Graham stood near the windows speaking quietly with the event coordinator.
When Brandon approached, Vanessa jumped up.
“Finally.”
He stopped.
“Are you okay?”
“Am I okay? Brandon, do you have any idea how humiliating this has been?”
He glanced toward Graham.
Vanessa lowered her voice.
“That man made me look like an idiot.”
“Daniel didn’t make you say any of those things.”
She stared at him.
“Excuse me?”
“You threatened to have him thrown out.”
“Because I thought he was some random person who’d wandered in!”
Brandon took a breath.
“And if he had been?”
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“What?”
“If he’d been a delivery driver looking for the correct entrance, would you have been right to humiliate him?”
She looked offended.
“Why are you suddenly talking like some kind of social worker?”
“I’m asking you a question.”
She shook her head.
“You’re taking his side because he’s powerful.”
That stung because there was some truth to it.
Brandon hadn’t challenged Vanessa when she’d mocked the valet earlier that evening.
He’d laughed.
Not because the joke was particularly funny.
Because he’d been enjoying the feeling of arriving with an attractive woman in a sports car and having people assume they were more successful than they really were.
He’d wanted to be admired.
