Bea rose too. “I didn’t know I’d joined a Cabinet.”
“You didn’t,” Naomi said, already striding toward the door. “This is what they call a draft.”
It was nearly one in the morning when the girls finally left, and Bea was alone in her bedroom. The champagne buzz had worn off hours ago. Now she was just tired in a way that had nothing to do with sleep.
She dropped onto her bed, dress wrinkled. She stared at the ceiling for three full minutes before reaching for her phone.
BEYA SLAYA: Gage is leaving.
CLAIRE BEAR: ???
CLAIRE BEAR: What the hell do you mean he’s leaving?!
BEYA SLAYA: Literally what I said.
The typing bubble appeared. Vanished. Appeared again. Then:
CLAIRE BEAR: Video. Now.
Bea reluctantly hit Video Call. Claire picked up on the first ring. The light behind her was the faint glow that came barely after sunrise.
“Okay,” Claire started, “from the top. Use small words. I haven’t had caffeine yet.”
Bea flopped back onto her pillows. “I can’t tell you the details. I think I might literally cost his company billions of dollars if this becomes public, so you have to swear you won’t tell.”
“Bea. Who would I tell? My plants? The ghost that’s been stealing my socks?”
“Claire Bear.”
“I swear,” she said solemnly, raising a hand like she was about to testify in court. “On the grave of my social life and the half-dead basil I keep forgetting to water.”
Bea put her arm over her eyes. “He told me over dinner. One of those silent, soundproof rooms where the waiter disappears for two hours and everything smells like truffle oil.”
“A breakup restaurant?”
“Apparently a relocation restaurant.”
“What details can you give me?”
“He’s going in January. For three to four years. He wants me to know…that’s the future we’re heading toward.”
“What did you say?”
“I saidOkay, like a moron.”
“Ah. The verbal panic button.”
Bea huffed a small laugh. “It was the only thing that didn’t come out shaky.”
“You freaking out?”
“Yes. And no.” She sat up. “Everything’s just starting to fit here. And now he wants to move away. But then, I’ve done it once, I know I could do it again.”
Claire was quiet for a moment. Then asked, “Do you want to go?”
“I want Gage,” she said. “And I think if I want him, it comes with this.”
“Like what Victor said,” Claire recalled.
