“I have no story,” Honey said.“Not a love story worth telling.”
“Aww…” Roxie put an arm around her to squeeze her close.“Don’t you worry, I’ll fix you up.”
Reluctance crossed Honey’s face.“Uh… I’m in no rush.”
“When it finds you, you’ll know… eventually.Took me a minute.”Roxie snagged wine from the fridge.“Now, who wants to hear about a little talk show calledTalk at Sunset?”
TWENTY-ONE
“ARIELLA, WELCOME to the world you deserve…” Roxie leaned in closer to the mirror to check the line of her lipstick.Satisfied, she spun around and raised her arms.“Let me show you the true meaning of Crimson.”
After they ate, shared their secrets, and had a couple—or three—of cocktails, somehow, Roxie mobilized a squad of hair and makeup techs to come over and pamper them, mobile stations, mirrors, and all.Right behind those pros were the stylists with their wardrobes full of apparel choices.Every color, every cut, every style laid right out before them.
Wary though she was to have too many people around, Roxie assured her that Zairn only let trusted people into their lives.And, as was smart, they didn’t talk about their day, or its true context, with the techs around.
Glamming up was fun, especially with these women.This was the first time in a long time she’d relaxed and let someone else take care of her.For recent dates there was anticipation, sure, but she was doing the work herself, thinking and planning things that never came to pass.This time, she could trust the professionals rather than her own handiwork and just let life be.
Most of her life, actually all of her adult life, meant being invisible or staying low-key, the complete opposite of everything Roxie Kyst embodied.
Cam’s living room had been transformed again.He wouldn’t mind.
Where was he?
They hadn’t spoken all day.She needed to call him, to at least see him, maybe then she’d stop thinking about him.
The front door opened and—huh.Knox.Wrong brother.
He stopped.“Everyone out.”
Their professionals stopped what they were doing to follow his instruction.No hesitation.Good.Okay.They should.She started to follow until Roxie caught her wrist.
“Not you, honey.”
When everyone was out, Knox swung the door closed and stepped down into the living room.
“We have a plan.”
“Oh, just like that, ‘we have a plan’?”Roxie asked.“You have a plan, just you and we’re all supposed to—” Knox’s head tilt quieted the brunette.“Okay, sorry, we have a plan.”
“We’re outing you on Roxiverse, Ariella.”
Outing her on Roxie’s show?
“We’re not live,” Roxie said.
“We don’t want you to be.You hit Crimson tonight, talk to Hatfield, he’ll do your interview.”
Uh oh, alcohol had been a mistake.“He’ll do the interview tonight?”
“No, he’s out of the loop, it’ll be in the next day or two.Less pressure than a Keller interview.We can line that up later, if necessary.We don’t want to be the ones escalating this.”
Discerning Roxie seemed calm.“That’s good.And, again, Hatfield isn’t live, so we can edit.”
“Yep.We’ve got to be ready for this to get rough.”Knox came a little closer.“Ariella, for Roxiverse to work, you have to be in Roxie’s life.People will see you.There will be speculation.There will be news vans outside.”
Shit.And this was a good plan?
“We use the stream,” Roxie’s optimism grew.“Damn, you’re good at this, Collier.No comment to the press.We let them speculate—”
