. “I’m sorry, Lexi. If I would have known.”
“Nothing to be sorry for, Vincent. We weren’t friends back then, and I was horribly shy, so it’s not your fault. I probably should have mentioned it the day you came back, but when you didn’t say anything, I figured there was no point in bringing it up.”
“Uncle Vincent!” Madison clamored for his attention, oblivious to the awkward tension that filled the room. “Wanna play? Oh, Lexi, where’s my letter?”
Lexi handed the little girl her fluorescent envelope and stood to leave, wanting to put some distance between her and Vincent. “I have some work to finish up. If you need anything, let me know.”
“Wait.” Anna was on her feet following behind Lexi. ”Madison, you can play with Uncle Vincent for a few minutes. I’m going to give Lexi the guest list for the gala and go over a few things with her, if that’s okay with you.”
“Sure that’s fine.” Vincent turned to his niece and smiled. “You have been so patient while we talked. What do you want to play?
Anna left the office and laid a paper in her hands. “So, that went well.” Lexi’s eyebrows rose in disbelief. “Yeah, that was only mildly awkward.”
She had no desire to talk about Vincent’s reaction, or lack thereof, to finding out the truth about who she was. Instead, she began examining the list of names in front of her.
“What’s this?” Lexi scanned the paper that included some of the most prominent people in San Francisco.
“The guest list for the gala. The people who have RSVP’d have a star next to their name.” Anna scribbled a few more stars on the paper, confirming it was accurate.
“Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what gala are you talking about?”
“The Hunter Advertising Charity Gala. We host it every year and raise money for different organizations in the Bay Area. This year we are focusing on the new leukemia wing at Children’s Hospital. It’s in two weeks, and not only does it raise a great deal of money, but it’s a work event where contacts are made and deals are brokered. Basically, it’s the biggest night of the year for Hunter Advertising, personally and professionally.” Anna slid out a beautiful black and white invitation with elegant raised script lettering and handed it to Lexi.
“Sounds like a wonderful event. So, what do you need from me?” Lexi punched the date and time into her calendar before she forgot.
“Vincent will go into more detail about this, but briefly, he is going to get you a hit list of people.”
“A hit list?”
“Sounds much more sinister than it actually is.” Anna winked. “It’s a list of people he wants to make contact with at the event. Advertising is all about who you know, and this is one way to expand that list.”
“Hit list. Got it. So, he needs me to do some background on them personally, wives’ names, kids, girlfriends, beloved pets, favorite sport. Then find out current campaigns, what worked, what didn’t. Pull marketing statistics and demographics information for them? That kind of thing?”
Anna’s face broke out in a brilliant smile. “In a nutshell, yep.” Anna glanced down at her watch. “Crap, Erik gave me something to take down to Sean. I’ll be right back. I’m going to leave you this list, and I’ll E-mail you as I get more RSVPs.” Anna rummaged through her bag for a book and took off down the hall, but before she was out of earshot she yelled, “Men wear black, the women all wear white, so make sure you have something to wear.”
Lexi’s head came crashing down onto the top of the desk at the thought of attending a black tie affair with the elite of San Francisco. How was she going to blend in with this crowd? She frantically scanned the invitation again to see if it mentioned anything about being a masquerade ball so she could cover her face and make an anonymous fool of herself.
Out of nowhere, the most beautiful sound came from Vincent’s office— laughter. A deep belly laugh harmonized with high pitched giggles.
Intrigued, Lexi crept over to Vincent’s door and peeked inside. What she saw took her breath away. Vincent’s suit jacket was draped neatly over his chair, and his black dress shirt was now untucked and completely wrinkled. He was on all fours, without shoes, crawling around on the floor with Madison perched high on his back, screeching in delight. She had taken his designer silk tie and pulled the knot to the back of his neck, using the long end as the reigns.