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“And these?” I shiver, pinching the thin fabric of my dress, feeling my face flush hot as my chest stiffens from the cold and worrying about the jewelry too.
“We should be fine, as long as Goodwyn doesn’t spot us,” Jack quips, but seeing my expression he leans closer.
“Just kidding. We’ll send it all back with the plane if it makes you feel better.”
What would make me feel better is a sweater, a jacket even. But by the time we’re approaching the limo, the driver produces a fur coat from the back, offering it to Jack so he can help me into it.
“The studio’s compliments,” the driver says demurely and I tell myself it has to be fake. Like the jewels.
It all looks so real as it has to for the camera, but they’re just props. I mean, who even wears real fur anymore?
“That’s better,” Jack croons, slipping the coat over my shoulders, holding the door open for me, and making sure he gets a decent view of my chest as I slip into the sleek black car.
I hear Jack telling the driver the address of the restaurant and then he slides in from the other side of the car himself, putting a huge arm around me and pulling me close.
I don’t have to look up to see him smiling to himself. I can just sense how happy he is now. Content.
But a sudden and terrifying fear grips my heart, like icy fingers so tight I suddenly feel like I can’t take another breath.
“My phone,” I gasp. “I switched it off before we took off in the plane and then…”
Jack doesn’t seem worried at all.
“It’ll be with our things, I wouldn’t worry-” he starts to tell me, but he can see how I feel about it and in a moment he’s told our driver to pull over and going to the trunk himself, he comes back with a sealed brown paper bag that has all my things in it, pressed and folded neatly.
Even my old bra that has a hole in one side.
“You think I’m silly, don’t you?” I ask him, feeling a little embarrassed, but how was I to know there were people who are actually kind?
In the city, you couldn’t leave your clothes, phone or anything anywhere for two minutes.
“They’re a great bunch, like family,” is all Jack says, settling back in his seat as I power up my phone, sighing a little to himself when he hears me gasping again.
There are dozens of missed calls, texts, and messages.
And all from my boss Naomi.
The other world I thought I’d escaped from has reached through the looking glass, and before I even read a single text or hear a single word from her, I know that none of it is gonna be good.
“I thought you wanted the phone?” Jack asks, noting my shift in mood and feeling me tense up like a block of ice under his arm.
“It’s my boss,” I remind him. “I was supposed to check in with her this morning before I even found out about this competition thing,” I say, not meaning to sound so short but that’s how it comes out.
Anything to do with Naomi just automatically gets my back up. Now I have proof, it even cancels out any joy from being with Jack Mercury.
Almost.
“Can it wait until morning? Until after dinner at least,” Jack reasons, trying to put his hand over my phone but I snatch it away.
“You don’t understand, this is my job. It’s how I get paid,” I hear myself growling at him.
Feeling like no matter how many special moments I’ve had with Jack today that none of it can cancel out the real misery of my existence.
He can’t just wave a magic wand and make all my problems go away.
And now on top of everything else, I feel bad for taking it out on Jack. Like a spoiled brat.
He’s quiet for some time and I scroll through the text messages, which start out fine enough but midway, I’m wondering if I even have a job to go back to.
“She’s found out I won the contest,” I tell Jack, giving him little micro-updates from my text feed with my boss.
Or maybe ex-boss by now.
As frightening as that idea is, it’s also kind of liberating in a way.
“Mm hmm,” Jack murmurs, glancing out the window as he looks up at something, his arm still around me but he’s giving me all the proverbial space he thinks I need, all things considered.
The whole sky outside the car lights up suddenly, a dozen thick fingers of forked lightning flashing across the darkening sky.
I can make out, just for a second, the plumes of black clouds rolling across the whole sky.
Kind of fitting, as if Naomi herself has somehow tracked me down. The menacing reality of my life.
