Hotter Than Sin - Eve Montelibano

Chapter 5

IT WASN'T BRANDON'S STYLE to be fashionably late, but he was fifteen minutes late this time in this very event he'd been hosting with my father for the Equinox Foundation for almost a decade now. It was already an institution in charity. This fundraiser was the grandmother of all fundraisers as dubbed by Forbes—what with its 200-guest dinner at 50-thousand dollars a plate. But this was just a mere formality to promote the foundation. My father and Brandon had been staging this extravagant event mainly to encourage goodwill and generosity amongst their peers in the business. Dad's and Brandon's pledge tonight alone were 15-million dollars each.

The fundraiser was a red-carpet event held annually at the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel and usually featured in various magazine exclusively covering the goings-on at the upper 1% of high society. This was also an excuse for the the wives and daughters to attend wearing their latest haute coutures and rub elbows with sports and Hollywood megastars and some royalty.

Mom had been planning the whole year. She'd hired the best event planner in New York to fly to LA to make everything perfect. The guest-list was a clever mix of old-moneyed elite and nouveau riche so the stuffiness was reduced to a minimum. My father and Brandon were self-made billionaires but had made friends with the 'stuffy' old folks from all over the country and they'd happily flew in to attend this event every year.

Hollywood stars were regulars at Equinox parties. My father became a billionaire in his early twenties and he'd been hosting fundraisers with Brandon since I could remember. George Clooney and his pals were on my mother's auto-invites.

Our most special guest was Prince Cesare, the future king of Monte Franco, the richest small kingdom in Europe. Prince Cesare's mother was a princess but his father was a commoner and owned Darcy Equities, one of the most successful investment companies in New York. Equinox was a major client of Darcy Equities, hence the prince's presence here tonight to represent his father.

My girl friends were all over the prince right now. They'd been texting me all night to join them at the prince's table as he was alone and needed company, as if he'd have difficulty finding company. Truth was, I wasn't interested in another prince. I had my own and he was running really late it wasn't funny anymore.

I kept checking my phone if he'd answered any of my messages. I've sent him three, all remained unanswered. I'd called him twice already but his phone was unattended.

"Have you called Br— Uncle Brand, Dad? I wonder what's taking him son long? "

I still wasn't comfortable dropping the 'uncle' in front of my parents yet. I wasn't sure how they'd react to me and Brandon being a couple. I certainly didn't want to cause friction between Brandon and my father. But sooner or later they'd need to know. Once I and Brandon had settled things between us, we'd tell my parents.

They might be shocked but they had to accept it whether they liked it or not. I was optimistic though that they'd have no objection. After all, I chose their best friend to be my future husband. What could be cozier than that? All in the family, so to speak. There would be no discussions about prenups and all those complicated stuff my Mom had explained to me early on.

"Don't worry about him, he'll just show his ass any time. Besides, he's not delivering any speech tonight. That's your job."

"Yeah, but I want him to be here when I do. Can you please call him to hurry?"

Dad called Brandon. I clenched my teeth when he answered. Brandon was really taking it too far. Since we came back from Paris two weeks ago, we only saw each other once and that was only because I purposely went to the Equinox office to see him. He entertained me for ten minutes and then left for a meeting. I didn't bitch about that because I knew when Brandon was working, he was into it 100%. Still, I was hurt that he didn't call me afterward.