CHAPTER 4: You Look Perfect

Adeline's POV

Two hours later, I'm back in my jeans and vest, but my skin hasn't gotten the memo. It still thinks I'm wearing something that costs more than my rent.

Matteo waits by a table covered in place settings, forks, and knives lined up for what feels like the world's most expensive exam. I have no idea what any of them are for.

"Welcome to etiquette crash course." He gestures to the table. "I'll keep it simple."

Nothing about this table is simple.

I must look panicked because he laughs. "At my first formal dinner, I grabbed the fish fork for salad. I'm still here."

That helps. Sort of.

"Why are there so many forks?"

"Rich people have a talent for making simple things look complicated." He reaches for the first one. "But it's really about pacing. Start from the outside and work your way in."

His fingers pick up the wrong one.

"...Ignore that."

He walks me through it, salad fork, fish fork, main course, dessert fork resting horizontally above the plate. My head spins.

"The wine glasses." He indicates each shape. "Water. White. Red. Champagne. Larger bowl for red because it needs to breathe. Smaller for white because of temperature."

I pull out my phone and take notes. There is no chance I'm holding all this in my head.

"Napkin goes in your lap the moment you sit. If you excuse yourself, place it on your chair. When the meal ends, leave it to the left of your plate. Loosely."

"Why loosely?"

"Folding says you're trying too hard." He sets the fork down. "Loose says you've done this a hundred times."

Somewhere out there, children are learning table etiquette before puberty. I learned mine on a random Thursday because I accidentally climbed into a billionaire's car. My jeans are being held together by a safety pin. Dinner tonight is instant ramen. Somehow the universe has decided I need to know which fork belongs to fish.

"What about conversation? What am I supposed to talk about?"

Matteo perches on the table's edge. "Ask questions. Let them talk about themselves. Avoid politics. Religion. Money unless they bring it up. Keep it light until you read the room."

"And if I say something stupid?"

"You will." His voice carries an easy certainty. "Everyone does. The trick is staying calm when it happens."

"That's not reassuring."

"It's honest." His expression settles. "These people aren't better than you. They simply had more time to learn the choreography."

His directness throws me off guard. I expected Albert's world to run on performance and hierarchy, matching cufflinks and coded insults. Matteo feels different. He remembers standing exactly where I'm standing, minus the part where he learned which fork to use.

I fidget with my phone. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"What's he actually like?" I watch Matteo's face carefully. "Because the version I've met so far doesn't exactly come with an instruction manual."

Matteo says nothing for several seconds, and I nearly take the question back.

"Very complicated," he says. "Brilliant. More alone than anyone around him understands."

"He doesn't seem lonely."

"That's exactly what makes it lonely." He meets my eyes. "He's surrounded by people who want access, leverage, proximity. You're the first in a long time who didn't seem interested in what he could give you."

"I wanted to avoid jail because your boss blackmailed me."

Matteo laughs, the sound bouncing off the marble walls. "But you didn't know who he was. You needed out of an embarrassing situation." He starts stacking the practice plates. "That registers differently than you'd think."

I want to press him further, but the door opens. Colette walks in, garment bag in hand. Even Matteo straightens.

"We have the final fitting," she announces. "Mr. Rossi wishes to approve before Saturday."

"He doesn't usually come himself," Matteo says.

My breath stalls. “He's coming here?”

"He is here."

She unzips the bag. Midnight-blue silk sparkles under the light. Every instinct fires at once. Grab the bag. Find the subway. Send Albert a message explaining why this whole arrangement is absurd and possibly illegal. My feet stay planted against the tiles.

I take the dress.

I change in the private bathroom off the conference room, the fabric settling over me more easily this time. It feels familiar against my skin, as if it has learned the shape of me.

I look in the mirror. The woman looking back could walk into a gala, could stand beside Albert Rossi without the whole room knowing she took the train here. She looks certain, as if she arrived at this exact moment on purpose instead of getting lost twice on the way. I wish I felt a fraction of what she looks like.

