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“Did you polish the glasses? I don’t want him to think we can’t afford proper help.”
“Yes, I polished the glasses,” Hannah says, to her immense credit, without a single hint of the annoyance she must feel bleeding through in her tone.
I wait until Anae leaves to inspect the setup by the pool, then I look over at Hannah as I plunge a mini bottle of water into the ice. “So, has she gone all-in on Arden?”
“I don’t think so. She’s just anxious about making a good impression on him. She’s used to being the established one, and it has been confirmed several times this week that he’s the top of the food chain now, so she wants to make sure he likes her. I’m sure starting over, especially after a setback like Dare, is difficult for her.”
I couldn’t care less about Anae’s struggles, but before I can say as much, she comes back from the pool.
She must be satisfied by what she saw out there because rather than comment on it or bark at us to make changes, she does a little spin for us, her pink lampshade dress flying out to show off her long, slim legs. “What do you guys think?” she asks, striking a pose in front of an accent mirror hung up in the hallway.
“You look very pretty,” Hannah says politely.
Anae turns and shifts her shoulders to look at herself from behind. “Right? Ten out of ten, would bang.”
I roll my eyes, not bothering to offer my opinion of her outfit. She doesn’t care about it, anyway.
“It’s not too princessy, is it?” she asks, smoothing her hands down the puffy bottom. “It doesn’t look like I’m trying to hide that I had a big dinner or anything?”
“Of course not,” I say.
“Good.” She misses a beat, then says, “Oh! Speaking of princesses. Hannah, come here.”
“How is that a ‘speaking of princesses’?” Hannah asks, but follows Anae over to a little red velvet loveseat we set up for the party and sits beside her, anyway.
Anae pulls her phone out of her clutch. “I want to show you something I found.”
“Is this for the party?” I ask, approaching even though I wasn’t invited. “It’s probably too late to do much else. People will start showing up—”
“No, it’s not about that,” Anae says, waving me off. She taps and swipes at the screen, then tilts the phone so Hannah can see. “Look at these tattoos.”
Tattoos?
Hannah frowns at whatever she is seeing on Anae’s phone screen. I’m curious, so I walk over and sit on Anae’s other side so I can look, too.
I am somehow shocked to see a picture of Dare—specifically, a picture of Dare and Aubrey on a beach in Italy. His arms are locked around her and she’s laughing. There’s a smirk on his handsome face and his dark hair’s a little wet. His eyes aren’t always expressive, but in this shot, you can tell he’s having a good time. His caption reads, “I caught a mermaid.”
“Are we really going to cyber stalk your ex right now?” I ask. “I thought we were focused. New start! Party! Whoo!” I say, pumping my fist into the air.
Anae ignores me and focuses on Hannah, since she’s been successfully drawn in.
“What am I looking at?” Hannah asks, uncomprehending.
“He added to his tattoo.”
“Okay. Why do I care?”
“Because you’re on his arm.”
Hannah’s eyes widen. “What?” she asks sharply, scowling and looking closer at the screen.
“He has a Cinderella tattoo,” Anae states, pointing to an exploded clock tower on his upper arm. “Look, the crow is him, he got that at the start of senior year to symbolize his house—he’s onyx, wisdom, a black crow. Anyway. He changed the crow, it has a crown now. The crown is for me. He stolemycrown. He wasmyevil king. I’m sure he told his dumb twat scoop of vanilla some other bullshit, but we all knowI’mthe evil queen. So, the crown is his tattoo to remind him of me. The mermaid is her, of course,” she says, rolling her eyes. “But this clock tower with the hands set to midnight? This is clearly you, and the shard of glass in his mouth? Makes me feel like he’s responsible for breaking Cinderella, and I do sense a darkness in you that was not there before.”
Hannah eases back warily. “You’re reading too much into this, Anae.”
“I’m not. He got this ink for a reason. He’s not one of those guys that just likes the way they look. I need to figure out what they mean. What’s the significance of those of us who get tattoos? Initially, I thought it might be his trophy. He was never into physical trophies like I was, but what ifthisis his trophy? He’s turning his skin into a tapestry of all the lives he fucks with, you know?”
Anae’s eyes arebrightwith excitement. This girl is entirely unhinged.
