Chapter 25
Zinnia
Nothing slowed Amber down. Fresh off a flight to Paris, she was in her hotel room wearing gold under-eye patches, had her hair in rollers, and was surrounded by her camera pod and travel beauty crew.
“Hey, Mom,” Jordan said to the laptop screen.
It was almost midnight. Dinner had been incredible—Zinnia was full and sleepy and honestly still a little horny, but they had to take this emergency “logistics” video call. She began tracing along the inside of Jordan’s arm with her free hand since he was holding the other.
“Alfie. You look well.”
“Oh, good. My coping mechanism is working, then.”
Amber uncharacteristically sighed. “There’s no need to get worked up about this,” she began in a reassuring tone.
“As long as our next steps go according to plan, and they will, the overall impact of this incident should be minimal. Once the police report from the mall incident hit the internet, we anticipated interest in Zinnia’s identity spiking.
Levi spotting you two together has unfortunately accelerated our timeline. ”
“When did that happen?” Jordan tensed beside her. There was less than a centimeter of space between them—it was simply too much. She closed the gap, purposefully pressing her thighs against his.
“He’d been tailing Zinnia, you two went grocery shopping together of all things, and you’re the spitting image of your father.
One plus one and a marriage license later…
” she trailed off with a wave of her hand.
“It was inevitable. As far as he knows, no one else moved as fast as he did, but he won’t risk not being the one to break the story—are you all right, Zinnia? ”
Her expression must’ve been set to full volume. Using her to get to Jordan? Harassing his employees? Hot anger had cleaved its way to the front. She better not ever meet Levi because it was gonna be on sight.
She forced herself to smile. “Yep. Just fine.”
“Good. Everything Levi found was public record so security-wise, everything remains sound, for the most part.” Amber paused for a beat.
“Sadie told me that you two aren’t living together during your sabbatical.
While I’m sure your home is…lovely, it’s not as…
safe as Jordan’s apartment. Damon has been on edge ever since the mall incident.
Having you two under the same roof will help him worry less. ”
“Oh. Umm.” She checked in with Jordan, who was waiting patiently, unassumingly for her answer.
Because it went without saying that it was her choice. If she said no, he’d stand ten toes down with her. The way her heart jolted as she looked into his eyes couldn’t have been good for her health.
“Yeah. I’m fine with that.” She lightly brushed her cheek against his shoulder, and he kissed her forehead.
“Thank you.” Amber cleared her throat. “I’ve also negotiated to make the article an exclusive interview about the new stars of season ten. Its publication will be linked to the trailer release.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Of course, honey.” She paused. “Since we’re here, I’ve been meaning to ask about the twins’ birthday party. It’s scheduled for the final weekend of your sabbatical. While we respect your need for some time away, we would—I would love to have you there. Both of you.”
A personal invitation from Amber, who had strangely not even glared at her once, was worth considering. It’d mean a lot to Jordan—celebrating with his family, on the actual date, for the first time in a decade. She might even be able to request Grace and Fiona be added to the guest list.
“What do you want to do?” he asked.
“I love parties.” Zinnia expected him to smile, a thousand-watt stunner, but got nothing. Did she guess wrong? He didn’t want to go to the party?
“We’ll be there,” he said with no feeling whatsoever.
“Wonderful!” Amber looked relieved and quickly added, “I’ll get started on building Zinnia’s team.”
“Team?” she asked. “For what?”
Lulie Chat
LULIE: Hi! Let me know ALL your feelings about your beauty team.
Flagship comes “highly recommended” but I’ve heard things.
It can take a few tries to find the right balance of chemistry and talent that’ll work best so don’t be surprised fyi.
If you DON’T like them tell me NOT my mom.
I’ll get you set up right for next time.
She kept staring at her dress hanging on the door. Her beauty team had chosen it for her. Floor-length and seafoam green, the intricate bodice shimmered like frosted ice in the setting sunlight.
The boning looked like it would hurt, but they insisted it wouldn’t.
The slit looked incredibly high, but they told her not to worry.
The dress was selected as part of an agreement with a designer. She was required to wear it.
“Eyes closed,” Red said.
Zinnia complied. She was in a hotel room, wearing an impossibly soft robe while getting her hair and makeup done at the same time.
