CHAPTER FIVE: HE WANTS HER

"I can't," Selene said, shaking her head so hard that the string lights seemed to spin. "Clara, no. I did my part. I insulted him, I called him a hippopotamus, and he's *still* coming after you. What more do you want from me?"

Clara had dragged her out of the bar and into the cold, and now she stood on the pavement wringing her hands, her eyes wet and wide. "I don't understand it either! Who asks to marry a woman who said that to his face?"

"Exactly! The man is not normal!"

"Which is why I need you!" Clara grabbed her sleeve. "Just one more date, Selene. Only one. You go, you make him see he's making a mistake, and he'll drop the whole thing."

"That's what the last date was for."

"Then do it better!" Clara's voice cracked, and a tear rolled down her chin. She didn't wipe it. "I'm begging you. I'll never ask again, I swear on my mother's grave."

"Your mother is alive."

"Then I swear on her *life*, which is worse!"

Selene almost laughed, but it died when she saw Clara's shoulders shaking. She pressed her fingers against her eyes and breathed out slowly.

"Please," Clara whispered. "I'll pay you again. Double. Whatever you need for your mother's restaurant, I'll find it."

Double. Selene thought of the red notice, folded small, hidden under the rice sack. She thought of her mother's pencil-thin smile.

Her hands dropped.

"One more," she said hoarsely. "And that's it, Clara. After that, you deal with your own hippo."

Clara threw herself at her in a hug so tight that Selene's ribs creaked.

It was almost midnight when Selene pushed open the door at home.

The restaurant was dark, but the small kitchen at the back still glowed, and she could hear voices, her mother's soft laugh, Jay's loud one, the clink of spoons on bowls. The smell of rice and fried fish wrapped around her like a blanket, and her eyes stung for a reason she didn't want to name.

"There she is!" Mrs. Hart looked up, a smile still on her face. "Come, sit, we saved you a plate."

"I'm fine, Mama." Selene set her bag on the hook, slowly, because her arms felt like wet sand. "I ate outside."

It was a lie, and her stomach growled right on cue.

Her mother's hand paused halfway to her mouth. She didn't say anything, only looked, the way she always did, from Selene's face to her slumped shoulders to the dark circles she'd tried to hide under makeup. Her smile faded into something softer and more worried.

"You look tired, my child."

"Long day." Selene forced her lips upward. "I'll sleep it off."

Jay leaned back in his chair, chewing, and squinted at her. "Funny thing, I saw someone tonight who looked exactly like you."

Selene's heart stopped. The spoon in her mother's hand clinked softly against the bowl.

"Same face, same walk," Jay went on, stabbing a piece of fish. "But she had yellow hair and a dress that probably cost more than this whole house. I almost shouted your name at her, can you believe it?"

"Hm." Selene made herself laugh, and it came out too high. "Maybe I have a rich twin somewhere. Tell her to send money."

"I'll put it in my prayers!"

Mrs. Hart chuckled, but her eyes stayed on Selene a moment longer than they should have.

"Goodnight," Selene said quickly, and walked to her room without looking back. She shut the door, slid down it until she sat on the floor, and pressed her fist against her mouth to hold in a sound she didn't know whether was a laugh or a sob.

Across the city, the lights on the fortieth floor of Vale Group were still burning.

Adrian sat behind his desk with his sleeves rolled up, his eyes fixed on the laptop screen. He hadn't touched his tea. His jaw was tight, and a faint line had formed between his brows, the same line that made department heads sweat.

The door opened. Ethan strolled in with two paper cups, set one down beside him without a word, and sat on the edge of the desk.

Adrian lifted the cup, took a sip, and never looked away from the screen.

Ethan frowned. Slowly, he leaned over Adrian's shoulder.

On the screen was a photograph of a large, grey, very wet animal, its mouth stretched open wide enough to swallow a small car.

The tab read: “Hippopotamus, facts and appearance.”

Ethan stared at it for a long moment.

"Adrian."

"Hm."

"Are you... researching?"

"I'm checking something." Adrian scrolled down. A baby hippo yawned at him. "Does this look ugly to you?"

"It's a hippo."

"But is it ‘ugly’?" Adrian turned his laptop around and pointed at the screen like it was a legal document. "Because she said I look worse than this. Worse. Look at its face, Ethan. Look at its nose."

Ethan pressed his lips together so hard that his shoulders trembled.

"Is that what's keeping you up? You've had fifteen magazine covers, and you're sitting here worried about a hippo?"

"Fourteen." Adrian turned the laptop back, a little stiffly. "And I'm not worried. I'm curious."

"Of course." Ethan took a deep, careful breath. "Then I'll ask this once, and I want an honest answer. Are you really serious about marrying this girl?"

Adrian leaned back in his chair. For a moment the office was quiet, apart from the soft hum of the air conditioner and a faraway siren in the street below.

He thought of her, hands shaking around a glass of water, trying so hard to be rude, and failing in the most honest way he'd ever seen.

"Yes," he said.

"Even if she's..."

"I've already told my grandfather." Adrian picked up his pen and signed the paper in front of him without reading it. "It's done, Ethan. I'm marrying Clara Bennett.”