“I went in to watch Jane sing. I didn’t know what to expect, either. All I knew about burlesque was that it was fancy stripping. And then Ming—you’ll see her tomorrow—she went onstage and she was the most joyful, beautiful thing I’d ever seen.”

The tip of my nose tingles, warning me of impending tears. “There she was, almost completely naked in front of a room full of people, and she had them all in the palm of her hand. I wanted to have that power, too. It was the first thing I’d wanted in months. And that made me realize how much I was letting myself be held back by what happened in LA, that I was living in this beautiful city and not getting to know any of it. It opened my eyes to what I was missing. I needed that push. After . . . after the internship blew up.”

“You know about that?” Chloe asks Darcy.

“No, not specifically.”

Chloe waits for my nod before continuing. “Her boss stole her ideas and passed them off as his own, and had been peddling BS about her being ‘inappropriate’ so she couldn’t speak up,” she says bitterly. “The fucker. I still—” She holds up a hand, matte red lips pressing into a hard line. “It’s been three years, and you handled it the way you felt was right at the time, but shit. Your work was so good.”

“It was.”

“Which is why it’s so great that you’re drawing again,” she says.

Gales’s thick brows go high as he drinks. “Chloe mentioned that! Good for you. Your stuff was always amazing. Has she shown you?” he asks Darcy.

I answer for him. “I’ve been Googled.”

“But has he seen your Meryton ideas?” Chloe asks, despite knowing the answer.

Darcy smiles. “Do you have a proposal for Charles?”

“Andrea said she’d talk to him once the sale was finalized. They’ll take a look then,” I explain.

“He’d be lucky to have you,” says Darcy. “The few pieces in that article on your school’s website were outstanding.”

I grin. The fellow currently stroking my kneecap has casually referred to my work as “outstanding.” A gal could get used to this.

Chloe cocks a brow in Darcy’s direction. “If you could take a break from whatever’s going on under the table, maybe Bennet could share some ideas for that forsaken barn wood.”

Darcy’s hand stiffens, and I cross my arms. “Why are you like this?”

Chloe wiggles her eyebrows and hitches a thumb toward Gales. “Do you see both of his hands?” Gales raises his left hand, but his right, which is closer to Chloe, remains out of sight.