Chapter 2

Primrose

Andrea looked like a mess when she opened the door, her face scrunched up in frustration, makeup smudged with tears.

“Ugh, you’re here to drag me to the meeting,” she said, wiping her eyes. “I look like a mess, don’t I?”

“Well, yeah, you absolutely do. Zachary told me to check in on you, but I blew the meeting too because he pissed me off, so I’m not about to drag you back there. Just making sure you’re good. Everything all right?”

“I’m fine. Just… I’m fine.” She took a step back, pushing the door back. “Tell Zachary I’m good.”

I put my foot in the door. “Hey. Don’t start running now. Zach’s not letting me off the hook that easily. I’m checking in on you.”

“I’m really okay.”

I pushed the door open. Andrea ostensibly tried to hold it shut, but she had the upper body strength of a starved Victorian peasant child, so I pushed in like punching through a wall of wet paper.

“Primrose,” she pleaded as I stepped inside, and I whistled low, looking around at the apartment.

“Your idea of doing fine is living in a sinkhole?”

“Half the mess is Sooyeon’s…”

I knew Sooyeon well enough to know she’d probably left a pair of running shoes out of place and that was about it. But whatever kind of lies Andrea needed to tell right now. I folded my arms, leaning back against the wall, and Andrea dropped her eyes to the floor.

She was a pretty girl with a short stature—not quite Ava levels of short, but shorter than me, with chin-length brunette waves and pretty blue eyes she always wasted losing them behind ten pounds of eyeliner. The clothes she wore never did her any favors, either, a frumpy sweater with a grandma-chic floral pattern and loose jeans that absolutely did not work with the sweater. She was never the pinnacle of fashion, but this level of frumpy and disorganized—both her and the apartment—was beyond her usual.

“Need me to ask Sooyeon what happened to you?” I said, and she grumbled, looking away.

“You’re so nosy.”

“Boss gave me a task. I do my job. The sooner you come clean with what’s going on, the sooner I get out of your hair, okay?”

“Zach knows what it is. He’s just rubbing it in.” She dropped onto her couch, pulling her knees up into her chest. I stood askew with my hands in my pockets, standing over her until she cracked, and she hung her head. “I had a breakup.”

I raised my eyebrows. “You were dating? I live upstairs from you and I never noticed.”

“We were quiet about it.”

“What, because you were the other woman? And that’s why it fell apart? I’d have thought you’d learn after Keith.”

“Oh my god, no.” She hugged her knees tighter. “God, Zach’s not going to let me worm out of this without just saying it. It’s because I didn’t want to deal with people giving me grief for dating a woman.”

It sank like rocks in my gut, the realization of it all. Wasn’t that just nice?

I stared at her for a long time before I sighed, pinching my brow. “Giselle Lawson.”

Andrea snapped her head up to look at me. “What—you knew?”

“I know now.” I sat down on the couch with her, pushing her books out of the way. “How long were you together?”

“Ugh… almost a year. Feels like a lifetime ago.”

I whistled. “You kept it quiet for that long?”

“I had to. It’s a long story.”

I looked down. “Hits hard. I’m sorry.”

She looked away. “I put so much of myself into it, and she just… she just wrenched it all away with no warning. And I have been handling it… not as well as I could.”

“This isn’t easy stuff.” I put a hand on her back. “When did it happen?”

“The day before yesterday… she told me her skating career was more important than our relationship.” She took a long, shaky breath, forcing her gaze up to the ceiling. “And I don’t know what to do with that. Am I that unimportant?”

I snorted. “Sounds like your typical bratty rich kid. Use you for as long as she likes, and then dropping you for her career as soon as she’s bored.”

“Is that all it was?” she said, her voice small, trembling. “Just for fun and then she was bored? I was… I was serious about her. And she said she was, too.”

“Yeah, but people lie. People who aren’t used to dealing with consequences lie even more often.”

She looked down. “I mean, it’s not like I’m perfect… I didn’t think I ever deserved her. She was probably just trying to get rid of me.”

“If she was making you feel that way, she was doing it to feel better once she dumped you.”

She sighed, hard, dropping against the back of the couch. “I’m not supposed to be mad at her. I don’t blame her for wanting to leave and just focus on her skating instead.”

I patted her on the back. “Let yourself be mad. You take the ugly feelings and put them away somewhere you can’t see them, and they just multiply. You should be pissed off.”

She put her face in her hands. “I don’t know how to go out and function normally in society. I go to classes, but I can’t pay attention to a single thing… it’s like I’m living life through a window. I hate this so much.”

I sighed, turning to the window, watching the trees in the central plaza sway in the wind. “Well… FIRE’s here for you.”

“Yeah, apparently. Kicking down my door to demand I share what’s happened.”

“Hey. You know how I operate. I’m not apologizing for it.”

She smiled thinly at me. “I’m glad you don’t hold a grudge for the whole cowboy thing.”

I clapped her lightly on the back before I stood up. “I just trust you’ve learned your lesson. C’mon, Andrea, you look like a disaster. Let’s get you cleaned up and then eating some of Ava’s stir-fry.”

