“Don’t listen to her,” Wes interrupted. “She spends all of her time on YouTube learning. She’s got these creepy heads all over her room that she’s always playing with. She’s really, really good. You should hire her.”
Cara blinked at his blunt statement, not sure which part stunned her more, his compliments or the fact that he had just told the woman to give her a job.
“I don’tplaywith the mannequin heads.”
Skye ignored the comment. “Are you interested in working on a production? I wouldn’t normally do this, but the other makeup artist just flaked off with all of his assistants, so I’m kind of screwed. The film is mostly done, but I can’t do it by myself. It’s a tiny cast with only a few extras, but the budget is extremely tight which is why we were using so many assistants under Tomas’s supervision, instead of MUAs, make-up artists,” she clarified for Wes. “When he went, his minions went with him, and now I have no one. It doesn’t pay much.”
“I’d love to work on a movie!” Cara sounded too eager, but she didn’t care.
Skye stared hard at her. “I can’t believe I’m doing this—I’m desperate. I can see you’re competent, and we don’t do anything particularly complicated. Would you be interested? You’d be supervised and doing the absolute basics.”
Cara didn’t hesitate. “Yes!”
“It’s not glamorous,” Skye warned. “It will mostly be cleaning brushes, making sure the rollers are plugged in, prepping extras, that kind of thing.”
Now that Skye had made a decision, she wasn’t wasting any time. “Wes has my email. Send me a resume and a portfolio of your work as soon as you can, just in case someone checks up on me—which is unlikely because Brian is barely keeping it together,” she muttered. “I’ll send you all the forms you need to fill out, and I’ll need you by Wednesday. Can you get all that back to me by then?”
“Absolutely!”
“I’ll message you on social media. I don’t always look like this.” She indicated her face.
“I’ll give her your number, and she can send you her username. It’s a flower, right?” Wes asked.
Cara nodded. “I don’t have a lot of followers.”Don’t say that. “I do have a few loyal bots that like everything I post and leave the classic ‘you’re so beautiful’ and ‘let’s talk’ comments.” She joked to cover her anxiety and was gratified when Skye groaned.
“I hate those! They are always some account with four or five fake pictures claiming to be either military or a doctor. I guess that’s what the Russian bot farms think American women like.”
Both women laughed but Wes scowled. “You should delete them. Those bots are usually farming for your personal info.”
Skye and Cara looked at each other and rolled their eyes, but Wes didn’t seem to mind.
“Whatever. I’m getting a cookie.” He ambled off towards the hospitality table.
“Thank you so much for this opportunity,” Cara said. Did she really just get offered a job?
Instead of responding, Skye’s eyes followed Wes and then brought them back to Cara, cocking her head.
“It’s nice to see Wes finally found someone who loves Star Trek as much as him. How did y’all meet?”
“I don’t thinkanyoneloves Star Trek as much as Wes. I’d never even seen it until I moved in with him.” Cara didn’t know why she felt the need to explain, but she found herself babbling. “I only met him a few weeks ago. I thought I was moving in with Melody, but then she suddenly had a job overseas… So, now it’s just us until she gets back.”
“Melody Spires?” Something about the way Skye said her name grabbed Cara’s attention.
“That’s right! You went to high school with Wes! You must have known Melody, too.”
Skye’s lips flattened, and her gaze went to where Wes was loading up a plate of the catered food. “Yeah, I know Melody. I didn’t realize they were living together.”
“They aren’t—as a couple.”Again, with the overshare!“He’s crashing at her place while he finds someplace to live.”
“Then I hope he finds someplace fast. Anyway, it was great to meet you, and I’ll see you Wednesday.” Skye gave her a little salute and went to join a group of fellow Ferengi just entering the room.
After the group left, Cara forced herself not to skip over to where Wes was scarfing down potato salad.
“Oh my god! I can’t believe it. My first real job!” Cara squealed. “This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t brought me here! Thank you so much for introducing me to her.”
Wes grinned back, his caramel eyes sparkling. “You’re welcome. But if you hadn’t done such a good job, Skye would have ignored anything I said. This is the best I’ve ever looked at one of these things.” Taking one last bite, he dumped his plate in the trash can and caught her hand in his. “Come on, Counselor Troi! The real Commander Data is waiting for us.”
CHAPTERTWELVE