I step back into the conference room.

Colette circles me immediately, adjusting the skirt. "Perfect. Don't move."

The room falls silent. Even Colette forgets to keep adjusting the hem.

The door opens.

I don't turn around. That's not needed as Cedar reaches me first.

Albert steps into the room and stops in the doorway. His eyes find me through the mirror and stay there. His jaw shifts, the smallest movement, gone before I can decide whether I imagined it. He crosses the room and stops closer than necessary. His fingers brush the fabric at my shoulder, the contact lasting less than a second.

"Fine work, Colette." His voice drops a pitch. "She'll do."

I should be offended. Weirdly I'm not. His eyes haven't moved from me since he walked in.

"Tomorrow's the charity gala," he says, redirecting his attention to Matteo. "Car picks her up at six thirty."

He moves toward the door. He takes two steps, then turns back. Our eyes meet in the mirror's reflection.

"You look perfect."

He leaves before I can think of a reply. The door slams behind him. I stare at the space he left.

Colette makes a knowing tsk. "That went well."

"He barely said anything."

"He says very little." She lifts the dress from my shoulders. "Pay attention to what he chooses to say."

Three words from him and now my brain decides to replay them anyway.

Twenty minutes later, I'm back in my regular clothes. Colette hands over the garment bag with the gravity of someone passing an irreplaceable possession.

"Saturday." She holds my gaze. "Remember to breathe."

"And if I mess up? Wrong fork, dumb comment, trip in heels?"

"You recover. Smile. Move forward." Her expression softens. "The real mistake is impersonating someone you are not. Stop performing fear. It doesn't suit you."

Matteo walks me to the elevator, carrying the garment bag because both my hands death-grip my bag strap. "You'll be fine tomorrow," he says with the certainty of someone who means it. "Every person in that room is pretending to be who they want everyone else to see. You'll simply be doing it in a nicer dress."

The elevator arrives.

"Adeline."

I turn back.

"Don't misread him," Matteo says. "He doesn't get that close without a reason."

The doors close while I am still trying to figure out what he means. I ride down alone, watching the floor numbers descend. The dress across my arms feels heavier than silk has any right to.

The screen lights up.

Matteo: Details for tomorrow. Car arrives 6:30. Hair and makeup team will meet you at your apartment at 2 PM. Everything is arranged. All you need to do is show up. M.

Hair and makeup. At my apartment, which currently contains a leaning tower of library books and a coffee mug growing its own ecosystem.

The subway carries me home through the familiar underground dark. When I surface, my street hasn't changed. Graffiti still stretches across the mailboxes. Someone's dinner drifts down from the second floor.

I climb the stairs, putting my key in the lock. My studio looks exactly how I left it. Books everywhere. This morning's coffee mug still holding its ground in the sink. I hang the garment bag on the back of my door. It looks out of place here, too elegant for the chipped paint and secondhand furniture. A reminder of everything I'm about to walk into.

I open a message from Mom I haven't read since 2pm.

Momma: How's the studying going, sweetheart? Don't forget to eat real food, please not ramen.

Guilt prickles, and weirdly specific, as if she has a hidden camera in my kitchen.

Me: Going well. Promise I'm eating properly. Love you.

I make ramen anyway and sit on my bed with the bowl balanced on my knees, slurping noodles as I stare at the dress.

Tomorrow I'm walking into a room where everyone learned table manners before they learned multiplication. Albert will be there. That feels even more stressful than the room full of strangers.

‘He doesn't get that close without a reason.’

Matteo's voice haunts my head.

I think about the warning text again, and the untraceable number. Someone knew I'd end up here.

I wash the bowl. After showering, I pull on my oldest pajamas and fling myself into bed.

The dress hangs on the back of my door, waiting.

And for the first time, I wonder if the warning wasn't about him at all.