Chapter 9

Primrose

“Primrose?”

A voice came from behind me, and over the din of the crowd, I almost missed that it was Giselle’s. Cassandra went wide-eyed, and I glanced back with a nervous feeling to where Giselle pushed through the crowd, looking sharp in a blazer and slacks, all-black.

“Giselle.” A nervous feeling tightened in my gut. I hadn’t prepared for this… didn’t have a script rehearsed. The hell were the odds? I put on a smile as best I could. “Hey, you.”

“Hi.” She smiled. “I guess everyone’s friends. You, Cass, Ava…”

Cassandra tightened her expression. “Lawson? You know Ava? And this girl, too?”

“Oh, uh…” Giselle blinked fast, and I could have sensed the tension in the scene from a mile away. Looked like FIRE was causing trouble—nothing new, but I didn’t need it here, now.

“Giselle’s a friend,” I said, beaming. “My boyfriend and I went skating yesterday, and I bumped into her there… kind of literally. It was really just me and Giselle on the rink, and she made sure I didn’t kill myself skating for my first time.”

Cassandra frowned. “Oh, I see. Well… I’m glad you were able to make a new friend, Giselle.”

Giselle stiffened, and I almost felt bad for her seeing the guilt and worry woven tight over her features. “Cass, I wasn’t trying to abandon you yesterday—”

“Hey, don’t worry,” Cassandra said with that kind of fake smile that was just how polite people said fuck you. “I’m prepared for the exam now. I got some studying in.”

Ah. Ava had been selling her test answers. Giselle didn’t catch it, still just looking guilty, and I put a hand on her arm.

“You look nice,” I said. “I didn’t expect to bump into you here. I’d have said see you in two seconds instead of see you tonight if I knew.”

I felt Cassandra’s eyes narrowed on me from behind, but Giselle flickered a nervous smile at me. “Well, it’s nice to see you here. You and Cass know each other too?”

“Oh—we don’t. Ava was supposed to come say hi, but she got held up.”

Giselle relaxed. “Held up, I feel like, means she decided she wanted to do something else.”

I laughed—genuinely, more than I expected. “You got a quick read on her.”

She adjusted her blazer. “She’s just… an open and honest person. Must be a household thing. I think you’re the same way.”

I felt like she’d just slapped me. I blinked, once, just a little awkward, as a sharp guilt lanced through my chest. I pulled away from it just as quickly as it had appeared, shoving it down—I burned with embarrassment. Feeling guilty about things was not my style. Just… normally nobody commented on me as a person when I was making a play on them. And open and honest?

Zachary would kill me if he knew I was getting torn up over something like that. I pushed the feeling away, and I put on a shy smile, playing the hesitation off like I was just embarrassed by a compliment. “I really don’t know about that…”

Cassandra stood up taller behind me, and she walked past us. “Well, since you two are best friends now, I guess I’ll go see if there’s anyone else here.”

“Ah—Cass,” Giselle said, turning to look after her, reaching a hand after her but wincing, stopping herself. Cassandra walked away, and Giselle stared after her with such a strained expression that even I genuinely wanted to reassure her. I put a hand on her back, and she dropped her arm.

“She’s probably just stressed…” I spoke quietly. “Don’t let it get to you.”

She raised her eyebrows, looking back at me. “Don’t let what get to me?”

I nodded after Cassandra. “What do you think? Your friend being passive-aggressive.”

She paused, a war of hesitation waging over her face, before she ventured a small, nervous comment. “You, uh… you think she’s being passive-aggressive?”

I took a second studying her before I stepped in closer, putting a hand on her wrist. “Is this a kind of… she does this all the time so it’s just how friends act with me, so if I think it’s passive-aggressive then I’m the problem, situation?”

She let out a heavy breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Primrose… warn me next time you’re about to tear me in half.”

“If you need some outside confirmation, yeah, she’s being passive-aggressive as hell. What, she wanted you to study with her, and she got mad at you because you had to go attend to your skating practice instead?”

She shifted from one foot to the other, looking away. “I guess… but it’s not like that. Not really. I’d told her I’d help her study. I kind of flaked out on her… she has every right to be upset with me.”

I squeezed my hand around her wrist, gently. “It’s not your fault, okay? Her studies aren’t your responsibility. I mean, that kind of thing happens, and it’s unfortunate for everyone when it does, but it’s not like you betrayed her or anything.”

