CHAPTER FOUR: UNEXPECTED NEWS

Adrian sat in the back of the car with his tie loosened, watching the city lights slide past the window, and he was smiling.

He didn't know he was smiling until Ethan nudged him in the ribs.

"Okay, stop," Ethan said, twisting around in the seat. "What is that on your face?"

"Nothing."

"That's a smile. I've known you for fifteen years and I've seen it twice, and one of those times you had food poisoning." Ethan leaned closer, squinting like he was studying a rare bird. "Somebody call a doctor, Adrian Vale is happy."

"I'm not happy." Adrian turned back to the glass, but the corner of his mouth refused to behave. "I'm thinking."

"About what?"

"A hippopotamus."

Ethan stared at him, then burst out laughing and slapped the leather seat so hard that the driver glanced up into the mirror.

Adrian said nothing. He could still see her there, golden hair swinging, chin lifted, face burning red under all that powder as she told him he looked worse than a hippopotamus.

He remembered the moment outside the restaurant, how she had stood there gulping the cold air, her shoulders shaking with laughter, or maybe panic, he couldn't tell which.

Then a boy in a hoodie grabbed her wrist.

"Selene?" the boy had said.

She had gone stiff as a board.

Adrian had stepped out a second later, hands in his pockets, and found two people staring at each other like they'd seen a ghost.

"Who is Selene?" he had asked coldly, and took a few steps closer.

The girl had spun toward him, eyes wide. "Nobody! I mean, I don't know any Selene. I'm not her. I'm someone else."

The boy was young, maybe nineteen, with flour on his sleeve and a football bag on his shoulder. He kept looking from her face to her dress to her hair, and his mouth slowly fell open.

"Sorry," he had mumbled, scratching his neck. "I thought you were my sister. But my sister can't look this..." He waved a hand up and down, helplessly. "...expensive. And she doesn't have yellow hair. My mistake, sir, sorry, miss."

And he had gone, nearly tripping over the curb, looking back twice.

The woman had turned to Adrian with a smile so stiff it looked painful. "Well! Wrong person. Goodnight!"

She had hurried off, one hand clutching her bag, the other holding up her dress, and Adrian had stayed on the pavement staring after her. Her shoes had been the giveaway. Sneakers, peeking out from under that expensive hem.

In the car, he pulled out his phone and dialed.

"Grandfather."

"Well?" Theodore's voice was dry as old paper. "Did you behave yourself?"

"I found someone."

The silence was so long that Adrian checked the screen. When the old man spoke again, he sounded almost young.

"Someone you want to marry?"

"Someone I'll marry," Adrian said. "Let that be enough for now."

He hung up before the questions could start.

Ethan was gaping at him. "You can't be serious. She insulted you! She said she has boyfriends, plural, like she runs a whole football team!"

"I heard her."

"And you still..."

"Ethan." Adrian rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I need a wife to keep my seat, that's all. Thirty women this year, and every one of them laughed at my jokes before I made them. This one called me a hippopotamus to my face."

"Because she hates you!"

"Because she wasn't trying to impress me." His voice dropped, and he looked out at the dark. "I want to know what she is when she isn't pretending."

Across the city, Selene burst into Clara's flat with her wig in one hand and her shoes in the other, breathless.

"It's done! He hates you! He'll never look for you again!"

Clara shrieked and flung her arms around her, and they both toppled onto the sofa.

"Wait, let me tell you everything." Selene sat up, hair stuck to her forehead. "I called you a thousand times! You didn't pick up once!"

"My phone was dead, I'm so sorry!"

"And then Jay showed up outside the restaurant and shouted my name, with the man standing right there!" Selene pressed both hands to her cheeks. "I said I didn't know any Selene, and Jay looked at the dress and the wig and said his sister could never look this expensive. For once in my life, being poor saved me!"

Clara laughed until she wheezed. Then Selene's smile slipped, and she dug into her bag and slid a small white card across the cushion.

"Clara, there's something else."

Clara picked it up and read it. She read it again. Her eyes went round as plates.

"Vale Group? Adrian Vale?" She looked up. "Selene, that's your company."

"He's my boss." Selene's voice cracked. "He's the CEO, the one who never shows up, and I've been sitting across a table calling him a hippopotamus!"

"Your *boss*?" Clara clapped both hands over her mouth, then lowered them. "The one who refused to come back today? That man?"

"That man!" Selene grabbed a cushion and squeezed it against her chest. "Oh my God, Clara, what do I do on Monday? What if he sees me at work? What if he remembers my face? What if he..."

"Hey, hey." Clara took her by the shoulders. "Your own brother couldn't recognize you. Your brother, Selene. You think a man who met you for dinner will remember you? Please. You're a nobody to him, in the best way."

Selene stared at her, then let out a long, shaky breath. "You're right. He won't remember me. He didn't even know my name for two years."

"Exactly. Now stop shaking. I'm taking you out, tonight you're a queen!"

They found a little bar with string lights, and the first drink tasted like lemon and freedom. By the fourth, Selene had her head on the table, giggling about hippos, and Clara was telling the whole room her best friend was a genius.

Then Clara's phone lit up.

"It's my dad. Don't move, I'll be right back."

She stumbled outside, a finger pressed to her ear.

"Hello? Yes, Dad, I went, I'm fine, I'm just... what?"

Through the glass, Selene watched the smile drain from her friend's face.

When Clara came back in, she was the color of paper.

"Selene," she whispered, "my father says Adrian Vale wants to marry me.”