“So just so we’re clear, you’re not going to say anything crazy, right?”

“Travis.”

“Like, you’re not going to insult the man and stalk out of the coffee shop, right?”

“Travis.”

“And you’re not going to—”

“Travis!”

Travis, who had been speaking to her almost as if she weren’t actually there, as if he were really talking more to himself, looked up at Elsie with a startled expression on his face. He had been all full of nerves on the ride from her apartment to the posh Manhattan coffee shop, drumming his fingers tirelessly on his knee and bouncing his leg so hard it jostled her, as well. The cabbie had given him several discrete, mistrustful looks, as they made their way through the always terrible New York traffic, and Elsie had stifled a laugh. Judging by that look, said cabbie was sure that Travis was either on drugs or simply just plain nuts. He hadn’t calmed down any when they got out of the cab either, especially since he had insisted on getting out several blocks before they were supposed to because he was afraid of the traffic. He had gone tearing down the street, not even bothering to see if she was still there behind him, and with absolutely no regard to the fact that she was wearing a pair of heels unlike anything she’d ever trapped her poor feet in before. It wasn’t until they got to the coffee shop’s front door that he stopped, and then he did it so abruptly that Elsie ran straight into him. She rebounded off of him with alarming force and almost flew backwards, unable to right herself because of the stupid heels. It was only due to the kindness of a passing stranger (something that almost never happened in a city like New York) that she stayed on her feet, a near calamity that Travis didn’t even seem to notice. He was still too busy freaking out. It was only when she yelled his name that Travis appeared to get his shit together, and even then, it looked like things were touch and go. His eyes were wide, with pupils that were too big, and his face was several shades lighter than it normally was. In short, he was freaking out. In his need to make sure everything went smoothly, he had allowed himself to come unhinged. That meant Elsie was the one who would have to make sure they represented themselves well, which struck her as pretty freaking ironic given the circumstances. 

“Travis, you need to chill, okay?”

“Okay, but you don’t get it, Elsie.”

“I do get it.”

“I don’t think so, I—”

“I do. We need this to go well. This is the kind of job that could change everything for us as a company. I get that. Even if I don’t love the things I have to do, it doesn’t mean I don’t understand what’s important. I can handle this. You need to believe that. One thing I have going for me is that I’m not afraid of him.”

“Afraid?”

“Yes, afraid. Caleb Grant is probably the sort of man who never hears no, the kind of man that has a whole hell of a lot of people afraid of him on a daily basis. I’m not one of them. That means I’ll be able to keep a clear head.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. Now get it together, Travis. Let’s get this done.”

Without waiting for an answer, Elsie brushed past Travis and opened the door to the coffee shop. When she got a look at inside, she decided it was probably more accurate to describe it as a café. This was definitely a place with a specific clientele in mind, and that clientele was of the rich persuasion. This was a place that was designed for the posh, for the kind of people who frequently went on international excursions just on a whim. Although Elsie had never actually been, she thought that this place looked on the inside like one of the cafés tucked away on some quaint Parisian street. She felt a moment of nauseating panic rush into her chest, and she was sure she was going to throw up, pass out, or both. It was her grit that kept it at bay, grit and pure force of will that made her continue to put one foot in front of the other—despite the fact that she was now totally out of her element.

“Come on, Elsie,” she thought to herself grimly. “You know how to do this. One foot in front of the other; that’s the way you walk into a place. One foot in front of the other.”

She nodded to herself ever so slightly, a motion that was probably imperceptible to any of the wealthy people lounging around and drinking coffee amongst the pretty little tables and chairs.

“Thanks, Elsie,” Travis said in a low voice in her ear, making her jump a little as he slid his arm into hers and started to move them both forward. “I think I was about to really fall apart out there.”

“I think you were halfway there, buddy. Now so me a favor and answer me a question before we sit down with the illustrious Mr. Grant.”

“Sure, I can do that, but shoot it to me fast. He’s right up ahead of us, if you hadn’t noticed.”

