a second, she forgot to play cool. She forgot who she was talking to. “No way! That movie looks amazing.”
“You think?”
“It’s like every sci-fi dream from my childhood come to life on the big screen!” It was too late to pull back her overenthusiastic words. She was always doing things like this to herself, even now that she’d been coached on how to behave in public by professionals.
Normal people didn’t get so excited about movies. Geeks did. It made people uncomfortable, and no one else was really that interested. That was what her mother had told her. Daily. From the time she was a five-year-old girl who talked about how she wanted to make the navigation controls on a spaceship from a futuristic movie and put them into cars someday.
She’d been embarrassing for her parents. Rattling on about strange subjects constantly, no filter for her excitement and enthusiasm. Making her normal had been her mother’s lifelong goal. She’d wanted it enough that she’d bought Julia a prom date when she’d been sixteen.
That had been the end of it. The end of trying to be normal. But she’d learned something even more important that night. There was no protection in normal. But showing who you were? Making yourself vulnerable? That was the biggest mistake of all.
She’d come out of that night, that horrible night, stronger. And when she’d taken off that ridiculous pink dress, the one she’d spent hours choosing, she’d put armor on instead. Armor she’d been wearing ever since. On that, Ferro was right. She didn’t really like that Ferro was right.
Still, even with the armor she had some rough edges to smooth out. She tried hard not to wave that geek flag too high. Not anymore. She had a public face that was so much more socially acceptable, and it helped her get by in the media without having to take too many pot shots.
Which was fine with her. She’d had quite enough growing up.
Stupid bitch, I was doing you a favor. No other guy will ever touch you.
She shook off the memory. It didn’t matter. Those words, the touch of his hands, the way they seemed to linger, didn’t matter. She’d moved on. Moved forward. She’d kept her head down and worked hard, free from caring what anyone thought, not after all that.
It was why she’d succeeded. And with all her money, she’d hired her consultants, consultants who’d helped make her look like a kick-ass video game heroine, who’d helped her learn to speak with poise and confidence.
She wasn’t vulnerable now. And while Giddy Excited Julia was allowed to jump around inside of her over movies and games, she was not allowed out to play.
“Well,” he said, “I happened to have provided some of the software used for the highly sophisticated special effects, which landed me with the invite.”
She closed the door on her memories and focused on the presents. “Right, I was a little jealous about that.”
“But you don’t have the tech for this sort of thing.”
“No. I make technology for regular people,” she said, swiveling her chair in a circle. “Anyway, I really get to come?” She would go chained to Ferro’s leg if she had to. It was way too fun to pass up. She would go even if they weren’t partnering on the Barrows deal together.
“Yes. Formal dress. Though, it is a sci-fi film, if you wanted to do a gold bikini and a slave collar, I think that would be acceptable attire.”
“Har, har, Calvaresi. Anyway, that’s Star Wars. Cold Planet is an entirely different mythology. It’s based off of this first-person shooter game and…” She clamped her mouth shut. She was doing it again. “And I’m hardly going to a public event in a costume.”
“You’ll have to tell me more about mythologies at the premiere.”
She was sure he was making fun of her. She basically deserved it at this point. It was one thing to get in front of a room full of people and make a scripted speech, but still, even still, social interaction had the potential to be painfully awkward. She was out of practice. If she’d ever been in-practice.
“Sure,” she said. “What time?”
“I’ll pick you up at five. We have to walk the carpet, then we get to view the movie.”
“Wow.” So a lot more social interaction on the docket. Goody. “Neat.”
“You sound thrilled.”
“About the movie, yes.”
“Great, see you at five.” He hung up and she leaned back in her chair. Then she scrambled forward and hit the intercom on her phone. “Thad.”
“Yes?” Her assistant’s voice came through the speaker.
“I need a dress. A hot one. Get Ally on it, please. And I need to get my hair done.”
“Formal? And by when?”
“Yes, and I need to be waiting out front of the building at four-fifty.”
Thad sighed heavily. She knew she was asking the next-to impossible, but she also knew if anyone could get it arranged, it was him. “As you wish.”
“Great. Thank you. You rock. I have to go.” She pushed the off button and rested her chin on her desk, her hands on her lap. Then She took a breath and straightened. She was going to be fine. She wasn’t going to think about how ill-equipped she was to show up at a Hollywood premiere on the arm of a man like Ferro. She wasn’t going to think about how likely it was that she would drop a shrimp cocktail into her cleavage during the party.
No. She was going to sit back and let the professionals she hired to make her camera-ready do what they did best. If nothing else, she would look good. She would look strong.
Money might not buy happiness, but it bought an image that made it possible for her to go out in public.
And yes, she was Ferro’s date. But it wasn’t a date-date. Thank God. The last time she’d had a date it had been an unmitigated disaster. And that guy hadn’t been Ferro sex-on-a-cracker Calvaresi.
Not that she was all that familiar with sex. On a cracker or otherwise. But Ferro was. Her face got hot when she thought of some of the more revealing parts of Ferro’s unauthorized bio. Yes, she’d read it. And it made it hard to look the man in the eye.
He wasn’t just hot. He was the kind of man who made women lose their minds. Who inspired respectable members of society to throw off the bonds of convention and flaunt him at social gatherings. He’d been the much-younger stud of a few women back in his home country, setting off scandalous headlines and dissolving marriages.
Of course, that was assuming that version of his life was true. And that was assuming a lot. And as Ferro had said, he never confirmed or denied.
She took another fortifying breath. Great. Fine. She could do this. Tonight, she was going to be yet another rumor to add to Ferro’s list. And she wouldn’t confirm or deny.
When Ferro’s limo pulled up to the curb in front of Julia’s high-rise, he was genuinely stunned by her appearance. She
