“Wow. Are we bonding?” she asked.
I let go of her and nibbled on my lip. “I think so.” It had been so long, I could hardly remember what it felt like totruly bond with a friend. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. I don’t want to ruin your reputation.”
“I appreciate that,” she laughed. “Now, are you ready to make the most divine application video and do a glamour shoot?”
I grabbed a throw pillow and squeezed it tight. “I don’t know.”
“Demi, do you really want to go on TV looking like this?” she asked delicately. “Do you know what kind of attention that’s going to get?”
I slammed the pillow into my face and mumbled into it, “I know.” I’d had visions of it, and it wasn’t pretty. “I can already hear the headlines,” I whined. “‘From Gold Medals to Ghastly Muumuus’; or ‘Demi Blake: From Rising Star to Fallen Star—How She Crashed and Burned.’”
Cassie tore the pillow away from me. “Okay, drama queen,” she said with love. “Although you’re probably not far off. So, what are you going to do about it?” She dared me with her eyes.
I blew out the biggest breath of my life, begrudging this quest. “Can you help me?”
“Eep!” she squealed, springing to her feet. “I’ve been waiting for this moment.”
Suddenly, two racks of clothes shimmered into existence, along with a vanity and studio lighting that could blind Narcissus himself.
“What in the actual Hades?”
“Oh, that reminds me. Zara, the HR queen—” Cassie rolledher eyes.
She and Hades’s granddaughter didn’t exactly get along. Probably because of all the extra paperwork Zara had to do when Cassie got a little hex happy.
“—said her grandpa doesn’t like everyone using his name like a swear word.”
“She’s kidding, right?” I’d always thought Hades enjoyed his name being invoked all the time.
“Do I look like someone who jokes about HR memos?”
“Fine, what in the actual hell is this?” I deadpanned.
“This is a new beginning.” Cassie’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “And . . .” She smirked. “The icing on the cake? You’re going to show Roman Archer exactly who he’s dealing with.”
I winced at the sound of his name. The thought of him orchestrating my love story made me want to vomit. And I’d tried to dress up for him once and it hadn’t worked out so well. But I refused to think about it.
“No. Roman will never see the real me. No matter who she is.” That I knew.
Cassie tilted her head in a silent question, but she didn’t press. “Well, at least you can find consolation in the fact that he’s the host and not a cast member. Could you imagine being paired with him?” She shuddered for effect.
Once upon a time, I’d imagined it in great detail. But no one would ever know that. Especially not Roman Archer.
Chapter VI
Roman
“Roman!Roman!Roman!”Mycasting director Jasmine Grover—though everyone called her Jazzy—burst into my office like she’d just won an Emmy. Her smooth deep brown skin illuminated with that perfect-cast-member glow, her long, tight curls bouncing like they had their own agenda.
I didn’t need divine intuition to guess why she was excited. And I dreaded it. I looked up from my screen, scrubbing a hand over my beard, bracing for impact.
Jazzy threw herself into one of the chairs across from me with no trace of skepticism about this “special season.” No questions about how easily things were falling into place. Everyone on my team was going about as if it were business as usual.
Zeus was definitely meddling with my staff.
The prick.
But I knew better than to interfere. My father had warned me:Let it play out.
