Only With You by Monica Alexander Page B

the suite packe d with people. Some of them glanced over at me, no doubt wondering who I was. When she released me, she stepped back and shook her head, smiling at me.
    “You look so good, babe. I’m glad you’re here. Is Jake with you?” she asked, as I drank in her familiar features that I’d been deprived of for so long. She looked good too. Damn good.
    “ No, he’s hanging out with some girls that we met at your show on Wednesday. You gave your umbrella to one of them.”
    Jake’s girl had been gushing about getting Sydney Chase’s umbrella non-stop earlier in the night so much so that it got annoying. And yeah, it was annoying because she’d gotten it and not me. I was jealous. But that jealous part of me also wondered if it would make Sydney jealous that I’d met a girl and that girl had wanted to hook up with me. Probably not, but the girls we’d met were good looking, so maybe it would make me seem more appealing if Syd  knew a hot girl wanted me.
    Okay, probably not.
    Syd nodded as if she remembered who I was talking about while I wasted my time cooking up schemes to make her notice me, even though it was a completely futile effort.
    “That was nice of him to give us some time to hang out,” she said, smiling sweetly.
    Yeah, Jake was a friggin’ saint.
    “ He’s a good guy,” I told her, just to have something to say in response.
    She smiled again, and I wasn’t sure why. Then I guess she realized we were still lingering in the doorway since she stepped back and closed the door behind us.
    “We’re having an impromptu party.” She gestured to the room with a sweep of her hand and then turned toward the throngs of people sitting on ev ery available surface. “Hey guys, for those of you who don’t know him, this is Ryder, my oldest and best friend.”
    Around the party , people I didn’t know looked up for a few seconds before going back to their conversations, apparently uninterested. But it was a different story with the people I actually knew. Most of them were part of Sydney’s core team who I’d known for years but only got to see a few times a year when I visited Syd. They all came over to hug me and catch up and to tell me how good it was to see me.
    I liked that she’d surrounded herself with people who seemed genuine since she’d had issues with that when she first made it big. A lot of people tried to use her, but she was smart enough to weed through the ones who were trying to get close to her for the wrong reasons. She’d kept the good ones around, and once you made it into Sydney’s inner circle, as long as you stayed faithful – or didn’t try to kiss her, I suppose – she kept you there for life.
    Her stylists were probably the people I knew the best since I always found myself hanging out around them while Sydney got ready for some appearance, interview or show. They always flirted with me and told me how cute I was. Of course I hadn’t always liked the attention. I’d been shy and quiet when I first started hanging out in Sydney’s crazy world, and they’d realized early on how easy it was to tease me. They loved to embarrass me in any way they could, and they’d been doing it for years. Fortunately, my confidence had grown, and I’d developed a much thicker skin along with a quicker wit since I’d hit college.
    “Oh, my God, it’s the hottie best friend,” Sydney’s hairstylist Clea said as she hugged me. “How are you, Ryder?”
    I smiled. “Hanging in there. How’s life in the world of hair?”
    She ran her hand back through my hair and shook her head. “Would be better if you’d let me give you some highlights.”
    I jerked away from her. “No way,” I said shaking my head. “I like my hair the way it is.”
    She pouted. She’d been asking to highlight my brown hair for years, but there was no way I’d let her touch it. My frat brothers would give me serious hell if I came back with blond streaks.
    “Boo. You suck,” she said playfully and