“Seriously.” She sighed. “I know a guy. He makes it his business to find out this city’s secrets. I’ll call him in the morning, see what he can do. No guarantees, but it’s worth a shot.”
“I owe you a bottle of wine,” Isaid, feeling my spirits lift. With any luck, Fae’s mystery man — who I totally had to ask about at a later date because, um, how cool was it that she ‘knew a guy’ who dealt in secrets — would come through for us and I’d have another lead to chase down.
“More than one,” she observed. “And don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to. This is about Vera and that crazy-town collage of theories you’ve plastered all over your apartment wall. We’re overdue for a chat about your conspiracy obsession. No more secrets.”
“Oh, like you don’t have secrets of your own.” I snorted. The girl was practically a Pandora’s Box of mystery.
Fae sighed, but didn’t contradict my words. “I’ll call you tomorrow after I hear back aboutLabyrinth. We can meet after work.”
“Thanks, Fae.”
“Yeah, yeah. Call before ten next time,” she grumbled, clicking off.
Despite her grouchiness I knew no matter what time I called, Fae would always answer. I smiled as I stashed my phone on my bedside table, closed down my laptop, and snuggled deeper beneath my comforter. It had been a pretty awesome day, if you didn’t count my interaction with Sebastian — which I wasn’t. The last thing I saw before my eyes drifted closed was my Cinderella gown hanging on the door of my closet.
***
The bartender slid a glass ofMerlot across the mahogany bar top, grabbed the bills I’d placed on its sticky surface, and moved on to take another order. I stared into the deep crimson swirling in my glass, mired in a bad mood I hadn’t been able to shake all day.
Not since Cara had shown up at the office this afternoon, anyway.
She’d sauntered in, two lesser-known models following at her heels as any proper minions should, and immediately headed for Sebastian. Sure, I’d been studiously ignoring him all day as I worked on a new piece about how the 1960s fashion evolution echoed female empowerment, but once Cara made a move in his direction, all of my senses shifted into high-alert. I watched her progress with narrowed eyes, listened intently to her girlish greeting, and flinched when I saw her wrap skeleton-thin arms around his torso.
My head told me in a calm, rational tone that I should be glad he had someone else to distract him from his mission to discover what had happened between us seven years ago.
My heart let out a battle cry and decked itself out in war-paint, beating a drum and sharpening a spear as it prepared to engage Cara in a savage altercation that would leave no doubt about who Sebastian belonged to.
I fought against my more primal instincts and managed to talk myself off the edge. Not very far off — just a step or two back from the brink — but enough that I could turn my eyes back to my laptop and at least pretend to focus on my story. My gaze may have been averted, but my ears were finely attuned to every word that escaped Cara’s Maybelline-endorsed Very Berry lips.
“Baby, wait until you see my dress for Centennial! It’s Vera Wang. Totally gorgeous.”
“Cara, you’re late.” I was relieved to hear the frustrated undercurrents in Sebastian’s voice — acommon occurrence whenever he spoke to the model. “We had the ’50s shoot this morning. You missed it.”
“Well, I’m here now,” Cara whined, her voice that of a petulant child. “Let’s go shoot it.”
“I don’t need you here, Cara. Go home.”
“What do you mean, ‘you don’t need me?’ I’m the lead model for this spread.”
I could sense her pouting from across the room.
“We shot it without you,” Bash said, his voice weary. “So come back tomorrow. On time.”
“What did you say?” Cara screeched.
“You heard me, Cara. And don’t act so surprised — you know my rules. You didn’t show up; I replaced you. End of story.”
“This is ridiculous!” Cara’s shrill tone made everyone in the office flinch. “I’m calling Jeanine about this.”
“Go ahead.”
Cara stormed to the elevators — or so I thought. When the unmistakable sound of her clomping heels came to a halt directly next to my work station, I looked up to find the model’s glaring eyes narrowed on my face.
“While I’m on the phone with Jeanine, I’ll be sure to tell her what an absolute fuck up you’ve been here,” she sneered at me. “After the stunt you pulled with my salad, I wanted you fired right away. Sebastian convinced me that your working here would make up for it, though, so I didn’t say anything.” She looked at me with the malicious excitement of a small boy who’d pinned an ant beneath his magnifying glass on a hot summer day. “But you haven’t suffered here at all. In fact, the way I see it, he treats you better than he treats me. So I’ll be speaking to Jeanine about you after all, skank, and I’ll make sure you walk away from here without your job.”
With a final glare, she turned and exited the building. My wide eyes flew from her retreating form to Sebastian, who was already striding in my direction. Beneath the watchful eyes of the score of people in the office, he grabbed my arm and led me to the emergency exit stairwell. When the heavy metal door swung shut at my back, isolating us in the abandoned stairway, he turned to me and let out an exasperated breath.
“What did she say to you?” he asked, running one hand through his hair.