Blue complained about her braids: “You really should let us take these out.”
Red gave her backhanded compliments about her skin: “You have such good texture and teeny tiny pores, but your coloring, yikes. It’s so uneven and hard to match.”
When she pointed out that her drugstore makeup worked, White said it wasn’t “red-carpet quality.”
She forced herself to be a good sport about the entire experience. Live through it once to speak up with authority in the future.
Besides, the camera pods had returned. Being terrible to her was likely included in their appearance agreement, with a promise to edit out all of their wrongdoing.
So, she cleared her mind, dulled her edges, and let everything roll off her back. Thinking about Jordan was more than enough to keep her distracted.
Her favorite memory to relive lately was when she’d officially moved into his apartment. He’d unlocked the door, opened it a crack, but then stopped and said, “I need your help with something.”
She’d perked up. “What?”
“There’s something I’ve been wanting to do.
A do-over to be specific. I missed my first chance because of delusional circumstances.
” He’d leaned against the wall with a forlorn look on his face.
“This isn’t exactly how I pictured it going down, but it technically is the first time with an official heading and you’re perfect obviously. ”
She was absolutely sick of him and never wanted a cure. “What is it?”
“Do you trust me?” When she’d nodded, he added, “Close your eyes.”
She’d felt him standing next to her and automatically leaned closer because she had very little self-control left. “Jordan, what—ohmygod!”
He’d laughed as her eyes flew open because he’d swept her off her feet and into his arms.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m carrying my wife across the threshold,” he’d said with a huge heart-stopping grin. “This is your first night living here. This is our apartment now.”
Her beauty team began clapping and cheering, knocking her clean out of the memory.
“Okay, Miss Zinnia, it’s time for the dress!” White ordered.
She should’ve known what was about to happen the second she saw the camera pods turn toward the wall.
Robe? Gone. Underwear? Off and replaced with a skin-tone thong. Bra? They gave her adhesive petals.
“You have great tits, wow!” Blue commented. “I think it’s safe to skip the support tape.”
Zinnia stared at the ceiling. She was being a good sport. She felt fine.
Everything was fine.
All things considered, including the hotel room’s thermostat being set to arctic tundra, her team was quite gentle while sticking the petals on.
She held still while they sprayed a pleasant enough perfume in strategic spots, followed their clipped instructions for wriggling into her dress, and leaned on Red as Blue kneeled in front of her, holding her shoes steady.
She couldn’t bend over. Squatting was possible if someone helped her back up.
“Time for the reveal!” White exclaimed and clapped some more.
The camera pods swiveled back around, getting Zinnia expertly into frame to capture the moment her team led her to the standing mirror. They’d lied about the boning. It dug into her rib cage every time she exhaled.
Who the hell is that?
Zinnia stared open-mouthed at her reflection because they’d made her so beautiful she didn’t recognize herself. “I look like a different person.” She breathed through her shock. “You shape-shifted me into a whole-ass different person.”
Different species was more like it. She resembled a mermaid—the green fabric hung like a custom tail specifically made to billow in the water and only the hip-high slit gave her leggy secret away.
“It’s what we do,” Blue said with pride. “Time for jewelry.”
They laid out all her options, each one more diamond-encrusted or clustered with pearls than the last. Breathtakingly beautiful and not at all her style. “Am I required to wear any of those?”
“They’re all loaners. Tagged and numbered,” Red said quickly, as if he were afraid that she’d steal them.
“These are the best options for the dress,” White added.
“I’ll pass, then. I brought my own.”
In the common area of Zinnia’s hotel room suite, Amber was sitting on the couch working on her tablet, same as ever. She rattled off orders to her assistant, who nodded with the occasional “Yes, ma’am.”
He noticed her first—a lightning-fast double take and dropped jaw. “Wow,” he breathed.
“What?” Amber asked, frowning as she followed his gaze. “Well. I’m going to have to hire you more often,” she said to the beauty team.
Zinnia just knew she was going to have a bad time at the birthday party. She moved through the world fairly easily. Enough to feel like a solid part of it—not always welcome because racism and sexism were everywhere—but never so much that she felt like a walking target.
Being perceived because she looked so different from her usual self was really going to fuck with her head.