Page 64 of Pretend To Be Mine

“I’m excited for you,” he said. “This is so cool.”

“Thank you for making it happen for me.”

“Of course. I would do anything for you.”

Guilt washed over me. Chris would not be thrilled to know I had slept with Adrian. I wasn’t sure if he would be disappointed with me or pissed at Adrian. Or both more likely.

“I have to go,” I said abruptly. “I’ll see you tonight, okay?”

“I’ll see you tonight.”

I hung up and stared at Adrian’s office ceiling. The world I’d stumbled into was intoxicating. Beautiful. Everything I’d dreamed of.

But it had an expiration date.

And I had no idea how I was going to survive when it ended.

21

ADRIAN

Istood in the wings, watching the final technical checks with a critical eye. The runway gleamed under the test lights. The screens displayed perfect color calibration. The sound system had been tested three times and sounded flawless.

Everything was coming together.

One of my directors approached. He was wearing a headset and carrying a tablet. The man looked very serious.

“Everything good?” I asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“What about the model lineup? Everyone accounted for?”

“All present and in hair and makeup. No one’s sick, no one’s late, no drama.”

I allowed myself a small smile. “Don’t jinx it.”

“I think we’re actually going to pull this off,” he said.

I took a breath and tried to relax. The event Dad dreamed up was actually happening. And it was going to be incredible.

Dad would have loved this. The scale, the ambition, the way we’d taken his concept and made it real. I wished he could be here to see it.

“We’re going to make him proud,” I said aloud.

Thankfully, my director wasn’t paying attention to me. He was listening to someone on the headset.

“I have to go,” he said. “No reason to panic. It’s just a minor lighting issue.”

“I trust you to handle it,” I said.

He rushed away, leaving me with my thoughts.

I should have stayed where I was. I could have continued overseeing the final preparations and been the steady presence everyone needed. But my feet carried me backstage almost of their own accord.

Elizabeth was there somewhere. I hadn’t seen her in over an hour, and that felt wrong somehow. Like I needed to check on her, make sure she was okay, just… see her. Be in her space.

It was becoming a compulsion. Every break I got, every lull in the chaos, my thoughts turned to her. Like a song stuck in my head that I couldn’t shake.