“I will cook you a meal. A really big, fancy one. Hell, I’ll bake you a cake. It’ll have your name and mine.”
“Which one will be on top?”
“Oh, well, I mean, mine’s shorter, so mine should probably be on top, but you probably should get first billing, since, you know, you’re the one who knows what you’re doing.”
She smiled wider. “So, despite your better judgment, you just can’t help wanting to be the bottom?”
“Oh—uh.” I blinked, opened my mouth, closed it, feeling myself warm. “I mean, what would be the use in lying at this point?”
She laughed, giving me a playful push. “You know I see through all your secrets now.”
“I think I know a couple things about you now too,” I managed to say, being cool about it and not blushing. She smiled.
“Did you know I hate Estelle?”
I stopped, furrowed my brow, and I laughed. “I picked up on it after the whole,surprise, it’s Julie Branchthing.”
“Hm. Mostly it’s because she’s always right in the end, and then she’s always smug about it.” She settled back in the seat,looking up at the ceiling with a faraway look in her eyes. “I am really glad to be doing this. Instead of sitting here wallowing.”
My chest fluttered, and I was either very brave or very stupid, because I shifted closer to her, laying a hand on her arm. “It’s amazing, getting to see you come alive when you have a project you’re passionate about… you just light up the world.”
“Listen to you flirt.”
“Listen toyouflirt.”
She laughed quietly. “I’m glad you came back.” She turned to look at me, eyes sparkling. “I really… quite… enjoyed the song.”
“Oh, Christ, I didn’t really think about the logistics of you hearing the song knowing I wrote it for you.”
“You’re a hell of a songwriter, Julie,” she said, and her hand fell to my knee. “You’re built for the music industry after all.”
“I am not,” I laughed nervously. “I never even thought I’d go into music! I mean, I alwayslikedmusic. I just never thought… it was literally just something Kingmaker foisted upon me because his office is right above a music studio and he knew some people there.”
“Well, you take to it like a fish to water. Just like you do to business. To networking and negotiating.” She let her hand fall to my cheek, and I couldn’t breathe right. “I hate you almost as much as I hate Stellie, just so you know.”
“Oh. How do I get it higher? I want to at least be number one.”
She laughed. “I hate that you’ve talked yourself down, believing you can’t do incredible things, when you’re… I mean, look at you. I can’t think of anybody else who could pull off what you have, all from thatplaceyou were in.With no money to your name, all that debt, and even with all of that… still putting your neck out there to help me pursue my dreams. Do you have any idea who you are?”
“Um.” I was so nervous my heart was going to explode. “I guess actually I’ve been relatively bad at identifying correctly who I am.”
“You’re Julie Branch. The woman who can do anything.” She brushed her fingers over my cheek. “I’m lucky I met you at that party.”
“Helena,” I whined quietly. “You… you know how I feel about you, it’s… if you say things like that, it’s really…”
She laughed. “I do know how you feel about me,” she said, voice low. “As a hot supermodel…”
“Oh, god.” I buried my face in my hands. “Oh, my god, Helena, it’s not like that, it was literally just something flippant I said while I was trying to brush off Kingmaker and he ran with it in his stupid diagrams—”
“I know,” she laughed softly, brushing my hair back. Holy shit, the little… soft… tender touches. The way she looked at me like Iwasall those things she was saying about me. Oh my god, ifHelena Warrickthought that about me, I was a fucking goddess. Odysseus voyaging home had nothing on me getting into this woman’s apartment.Hemight have carved their bed into a living olive tree, butIblew up an inflatable air mattress in Helena’s office, so he could get in line. “If you did just want me as a hot supermodel, you’d hardly have put yourself out there so much to help me break into something that’s actively taking away from my time for modeling. But it’s very cute to see you blush, so I will keep bringing it up.”
“Helena…” I said, my voice wavering. “Oh my god. You know I really,really…”
She smiled. “Yes?”
“You know.” I laughed awkwardly. “I, uh… really like you, so if you keep teasing me, I’m gonna… die a little bit. Probably a lot.”
“Well, we can’t have that,” she said, shifting closer and putting her fingers to my chin. “You dying is not… an ideal outcome. I guess I’ll have to stop teasing and follow through.”
