Because Elle was the entire reason she’d given me the internship in the first place. Because my big sister, the rock star, one of Danielle’s most high-profile clients, had asked her to take me on. I knew that. And yet hearing those words, right now?For Elle’s sake…
After all I’d done for Danielle, how hard I’d worked to prove that I wasn’t just some spoiled little sister of a star client looking for handouts and favors… it killed the last glimmer of desperate hope that I might change her mind.
How was this happening?
When I woke up this morning, it felt just like any other day. At least, for that split second before I remembered the fight I’d had with Flynn last night, and that I was waking up alone, on the couch.
I swallowed the bile that was creeping up, making my throat burn in the wake of that throat-punch of scotch. “Because… I’m too emotional,” I reiterated quietly, forcing the words out.
“Correct.” Danielle’s black-tipped nails played with her phone case, like she was halfway somewhere else. Like she was itching tobesomewhere else.
This conversation means nothing to her.
I have no actual value to her.
The saddest part of it, the most pathetic part, was that I had no idea until right now.
I cleared my throat. “Could you give me an example, please?” She frowned, and I really tried not to beg. “I don’t want to make the same mistake in the future.”
“Angeline… How can you not know what I’m talking about?” She poked at her phone impatiently as it lit up again, then shoved it aside. “Look. Next to your sister, Brianna MacMillan is one of my biggest clients.”
“I know.” Brianna was a model I’d met last week at a party. Danielle herself had introduced me as her “lovely assistant.”
“And you bought a drink for her date last night.”
I stared at Danielle, struggling to comprehend.
Thatwas what she meant by “too emotional”? She thought I was trying to hit on our client’s date?
My head spun, replaying the events of last night; seeing Brianna at the fundraiser I’d attended with my sister. I didn’t even know she had a date. She wasn’t with a man when I saw her. Last I heard, she was dating JC Bissette, the lead singer from Johnny O’Reilly’s band, but as far as I knew, he wasn’t there.
“What date?” I asked.
Danielle leveled me with a look. “Johnny O’Reilly.”
“But…”How?
Yes, I’d seen Johnny at the event. And yes, I’d gotten him a drink. But if he was there with Brianna, I had no idea. My mind twisted itself into knots, seeking answers I didn’t have. Johnny was dating Brianna MacMillan? Since when?
“He said… he said he was thirsty!” I spluttered. “He said he’d get pawed if he waded through the crowd to the bar and the waitress was taking forever. So I got him a drink.”
“He was flirting with you.”
“No, he wasn’t.” I took a breath. Going on the defensive wouldn’t help. I just wanted to understand where I’d screwed up so badly. “You told me, on the first day we met for coffee to discuss the internship, that we do whatever it takes to make our clients and their loved ones comfortable.” Johnny O’Reilly was not our client. But still… wouldn’t we treat a prospective client with the same courtesies?
“I meant winning their trust,” Danielle said. “Assuring them that our clients are in capable hands. That we protect their interests in the public eye.”
“I thought… I thought I was going above and beyond by wading through the crowd so he didn’t have to.”
“Well, Brianna did not see it that way.”
My mouth drifted open again, then snapped shut. “Did she complain about me?”
Danielle just looked at me, and I could practically hear the vault door shutting in my face. As “our” clients became hers once again, and I landed firmly on the outside of the inner circle.
Instead of answering me directly, she said, “You know whowillcomplain, as soon as I pick up their calls?” She tapped her phone. “Brianna’s other representatives. Her agent has been in my ear all morning.”
My stomach twisted. I wasn’t even sure why. I didn’t do anything wrong.
