She leads me to a beauty counter in the center of the floor. A woman in a sleek black uniform looks up as we approach.
“Can I help you ladies?”
“She needs everything,” Zoe says, depositing me onto the stool like I’m a package. “Full face. Make her glow.”
“Zoe—”
“You’ll love it. Trust me.” She hops onto the stool next to mine, getting comfortable. “And while she works, we talk.”
The woman—her nametag says MIRA—tilts my chin up, studying my face. “You have gorgeous bone structure. Those cheekbones.” She starts pulling out products. “Special occasion?”
“She just joined a cluster,” Zoe says.
Mira’s hands still for just a second. When she looks at me again, there’s something new in her expression. “Oh. Congratulations.”
“Thanks,” I manage, not sure what I’m being congratulated for.
“Five guys,” Zoe adds. “All absurdly good-looking. It’s disgusting, honestly.”
Mira laughs. “Five? God. I thought three was a lot.” She shakes her head, dabbing primer onto my skin. “You’re a lucky girl.”
I blink. “I am?”
“Most of us spend our whole lives hoping for a bond. Any bond. And clusters?” She whistles low. “That’s the dream. The real thing.”
I catch Zoe’s eye. She’s watching me carefully.
“Okay, so,” Zoe says. “The guys asked me to do this.”
“Do what, exactly?”
“Take you shopping. Get you things you need. Stuff you actually want, not just whatever was in that dresser.” She pulls out another card—this one reads LOCKE MERCER—and holds it up. “They gave me backups. Plural. And very specific instructions to make sure you didn’t argue about it.”
Mira pauses with a brush halfway to my face. “They gave her their cards?”
“Multiple.”
“And they’renot even bonded yet?”
“Nope.”
Mira stares at me like I’ve grown a second head. “Honey. Do you understand what that means?”
I don’t. I really don’t.
“It means they’re already gone for you,” Mira says, returning to my face with renewed focus. “Men don’t do that. Not unless they’re sure.”
“Sure of what?”
She and Zoe exchange a look I can’t read.
“Close your eyes,” Mira says. “I’m doing your lids.”
I close them. The brush moves soft across my eyelids.
“When I first met my guys,” Zoe says slowly, “I thought I was losing my mind. Everything felt too much. Too fast. I couldn’t be in a room with them without my skin feeling like it was on fire. I didn’t understand why I kept wanting to be near them even when it scared me.”
My chest tightens. That’s—that’s exactly—