Elsie wanted to laugh and scream at the same time. In case she hadn’t noticed? Of course, she had noticed. That was how things were with people like Caleb Grant. They were impossible not to notice, even if you really wanted not to see them at all. So yes, she saw him, and that wasn’t awesome, but it also wasn’t the thing that was really troubling her. What was really troubling her and the thing she wanted to ask Travis about was, why in the hell was everyone in the pretentious little shop looking at her the way they were. At first, she tried to convince herself that she was making it up, that nobody was looking at her, and it was all in her head. She tried to convince herself of that and couldn’t because it simply wasn’t true. People were looking at her. They just were, and she couldn’t figure out why.

“What is it, Elsie? Ask it fast or forever hold your peace.”

“It’s just...everyone is looking at me.”

“Yes.”

“Why? That’s what I want to know. Why is everyone staring at me?”

“Honest?”

“Yes, of course, honest. Do you think I would ask if I didn’t want to know?”

“Because,” Travis said in that same low, urgent voice, only now it was accompanied by a serious blush there was no way for him to hide, “you look like a supermodel.”

“Come again?”

“You look like a supermodel, Elsie. You look super-hot, okay? This is what happens when girls are super-hot. Everyone looks at them, the guys and the girls. Now can we please just sit down and do this? He’s seen us, and he’s looking at you now, too.”

For once, and this was a very rare occurrence indeed, Elsie was completely speechless. It wasn’t just that she had words in her head that she couldn’t get out, nothing like that. There was nothing in her head for her to say. Instead, her mind was filled with a high-pitched buzzing sound that drowned out anything resembling coherent thought. Never in her life had Elsie been referred to as “hot,” at least not to her recollection. She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel about it either. She knew that nothing inside of her had changed, nothing essential about her, but people were nevertheless noticing her now in a way they had never done before. She felt exposed, utterly and completely, and for a girl who had made a habit of keeping herself secluded, that was a lot to take. On the other hand, she was a very smart girl, smart enough to know that looking a certain way could give a person a lot of power. She had always known it, known it in the same way that every girl knew it. It was just that she hadn’t ever cared about it and how it might relate to her own life. Now, through no fault of her own, she was experiencing firsthand what it was like to be one of the “beautiful people.” It struck her as unendingly stupid, but also as something that could come in handy in her dealings with Caleb Grant. By this point, they had arrived in front of him, just as Elsie was trying to work through the way things would go from this point forward. There was no more delaying, no more denying that working on this case was going to change her life. The moment she sat down at Mr. Grant’s table, she was going to be playing on a whole other playing field. She just had to hope she was ready to handle it all.

“Travis, I presume,” Caleb Grant said in a smooth as butter voice that made Elsie want to roll her eyes as he stood quickly in acknowledgement of their arrival, “and who is this lovely creature?”

Elsie opened her mouth to answer, an answer which would have undoubtedly been something less than polite, when Travis shot her a look that made it very clear he wanted her to let him do the talking. He knew her well enough to know that her answer would probably have involved a lecture about how shitty it was to refer to a woman as a creature, since—clearly—she was a human being just like everyone else. He was right to give her the look, too, because she did not enjoy being talked about this way. She didn’t enjoy it at all. The fact that Travis’s look told her she should realize this was just the way men like Caleb Grant talked didn’t make her feel any better. If anything, it made things worse. As far as Elsie was concerned, the whole “boys will be boys” mentality was for the birds.

“This, Mr. Grant, is Elsie Morrow. I believe she’s the girl we discussed?”

“Please, call me Caleb, won’t you? And yes, she’s the one we discussed. I’m just amazed at how different she looks. Whoever took care of that did a superb job. I hope you’ll let them know.”

“Awesome,” Elsie interjected, no longer heeding Travis’s warning looks to keep her mouth shut. “I’ll make sure to let her know that I looked like a monster before she got her hands on me, but now everything is a-ok.”

