22 Cora
It wasn’t until the next afternoon, when they were both at the house getting ready for the gala, that Cora’s path crossed
with Bianca’s again. To Cora, it seemed like there had been an eternity of silence since the events from the evening before,
which made the air in the house seem fragile. There was a lot that needed to be said, and plenty of it by Cora, but she treaded
slowly. She didn’t want to star in Prestly Sisters: The Civil War . Not today, at least. So as she stepped into the tiny bathroom to share the mirror, she asked the most generic question she
could think of.
“How was your day with Zander?”
“It was good. He’s great.” Bianca focused on applying her eyeliner instead of elaborating.
“He seems...” Cora had to pause to come up with something positive about him. She wanted to finish that sentence with really proud of his muscle tone , but since she thought that probably wouldn’t go over well, she went with “very passionate.”
Bianca nodded her agreement more zealously than probably necessary. “He is. Very passionate about all kinds of things. Like,
just today he made a big donation to the Save Our Seas Foundation.”
“How generous.”
“And Luke was kind enough to give up his ticket to the gala tonight so Zander can go with me, which is good. It’ll be great
to spend some time with him in that kind of setting.” She put on a second layer of mascara.
“Good. That’s great,” Cora agreed in a tone that sounded like she meant it. Almost.
“Besides, I think Trina mainly invited me and Luke to try to win us over for contract negotiations next week. But even if we do talk business tonight, who better to have negotiating for us than a lawyer? So really, it’s perfect.”
“So perfect.” Although neither of them used the word with any sort of conviction.
“Plus, it makes sense for Zander to go, because he’s staying at the hotel. It would just be awkward if he was there but couldn’t
be there , ya know?” She paused and looked at Cora in the mirror. “Thanks for calling in that favor with Jax to get him a room last
night. I didn’t even think about it being booked because of the gala.”
Cora met her sister’s gaze with complete sincerity. “I’m glad it worked out.” Because at the end of the day, all she wanted
was for her sister to be happy.
There was a pause while Cora rifled through her makeup bag and Bianca finished working on her eyes.
“Bee, you’re happy, right?”
Bianca stopped her mascara application. One very long second ticked by in silence before she recovered her measured smile.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”
Cora went back to blending in her foundation. “No reason.”
Of course there was a reason. Bianca was about to make a giant mistake with a man who apparently hadn’t been honest about
a single thing. At this point, Cora wasn’t even convinced he was a lawyer. As far as she could tell from the thirty minutes
she spent getting him checked into the hotel, he had nothing in common with her little sister. He certainly wasn’t her soulmate.
In fact, Cora wasn’t sure he even had a soulmate, because the person he obviously loved more than anyone in the world was himself.
But she couldn’t exactly say that to her sister. At least not while emotions were running so high.
“I just care about you and want you to be, you know, happy,” she went with instead.
Bianca blinked several times in rapid succession, and it was obvious she had to work to keep her strained smile in place.
“I am happy. Getting to spend some quality time with Zander is good. Really, this surprise visit is going to be...” She paused as if she wasn’t sure where she wanted to go with that thought.
“Great,” she finished, finally, and tossed her mascara into her bag.
“Good,” Cora agreed. “That’s great.”
Bianca shrugged, some of her confidence returning. “It’s almost like it was meant to be.” She swiped lip gloss across her
lips, then with a sassy waggle of her eyebrows, she disappeared from the bathroom.
“For your sake, I hope it is,” Cora whispered to the empty space where her sister had just been.