“Did she agree to share?”

“Oh, yeah. Happily.” I clapped her on the back again. “Move it, I’m hungry. Like I said, FIRE’s here for you. We’re going to make sure you’re the one winning in this breakup, all right?”

∞∞∞

The party was loud and dark—my kind of environment. The crowds, the noise, it was easy for me to blend in and disappear anywhere I wanted, and I slipped through the first floor of the house to the back, where Zachary was in the kitchen with a cup of juice, chatting it up with Sooyeon. He raised a hand in greeting as I crossed the linoleum tile towards him.

“Hear you’ve been pitching in for Andrea,” he said. “Thanks, Primrose.”

“Level with me. Since when were you such a softie?”

“Softie?” He snorted. “Don’t insult me, Rosie. I’m vengeful. Somebody takes a shot at FIRE, I shoot back.”

I shoved my hands in my jacket pockets. “You just want an excuse to take down some rich kid, don’t you? And you asked me to look after Andrea just so I could see how sad she was and start resenting Giselle.”

Sooyeon, a tall Korean girl with short hair and every part of her figure screaming I play volleyball and butterfly tattoos on one arm showing through the sheer sleeves of her loose, long-sleeved crop top, elbowed Zachary lightly. “Primrose’s got your number, Zachy-boy.”

Zachary took it well, though, shoving his free hand in the pocket of his big, bulky bomber jacket, grinning at me. “All right, you got me. So get to the part where you tell me if it worked. Are you in, or what?”

The douchebag had me cornered. I didn’t want to risk blabbing about the Chris Torres thing right now, even though I still wanted to strangle him for blackmailing me with it, because I didn’t want to implicate myself in front of Sooyeon.

But it didn’t matter, aside from that I needed to find a chance to… talk with him about it later. I’d already woken up yesterday morning with a cold resolution in my heart, and I’d spent the day digging into everything I could about our sweetheart Giselle. And there was plenty more to it than just making Andrea cry.

Of course, that had been Zachary’s plan, too. And I was playing right into it. But I didn’t even mind. Maybe we were of the same ethos.

All I knew was that rich douchebags were a dime a dozen, but when they picked on FIRE, things were personal.

“Sure, I’m in,” I said, leaning back against the kitchen counter, kicking one foot up against the side. Zachary didn’t show much response, just a darkening of his eyes and his smile widening, but Sooyeon went wide-eyed.

“You’re doing it, for real? Matty and I were sure Zachary wouldn’t be able to sway you.”

“I wasn’t swayed. I decided on my own terms.” And Zachary knew just how much of a half-truth that was, but Sooyeon didn’t, and I’d always kind of liked her. Guess I wanted her to think I was cooler than that. “Zach’s promised me quite the reward. And I don’t like to see Andrea cry either. Especially since she dresses like a hobo grandma when she’s sad.”

Zachary inclined his head. “Glad to hear it, Primrose. I’m sure you’ll pull it off. I have it on good authority that she’s weak for redheads.”

“It’ll be simple enough regardless of if I check every kink in the box for her.”

“Well, I hope you have something to show for all that confidence come game time.” He tipped back the last of his juice before he set the cup down hard. “She’s got a program coming up in two weeks. Big one with big stakes—shooting for the Olympics next if it goes well, kind of stakes. I want you to pull the plug on her right before then and really hurt her.”

“I’ve got eyes. I already looked her up and figured that myself.”

“All right, then, since you’re so painfully clever, something you don’t know. I want you to show Matthew what you’re doing.”

I raised my eyebrows. “He can look online if he wants lesbian porn. I’m not doing anything that exciting with Giselle.”

“I’m not saying to give him a show. Just give him some tips.”

I wrinkled my nose. “You want to teach him to seduce people, now, too?”

“Seduction works well outside the bedroom, Primrose. I think you know that. I’m thinking he’ll be a good asset if you just show him a bit of how your thought process works. Don’t need to give him a full education, just the cliff notes.”

I shoved my hands in my pockets, rolling my eyes hard. “Any other demands, then? Shall I do it with my eyes closed? Backwards, in heels?”

“I’m sure it’d turn on Giselle. She likes a talented woman.”

Everything really rolled right off this guy. It was funny when it wasn’t scary—I’d seen the way he’d intimidate people, and I only had to see him with an enemy once before I had a solid resolution never to get on his bad side.

I pushed away from the counter. “Fine, I’ll hit up Matty. Sooyeon, c’mon. You can do better than this guy. Let’s find Tan and kick up a drinking game until he passes out on the couch.”

Sooyeon laughed lightly, looking between me and Zachary. “Sounds good. I’ll be there in a sec, I’ve just got to finish complaining about something to the big boss.”

Hmph. So gossiping even got to Sooyeon eventually. I’d been in FIRE long enough to know not to ask questions. “I’m dragging him to the upstairs parlor once I find him, so catch us up there.”

“Will do.” She waved as I headed out of the kitchen and pushed back into the crowds, diving into the swell of noise, lights, music, and body heat.