She gave me possibly the sweetest smile I’d ever seen. She’d probably practiced that thing in the mirror for ages. “Primrose… thank you. I need to have you around to reassure me more often.”

I tucked my hair back, giving her my best shy little smile. It worked every damn time with guys, and so far, it had been working well with Giselle, too. “Well, we’re going out for dinner tonight, so… I can give you all the reassurances you want then.”

She swallowed. Worked a charm again. “Oh, well…” she looked away. “I appreciate that.”

I wasn’t done beating into her yet. I gave her a once-over, and I tugged a little at the lapel of her blazer. “You look good in a suit. What’s the special occasion?”

“Oh. Not really a special occasion…”

I had to keep myself from smiling as I landed the real blow. I smiled wider at her. “Husband-hunting? Not a single guy missing you when you look like this.”

“Oh—” She laughed nervously, a hand over her mouth, looking away. “Nothing like that. I, er—I’m just coming out of a breakup, myself, so…”

“Oh… I’m sorry.” I looked down, half for the effect and half so she couldn’t see the look on my face. So she couldn’t see the seething over Andrea, barely concealed behind a look of faux sympathy. “That sucks. I hope you’re okay.”

“It’s all right. She, er… I don’t have any hard feelings against her. We just weren’t right for each other.”

“O-oh.” I looked up, eyes wide, blinking fast. “Sorry. Um… wife-hunting?”

She cleared her throat, not looking at me. “No. I mean, yes—no. I am a lesbian. No wife-hunting, though. I’m here to give a presentation for the group. Wives will stay… unhunted.”

“Oh.” I stared at her, letting the atmosphere get awkward for just a second or two too long, before I spoke in an awkward tone. “That’s… cool that you’re giving a presentation. What is it about?”

“Ah—nothing interesting. Fintech stuff. It’s sort of a career group.”

“You’re studying to work in fintech?”

She dropped her hands by her sides, still looking away. “Not to sound annoying, but I kind of have a job lined up. If I haven’t pissed anybody off by spending too much time skating.”

I paused. “You—your father doesn’t want you figure skating?”

“My father?” She gave me a wary look, and I realized with a heavy feeling in my gut that the surprise had caught me so much I’d forgotten to check myself. She hadn’t said a word about her father. I wasn’t supposed to know it was her father she had a job lined up with. I looked away, clearing my throat.

“I didn’t mean to say that out loud…”

“What do you know about my father?”

I laughed nervously. “I guess I’ll come clean. After I saw you skating this morning, I searched your name and everything online… found out what your father does. When you said you had a job lined up, I assumed it was from him.” I winced. “Sorry. I know that’s me sticking my nose in places it doesn’t belong. I was planning on acting cool like I don’t know, but I stuck my foot in my mouth…”

It worked, thank god—she relaxed, her face softening, and she cracked a small smile. “I guess I at least don’t have to come out both as a lesbian and a nepo baby. It is my father I have work lined up with… even though I know that makes me sound more annoying.”

She sidestepped the part I was actually curious about. From what I knew, it had been her parents who had pushed her into figure skating. Were they mad now that she did what they’d pushed her into doing? Still, I had a part I was playing. I put on a nervous smile, taking a half-step back. “I don’t have anything against you being a nepo baby. Or, um—a lesbian. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”

She cleared her throat, still not looking at me. “Well, I’m glad you think so. Do you need to go? I don’t want to hold you up if you were just trying to meet Cass.”

“Oh—yeah. I’ll let you, uh, get ready for your speech and everything. Good luck, okay?”

“It’s nothing big… I’ll see you later, Primrose.”

“Yeah. Um. See you, Giselle.” I turned away, and I left just a little too quickly, hurrying out of the room and getting a decent ways away before I slowed down, heading into the stairwell and going up to where there was a small sitting area on the second floor, in a quiet alcove with a big window streaked with raindrops, and I sank down to crack open my journal.

I should have started with the obvious parts—getting Giselle to come out, and me playing up for the switch by being awkward about her sexuality, or our little flirtatious texts—but instead I launched into what was actually bugging me.

Some conflict between target and her parents about her skating? Why are they upset about her skating career if they’re the ones who pushed her into doing it?

I tapped the pen on the page for a while, just staring at it, before I murmured to myself.

“That’s not a report…”

I tacked onto the end, Might be something to use there. Some vulnerabilities to exploit. But something about it felt strange on a level other than that.

Whatever. I just focused on getting the report down.