“Oh, no, that’s not what I meant,” Caleb answered with a slightly surprised, slightly amused tone to his voice. “I only meant to say that you look incredibly lovely. Very different than you did in the photo your boss her provided me with before this whole thing got under way.”    

“Like I said,” she answered dryly, pointedly ignoring each and every signal Travis was trying to send her to calm down, “awesome. Now, would you mind if we sit down and go ahead and get this underway? I’m assuming we’re all busy people. I’m sure you are, at least. Very busy and important.”

“I don’t know if I would go so far as all of that,” Caleb answered with amusement, an amusement that only made Elsie even more irritated than she already was, “but please, do sit. I would love to get this under way, believe me. I’m very glad to have you two here. Very glad indeed. From what I hear, you lot are the best of the best with what you do, and that’s exactly what I need.”

“Why don’t you tell me what’s going on then?” Elsie asked curtly, doing her best not to make eye contact with anyone as she attempted to sit down in the short, tight dress that was so foreign to her. Although she didn’t show it, she felt like managing to get herself in the chair without falling over or flashing the entire room was a small miracle. It was very difficult not to laugh at a thought like that, which made it hard to pay attention to what she was there to do, but fortunately for her she had one mean poker face. She kept said face stony, as she clasped her hands in front of her on the table and shook her head “no” when offered a cup of coffee. Truth be told, she wanted to get out of this place and back on her couch as soon as humanly possible. She had a feeling there was going to be a lot more of this sort of thing in her future, and she was going to need some time to herself to mentally prepare for the shit-show to come.

“Are you sure?” Caleb asked her, frowning slightly at her refusal to accept any of the niceties he offered. “Are you sure you don’t want to just chat for a bit? Get to know each other? We’re going to be spending an awful lot of time together, I think.”

“I guess we are,” she said briskly, doing her best to hide her distress from both Travis and Caleb, “which means we’ve got plenty of time for conversations that don’t involve work. But for now, I think it’s best we just discuss what brought us here in the first place.”

“Of course, although I was under the impression that your boss had already informed you of my predicament.”

“He has. I would like to hear it from you. I want to hear it in your own words.”

“Right, that makes sense, I suppose. Honestly, I don’t know how much help I can be. I don’t know how much information you’re looking for.”

Elsie took in a breath and held it, counting to ten while she did so. Sometimes it was astounding to her how helpless grown men could be, and it looked to her like Caleb Grant was going to be a perfect example of that strange phenomenon. Here he was, a man rumored to be a millionaire many times over, and he was acting like he was utterly helpless in his own life. He was the head of a massive company, responsible for advertising and public relations for some of the richest people and companies in the world, and he didn’t know how to tell her what he needed and why. What did he expect her to do? Hold his hand through the telling of his tale? Did he expect her to somehow just intuit what he was going through and why he needed her help? Because if that was how things were going to go, this was going to be a tough job indeed. She thought all of these things while she held her breath, and then she let it all out again, offering up the most genuine-looking smile she could  muster. It must have worked well enough, because he smiled back, a smile she was sure had made many a woman practically swoon at his feet.

“I’ll do my best, Elsie. Here’s what I know. Somebody has been snooping around in my records. Not just my company, in my personal records and business. Someone is hacking into my life, and I’m getting the funny feeling it’s going to get much worse before it gets better.”

“And why is that?”

As Elsie watched, Caleb’s eyes took on a faraway look, something that almost made him look haunted. For the first time, since considering Caleb as a human being that would play any kind of role in her life, she felt a little bit sorry for him. Maybe that was because—for the first time—he actually looked like a normal human to her. Gone was a large portion of his rich boy swagger and—in its place—was the ghost of who Elsie fancied Caleb must have been as a little boy. He almost looked afraid, as if for the first time in a very long time he had no idea what he was supposed to do next. Her heart went out to that little piece of him, still reserving the right to detest the man he typically was, and she had to resist the urge to say something comforting. Instead she just watched him, trying to figure out what was going on inside of his head to make him look that way. Some part of him must have felt her probing, too, because his eyes lost their foggy look and snapped back to attention, training on her in a look that struck her as forced candor. It was like he had flipped a switch and turned the charm back on, closing the curtains on whatever glimpse of the real him he had accidently afforded her.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t get much sleep last night. The plight of every adult American, right?”

