Sharon's blue eyes flickered once again with another flash of surprise for the second or third time this evening. Lowering her hand, she looked up at Glenn, her eyes full of questions.
Getting the reaction she had been expecting, the redhead shouted with an amused grin plain on her face:
"Surprising, right?!"
Without waiting for an answer from the blonde, she raised her own glass and tilted it for a bottoms up. She was hit by a feeling of heat wrapped in cold, followed by an explosion of the blend that constituted the cocktail, but all throughout, without any taste of alcohol at all.
Sharon looked at Glenn, then did the same, drinking the rest of the cocktail in her glass in one shot while a single thought lingered in her mind.
A party without alcohol? It was not just different from what she had come expecting, rather, it was the opposite of her expectations, through and through. It was like falling into an unknown world while on the way to someplace.
She couldn't wrap her mind around the cause of the displacement. Lowering her hand while enjoying the aftertaste, she glanced at Glenn, then looked at the many bottles on the shelves against the wall.
Taking a deep breath, she finally turned her attention back to her 'reliable' manager:
"What were you saying?!"
Glenn came closer and shouted louder:
"I said, surprising, right!?!"
Sharon took a moment to process the words she caught through the noise, then honestly nodded:
"Indeed! This is not anything like what I expected!"
Glenn didn't comment. Instead, the amusement on her face grew as she continued with another question:
"No alcohol, no wild debauchery, and no hunting or being hunted for a one night stand, right?!"
Indeed, everyone present was more focused on the cars and the race, or the races, than on the bare legs on display, the cleavages each deeper than the last, the handsome faces, and the rich or richer heirs. That was the case even for some who stood together like couples.
Looking around, Glenn nodded and remarked:
"I had the same feeling as you the first time!"
"The first time?!!"
Sharon was stunned.
"And now we have our new contestants! The theme of this race, the contention at the center of the bet is~~!!"
"Hybrid!!!"
"Hybrid!!!"
"Hybrid!!!"
While they were conversing, the party was going on, and now new contestants were getting ready on the track. The shouts Lance got in response to his words interrupted the girls, making them turn toward the commotion.
While Sharon looked toward the cars getting ready, Glenn looked toward the stage, then suddenly raised her hand high and shouted while waving it to attract attention:
"Lance!!"
The man might have heard her, or not, but he definitely did notice the redhead as he paused, then waved back with a smile, before going back to his 'work'. Glenn smiled, then pushed her empty glass back to the bartender before turning to Sharon with a bright face to wait for the question that indeed came in a startled tone:
"You know him?!"
Curling her lips with a hint of teasing mischief, Glenn leaned on the bar, her tone deliberate:
"I got to know him at a party I managed to get an invitation to a year ago! He is the one who helped me get an investor when your last movie hit a snag!"
Sharon's blue eyes widened:
"Don't tell me…!!"
Glenn nodded with a wider smile:
"Yes, it is what you are thinking! He didn't have enough liquidity at that time! In his own words, he was poorer than he looks! So he got his best friend to come along and invest in the movie, though he didn't introduce him to me!"
Sharon opened her mouth, but failed to get any word out. She never expected that her connection with Alex Lenner, the notorious playboy, went all the way that far back. Before, she never could have imagined that man doing something as serious as investing. Though now, thinking about her new impression of him, she took a breath, then also pushed her glass to the bartender for another serving. Though the drink was without alcohol, she needed its chill to cool down.
By then, Glenn had already gotten her glass filled. Looking at Sharon's expression, she took a sip of the cocktail with a smile and pointed out:
"I told you before! He is more than he seems on the surface!"
Sharon looked down at the colorful drink in her glass, recalled the comparison Alex Lenner made using her chest, then pursed her lips:
"No matter what, he remains a debauched playboy!"
Saying that, she tilted her head and emptied her glass again. Glenn took in everything, smiled without a word, then emptied her own glass.
*VROOM~ VROOM~*
At that moment, the loud sound of engines getting noisily revved overpowered the other sounds around. The race was ready to start, and the attention of the whole place turned either to the large screen beside the stage or the starting line of the track itself.
*VROOM~*
But at the same time as the attention at the party shifted, another car engine boomed, not to announce readiness for a competition, but to loudly announce its arrival. And the sound this time came from the same path Sharon and Glenn took to arrive in the Lamborghini Revuelto earlier.
It was an arrival that lacked any sense of discretion. Instead, it seemed to seek to be as ostentatious as possible, causing a great many heads to turn back. Sharon also turned back, then frowned slightly.
On the stage, Lance, too, looked over, then grinned after seeing the Ferrari convertible which had arrived:
"And we have Ron who just arrived! He is still feeling proud of his Spider!"
"Wooh!!!"
The crowd jeered as the cameras moved to the convertible, before Lance continued with a smirk:
"But we all know that the Stradale remains the best for the track, especially the XX, so we don't need to care about him, do we?!"
"No!!!"
"What is important is to determine the best hybrid engine with our next race! So, everyone, count down with me! Five!"
Ignoring the downward curve at the corner of the mouth of the brown-haired driver, the cameras swung back to the racetrack as the crowd replied with a shout:
"Four!!!"
"Three!!!"
"Two!!!"
"One!!!"
*SCREECH!!!*
With that sharp noise, another ferocious race started.