Cass frowns. “He said he was gonna tell you,” she repeats. “But I guess he’s been busy. He probably forgot.” She looks around for him. “I guess it’s okay if I— So Ry printed a bunch of the pictures he took from the process, and he says the upstairs is all decorated in them. It’s like an art show.”

“Oh, cool!”

“Yeah.”

“What?”

“I don’t like looking at pictures of myself.”

“No one does, Cass.”

“Says the princess of Flash.”

“Those aren’t of me,” Lulu says. “Well, not always. And I thought these weren’t of you, mostly. Wasn’t that his whole thing? That he didn’t like taking pictures of hot girls?”

“Are you saying I’m hot?”

Lulu dips in and kisses Cass’s neck, just because she can. Cass looks pink and pleased when Lulu pulls away.

“Yeah, no, I’m just being weird and paranoid,” Cass continues. “When he took them, I sort of thought he’d let me look at them before he put them up. But I’m probably stressing over nothing. I’d bet he decided to scrap those, and it’s just gonna be pictures of walls and wires and construction equipment.”

“Dude stuff.”

“Dude stuff.”

Cass lifts her glass, and she and Lulu do a little toast.

“Heyyyyy!” Kiley slides over to them. The sequins on her dress rub against one another, and give off a low, soft murmur when she moves.

“Hey,” Lulu says.

“Happy New Year! You look great, Cass,” Kiley reports. “You and Lulu both, duh. You guys want a picture together?”

“No phones at The Hotel,” Lulu says automatically.

Cass shakes her head. “He changed the rule,” she says. “Turns out the finishing touch on this place was Wi-Fi. The password is aster. I meant to Flash you when I got here, just to freak you out.”

“Whoa.”

“I know. End of an era.”

At the other end of the room, Roman Sr. is clinking a fork against his glass, trying to get everyone’s attention.

“We have a little while till midnight, but I thought I’d get the introductions out of the way early,” he says. “I’m Roman Riggs, and I’m thrilled to welcome all of you to the opening of Riggs Realty’s newest project. This business has been in our family for generations, and I’m excited to introduce you to my son Ryan, who can tell you more about how this latest iteration came to be.”

Roman turns and claps a hand onto Ryan’s shoulder. Lulu wishes that Christine L. Tompkins, of Beauty, Power, Danger, were here to see this—the casual way men hand off power from one to the next.