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“It’s Rafael.”
I put on my surprised face. “Did something—”
“I am not jealous.”
“Of course not.”
“I want to make that very clear. I’m just very disappointed.”
“Right.”
She thrust her phone toward me.
Rafael had been tagged in a photo from a rooftop launch party. A very unfortunate one. His face was buried in the cleavage of a woman whose cheekbones looked professionally sharpened, next to a table littered with champagne bottles. Another woman had her hand on his thigh.
“I’m so sorry,” I said.
“Be sorry for him, Marlowe. He’ll be cleansing that from his aura for a decade.”
She swallowed the pills one by one with stiff, slightly unsteady fingers. When the Xanax slipped down her throat, I quietly exhaled.
“I thought what we had was more than transactional. I’ve only recently learned to trust men with my kundalini again, after Marco’s hideous betrayal. It’s infuriating.”
“Of course. I understand.”
“And this could absolutely damage the brand.”
I nodded gravely.
“I’d like you to personally disinvite him to the pool party.”
“Will do,” I said, cringing on the inside.
But a cringe was well worth what this had bought me, I realized, with a pang of guilt. Vivienne would be a lot easier to recruit with wounded kundalini. But I would have to wait to ask her permission to invite Damian. Now would not be the time to tell her about finding my own incredibly hot twin flame.
The doorbell rang.
“Caspian. Thank god,” she said.
“Yes, thank god.”
With Vivienne in Caspian’s capable hands, I sat at the kitchen island with my laptop and worked on the finer details of the pool party. The caterer wanted to know if it was strictly necessary to offer seven different infused waters, and what, exactly, Vivienne had meant by a “regenerative adaptogenic fig elixir.”
The seating plan was a particular kind of headache. My spreadsheet was organized by name, Instagram handle, potential brand ambassadors, net worth, and known personality disorders. Behind the spreadsheet there was another tab I didn’t let myself open until later: notes from the first module of a design certificate I’d enrolled in after my winery-and-swim date with Damian, where I’d told him about the woman I used to be, the one who believed in herself, and he’d said, she’s still in there.
Right as I was about to order luxury pool floats, my phone buzzed from my bag.
A group chat notification. I held my breath.
Jess: I have amazing news
Callie: ???
Priya: ?
Jess: I’m opening my own store!
Callie: OMG congrats