“If you say so.”

“Anyway, where were we?”

“You were about to tell us why it is that you’ve decided that things are going to get worse. You said you have a funny feeling that they will. I’m just wondering where that funny feeling is coming from.”

“I guess it’s just a hunch. That’s the best I can say. Like I said, I don’t have all that much to offer you. And unfortunately, I’m out of time.”

“Alright then,” Elsie said in a breezy voice that was very different than the sharp aggravation she felt gnawing at her insides. “I know you’re a busy man.” 

“That I am. Look, I don’t know how you’re used to working, and I have a feeling this isn’t it, but this is the only way things will work for me. If it’s something you aren’t okay with, please just let me know. It will save us all time if you tell me now. That way I can go out and look for someone who can handle my unique set of needs.”

“No!” Travis interjected quickly, panic barely contained in a voice that made Elsie bristle. “No, believe me, Mr. Grant—”

“Caleb. I told you, I would much prefer if you called me Caleb. Given the uncommon nature of our meeting and our future involvements with each other, I think it’s safe to say we can be on a first name basis.”

“Right, of course, Caleb. I just want to reassure you that we’re up to the challenge, whatever it might entail. Truthfully, we don’t really have a ‘typical’ way of working with our clients. ‘Typical’ is not really possible when you do the kind of work we do. You just let us know what you need, and we’ll be up to the challenge.”

“Good. That’s very good to hear. So why don’t we leave things at this. I’ll have somebody deliver a packet of instructions to your home, Elsie. Travis has already provided me with your address. It will let you know how things will proceed for the foreseeable future. If you have any questions, my personal cell number will be in the papers you receive. Just remember, the next time we see each other, it will be time to play the part. Think you’re up to it? I know it’s a tall order, believe me.”

He laughed when he said this last part, as if he couldn’t believe that anyone would have a problem playing the part of his girlfriend. He probably thought she was over-the-moon excited about it, that she should and did feel lucky to have the opportunity to even pretend to be linked to a man like him. What she would have liked to do was stick out a foot and trip him like a bully in a high school cafeteria might do. She wanted to send him sprawling, just to take him down a peg or two, to bring him down to something close to where normal people lived. She didn’t, of course. She wasn’t actually a mean girl, but the urge was there and remained there up until she watched his back going out of the café’s front door.

“What did you think of that?” Travis asked anxiously, most likely embarrassed by his acute graveling and hoping very much that she wouldn’t bring it up.

“What should I think? He’s just another client, right?”

“He’s not, and you know it. You said it yourself. You know we need this account. This is the one that will put us on the map. It’ll drive us all into another tax bracket, Elsie. It’ll make sure none of us need to worry about a job for a long, long time.”

“I know that. But he’s still a client, and that’s how I’m going to approach it, okay? That’s what I think.”

Travis shrugged, stood, and sauntered over to the café’s counter to grab them both breakfast. Elsie could see in that walk that the majority of Travis’s stress had melted off of him. He was feeling lighter because the meeting was over, as was the most hands-on role he had to play on this job. Elsie watched him go and smiled, although it wasn’t the kind of smile you saw on a girl who was genuinely happy. She was smiling because it was good to know that Travis would stay off of her case now, but that wasn’t the only reason. She was also smiling because she hadn’t told Travis all of what she was thinking, nor did she intend to. The thing she planned on keeping to herself was that she was one hundred percent sure that Caleb was keeping things from her, keeping things from them both. She thought he was pretty pleased with himself about it, too. She could see on his face when he left that he honest-to-God believed that he had told only part of what he knew and gotten away with it. Elsie was equally confident that she was going to get to the bottom of it, whatever “it” might be.