Page 34 of Winter With You

‘And she’s nothing like Victoria Beckham.’

‘No, she’s nothing like that. She’s more, kind of… Cher.’

‘Timeless and talented?’

‘Big hair and a lot of sequins.’

Gabriella laughed and almost broke her position. ‘Don’t make me laugh.’

‘Why? It’s good to laugh. My mother says laughter can cure anything.’

‘Does she also believe in life after love?’

‘Cute, Gabriella.’

She felt a ripple through her shoulders. A relaxed ripple. When had her shoulders lost enough tension to feel any movement? That observation jarred her thinking and she pushed herself back to standing. She felt… oddly better.

‘OK?’ Luca asked her.

She took a breath, slow, from the very pit of her insides, then nodded. ‘Yes. I’m OK.’ She smiled at him. ‘I’m not the one heading to a family birthday party tonight. And, just know, if I could turn back time for you then⁠—’

‘God! Make this stop already!’ He put his fingers in his curls. ‘You do someone a solid and this is how they repay you.’

She laughed out loud and then the door burst open and there was Cheyenne all intense and iPad-y like this interview was the literary equivalent of Gladiators and, at any moment, there would be a guest change and she’d have to battle Mel Robbins with a pugil stick…

‘Good! You’re ready! Let’s go, no time to waste, let me just run through⁠—’

‘No,’ Gabriella interrupted. ‘We don’t need to run through anything. I know what the questions are going to be, you showed me them earlier and⁠—’

‘But if something comes out of left field then⁠—’

‘Then I hit a home run,’ Gabriella stated.

She stood as tall as the figure-hugging dress would allow, the red skirt section Luca had somehow made into flamenco-meets-Camilla Cabello giving her hips she really didn’t own. She was doing this, all this, for Phoebe, and for Lulu…

‘American terminology,’ Cheyenne said, her tone sounding pleased. ‘Very on brand with your audience. Bravo.’ She turned to Luca. ‘So, what happens now? With people like you?’

‘What would you like to happen with me?’ Luca asked her. ‘I can do requests.’

Gabriella smiled. He was funny. And just the right kind of confident. And apparently he could stretch out a lifetime of muscle tension with his shoulders and Cher gags…

‘Do you disappear into the night now? Do we meet again before the next event? All the notes I’ve made are very vague,’ Cheyenne said, eyes briefly dipping to her iPad and then back again to Luca.

‘I will stay. I will watch the show from off stage. I will be available at the ad breaks if Gabriella feels her look needs any more attention than the make-up guys will provide.’ He smiled. Warm initially, until… ‘That is what usually happens with people like me.’

Gabriella watched him, tried to capture the little nuances, any change of atmosphere in the eyes, his tell. There was nothing. No alteration of expression, no give away, a perfect flat calm…

‘OK, then we’re ready,’ Cheyenne decided for everyone.

22

If Luca had been hoping to garner anything more about Gabriella Felix from listening to her talk about Zero Fucks Given he would have been sorely disappointed. This was a show. A promotional piece with as much depth as Benoit Torres’s last performance as a Columbian warlord. But it didn’t surprise him. This was a tour for the book, not for Gabriella as a person. Except, in his experience, if you went through life only showing a manufactured persona, eventually the outer façade cracked and any authenticity that existed underneath the surface, prior to the start of the sideshow, had crumbled long before you even realised it.

Gabriella was astute. Professional. A masterful conversationalist, seemingly putting the other celebrities alongside her on Zeeta’s golden couch at ease, asking questions in a way that coaxed answers out gently, making people automatically trust her. That was some skill to have. And, all the while, as he listened and made mental notes about outfits to come, he also got more and more convinced there wasn’t one scrap of the real Gabriella on the stage. Then, as the cameras stopped rolling and everyone deflated just slightly from the live televisual high, Luca watched her stand, outwardly calm, but as she made her way into the wings her pace quickened and her assured expression dropped. Something was wrong. He stepped forward.

‘What happened?’

‘There’s something in the dress,’ Gabriella said, face contorting in discomfort.