Ten Years Later...

So he deftly avoided a direct answer. “I guess I can stay for a little longer,” Sebastian told the former cheerleader.

Without meaning to or being totally conscious of doing it, he glanced in Brianna’s direction to see if she’d been persuaded to remain for a while longer as well.

Or, he supposed, strong-armed into it.

He had to admit that he expected to see fireworks between the two women at any second. His money was on Brianna. Of the two, she appeared to be in far better shape—not to mention a lot feistier than Tiffany.

“Wonderful,” Tiffany exclaimed, clapping her hands together. In what seemed like an afterthought, she looked in Brianna’s direction. “And you, Bree?”

There had always been something condescending in her voice, Brianna thought, no matter whom she addressed. It used to intimidate her, but she’d had to shoulder so much in these past few years that the snide attitude of one small-minded woman no longer bothered her in the slightest, the way it might have at some other time.

She supposed that, as Sebastian had already said, it would do no harm to hang around here a little longer. After all, after tonight he would most likely go back to his work, which she’d heard was out of the country, and she would go back to hers. And their paths would never cross again.

So she awarded Tiffany with a carefree smile and said, “Sure, why not?”

“Great.” This time, because they both seemed so willing, the word sounded a little less than upbeat. “This way, please,” Tiffany told them, leading them to another part of the gym.

Sebastian stayed where he was for a moment longer and asked, “And just what’s ‘this way’?”

It was obvious to both of them that Tiffany didn’t like being questioned or having to explain herself. She was, as Brianna would later tell her father when he asked how things had gone, a control freak in search of her own country to rule.

“Why, a photographer, you distrustful man.” Tiffany laughed as if she had just said something exceedingly witty. “We’re trying to put together an album of former students. You know, kind of like a ‘where are they now?’ sort of thing.”

Sebastian looked at Brianna and asked, “You okay with that?” The display of concern toward Brianna irritated Tiffany no end, even as she continued maintaining her completely artificial smile.

“Sure,” Brianna agreed. “I’ve got no problem having my picture taken.”

“Thank you.” Tiffany’s gushing tone had been abandoned. What lay beneath had definite touches of frost to it, as did the glance she shot Brianna’s way.

But the next moment, Tiffany once again reclaimed center stage and wound her expensively manicured fingers around the microphone, and the wide, shallow smile had returned.

“Attention. Can I have your attention?” she requested in a voice that grew louder with each passing syllable. “The photographer’s been making the rounds to your tables, but now it’s time for all of us to stand up and come together for group shots,” she announced. “We all thought it might be fun if we did it the way the yearbook was done—pictures taken in our old clubs. Those of you, like myself—” unable to stop herself, she allowed the superior smirk to pass over her face again “—who belonged to an endless number of groups will be forced to have your picture taken in each and every one of them. Just remember, this is ultimately for the good of the student body.”

“Is she for real?” Sebastian whispered the question to Brianna. He’d turned his head away at the last moment so that Tiffany wouldn’t be able to overhear him.

Brianna took a quick survey of the woman at the microphone. As far as “real” went, she highly doubted it. Tiffany had obviously had her nose shortened, her chin reinforced, not to mention that her cup size had been increased by a multiple of two. Her hair was neither her natural color, nor, from what she remembered, actually hers. Her hairdo was comprised of elaborately woven extensions.

“Not as far as I can tell,” Brianna quipped.

Sebastian suddenly had to bite his lower lip to keep from laughing.

Brianna saw the contained laughter in his eyes when he looked at her and that old feeling, the one she was desperately struggling to block, rose up and found her again.

She reminded herself that this was an isolated evening, one with ties to the past and absolutely no ties to either one of their futures.

With that understood and taken into consideration, she allowed herself to react to him, but only as long as she kept in mind that all her tomorrows would be without him, just as so many of her yesterdays had been.