She sits up, giving me her best puppy dog eyes. “Please,” she begs.
I let out a breath. I don’t know if it’s the failed date I just went on or if I’m feeling drained right now, or a combination of the two, but somehow I hear myself say: “Fine.”
“Really?” she says, her voice going up an octave.
“But don’t get mad when it doesn’t work out.”
“I won’t, I swear.”
She most definitely will.
Sam snuggles back down into the couch, grabs the remote from the floor, and points it at the TV.
“Should we watch our show?”
“I probably need to go to bed,” I tell her. It’s a work night and I have a busy schedule tomorrow. Those client statements aren’t going to write themselves.
“Just one episode,” she says, pulling the menu up and doing a search.
Sam will not take no for an answer, and truthfully, I could use something to take my mind off this evening.
She finds our show—Kingdom of Flame and Moonlight—and starts episode six of season one.
Unlike everyone else on the planet, Sam and I didn’t get into the hype over this beloved book adaptation until recently. And that’s only because the two actors—Bailey Lockhart and River Rhodes—who play the main characters were a couple in real life. Were. Past tense. It all blew up right before the announcement of next season’s premiere date, much to the fandom’s dismay. Seriously, I’ve never seen so much crying online over the demise of a celebrity coupling.
Both were represented by Harrow & Finch, the PR firm I work for. Now Bailey, who plays Elora—the human woman who gets stuck in a dying fae realm—will stay with us, and River, who plays Kaelric—the fae prince searching for a cure to save his people—will be repped by someone else going forward. My boss, Simone, is doing the handover tomorrow.
It wasn’t until the breakup that Sam and I decided to see what all the talk was about. And now . . . we get it. The show is incredible. The acting is stellar, and the production is top notch. I’ve even considered reading the books, and I never read for fun. Not unless it’s some sort of work-related nonfiction piece. Because I spend the bulk of my day crafting statements—some of which are even more fictional than this show (you have to get pretty creative when trying to spin a story), reading fiction for leisure isn’t at the top of my list.
But I kind of want to read this one. I’ve even taken a quiz to see which of the courts I belong in—Sun, Moon, Stars, or Eclipse—and I was put in Sun, which is where Kaelric’s family is from, so obviously I wanted to be there. And Sam is in the Star court because it’s full of performers and dreamers, the creatives of the kingdom.
That’s how addicting this show is, though. It’s got two women in their late twenties taking online quizzes.
“Have you heard any more lore about Bailey and River?” Sam asks when they appear on the screen for the first time in this episode. River, with pointed ears and long flowing blond hair, wearing dark, fitted armor made of leather and metal, and Bailey in a flowing purple dress, her white hair curled and cascading down her back. They really are devastatingly good looking together, and the chemistry is off the charts, which has made this show what it is. No wonder fans are in such an uproar right now.
“Nothing interesting,” I tell her. She knows about River leaving Harrow & Finch, and how the studio—Silverline—isn’t loving the press right now with the breakup. Not when they’re set to start filming season four, the season when Kaelric and Elora finally get together.
Bailey and River ending things is crappy timing overall, but that’s where Simone steps in. As VP of crisis communications, she handles the high-profile messes, getting ahead of the story with such ease, she could probably do it in her sleep.And I, as her senior account executive, handle the rest. So, clients more of the D-list variety. Certainly no one Sam would be interested in hearing gossip about.
I settle into the couch, stretching my legs out, and Sam covers them with her throw, like we do this all the time. Because we do.
For now, I’m going to put Joshua, kisses, and curses out of my mind, enjoy this romance between a fae prince and a human, and worry about reality later.
Chapter 2
PR Tip #34:Never walk into a room without knowing who’s already in it.
Reality sets in the next morning. And it comes with a vengeance.
“What do you mean you won’t be here?” I ask my boss, Simone, for perhaps the fifth time, because none of this is making sense.
“I need you to do the handover for River Rhodes,” she says, a finality in her tone, her stern voice coming through over the speakerphone, echoing in my office.
I slump back into my ergonomic chair, my legs tucked under my espresso-finished desk. The surface is mostly empty, except for my monitor and laptop, a plant someone gave me that I refuse tolet die, and a framed picture of me and Gigi. My assistant, Tessa, sits across from me, her brow pinched.
I’m probably giving her back the same look. We are both confused right now as Simone tells me she won’t be coming in today, and possibly tomorrow. Which makes zero sense since the woman is a workhorse. In my entire time at Harrow & Finch, she’s taken maybe two or possibly three breaks. Not days off.Breaks.
One was for her grandfather’s funeral. She only took the afternoon for that one, and she was texting me during the entire service. In her defense, the man was 101 years old, and there wasn’t much of a relationship there. But still. The woman does not know how to stop working.
