I can’t imagine she’s happy right now.
I also can’t imagine that she’ll be very inclined to keep up this ruse if she’s pissed at me, and Iknowshe probably is right now.
I pitch forward to kiss Fortuna’s cheek. “Sorry, Fortuna, but I really need to get back in there.”
7
THE FOREHEAD KISS COLIN just smashed onto my face is nothing like the hand kiss or the cheek kiss were, and now he’s leaving with the queen of this castle, and neither of them gave me a single thought before they waltzed through the ornate doors of said castle.
I’m now standing alone in a courtyard full of rich people, andokay then. This is literally the worst-case-scenario I was worried about when we arrived, so now what?
It’ll be fine. I know exactly what’s going on. Colin doesn’t want to talk about his brother in front of me, so I’m sure whatever secret explanation he’s got to offer out of my earshot won’t take that long.
In the meantime, I’ve gottwoglasses of champagne, which makes my standing here awkwardly alone that muchmore awkward. I down his glass of champagne and cross the courtyard to another discarded drinks tray. The small task not only gives me somethingless awkwardto do for a second, it’s also guaranteed to expedite getting drunk, which will make all of this much more tolerable.
Two birds with one stone. Or one champagne flute. Or two.
Never mind, Reader. I’m so nervous right now that even my internal musings don’t make sense.
Now what?
This corner of the courtyard is out of the way enough that maybe I’ll just be invisible to these people.
I occupy myself by demurely holding the flute with two hands at the level of my waist and standing with impeccable posture as I drift my gaze across the courtyard.
This place issaturatedwithwealth.
There is a serious difference between being rich and beingwealthy, and I’m staring at it.
I was educated at Columbia—not the best idea in retrospect, given my mountain of student loan debt—and that’s where I became acquainted with rich versuswealth.
Rich is someone’s parents who busted ass their entire life and built a nest egg and made smart decisions with their investments, or they got lucky by being in the right place at the right time and cashed in on it. Rich is new and might last another generation or two.
Wealthisold. Wealth is established. Wealth is the institutions in which average people operate and manage to become rich. Rich is the person who struck it big in the music industry and became famous, but wealth is the age-old multinational corporation that owns their record label and a dozen others.
Rich isColin,who’s a sales phenom, but wealth is the eighty-something-year-old man who founded Platinum Aviation fifty years ago and subsequently created a bunch of millionaires like Colin’s going to be.
Rich is millions, but wealth isbillions. With aB.
I could easily fly under the radar and trick rich people into thinking I’m one of them. But people withwealthare going to sniff out that I’m an imposter with one glance.
And now, in the corner of the courtyard where I thought I’d be invisible, thewealthhas homed in on me.
A woman with elegantly graying chestnut hair, who’s wearing a pale yellow Chanel skirt suit and a diamond the size of a boulder on her finger, is side-eyeing me from next to the large fountain in the center of the courtyard. She cuts her eyes between me and the elderly man whose arm she’s clinging to as they shoot the breeze with another mature couple dressed in finery. I make thehugemistake of accidentally making eye contact with her, and she pats the elderly man’s forearm while saying something, and now she’s heading right for me.
Fuck.
I sweep my panicked gaze across the courtyard in search of Colin and Mrs. Reyes, but they’re still missing, and I debate pulling out my phone to occupy myself.However, given my experience withrichversuswealth,I knowwealthdoesn’t do things like uncouthly burying your face in your phone in such a social situation. So instead, I simply steel myself and hope I can handle what looks more and more like an impending interrogation.
The elegant woman with a diamond boulder on her finger stops at about an arm’s length from me and offers a smile that is practiced enough to appear warm. “Hello, young lady.”
Young lady.
I freakinghatebeing calledyoung lady.
“Hello,” I say as pleasantly as I can, praying that I can mask the nasal Queens inflection that has always obnoxiously tinged the edge of my voice despite how hard I’ve tried to make it go away.
There’s a quirk at the corner of her mauve lips that indicates she managed to decipher the inflection from merely one word. “You’ll have to forgive me because you look familiar, but I can’t place where we’ve met before. I’m Ursula DeRouen.”
