“Nah,” he answered, his eyes never leaving my face as he spoke. “From the moment I met Miss Duarte I knew I was in the presence of greatness.” My mind kept telling me he was probably just ribbing Julia, but his words still made me unsteady. I was still trying to come up with a response when someone called my name. I turned in the direction of the voice and found the rep for Smithson-Napa, who had been at that shit show of a presentation, heading my way.

“Hey.” I waved and the young curvy woman with bomb mermaid hair waved back as they approached. She had another woman with her that I didn’t recognize.

“Julia,” I began, but my friend was already shooing me off.

“Go, Mr. Ganas will keep me company.” I grimaced at the potential disaster that could come from leaving Julia alone with Theo but getting one-on-one time with the Smithson-Napa people was very high on my to-do list. I hustled over to them and got ready to code-switch my way into a major collaboration with one of the hottest lifestyle brands in the country.

“Hi there.” I greeted the women with my best “nonthreatening brown lady” voice. “Carrie, right?” I said to mermaid hair.

“Yes, and this is Yazmin.” She waved a hand to the very tall, caramel-skinned butch hottie in a pinstripe suit next to her. “We’ve been wanting to speak to you since the presentation. We’ve been looking through all your book-themed designs on Insta and we’re obsessed with them.” She really stretched out the word obsessed, but I wasn’t going to throw shade if she was into my stuff.

“That’s awesome! I am so glad you liked my work.” I shook their hands and made sure to ramp up my smile to megawatt levels.

“Oh, we more than like it, we adore it.” Carrie was apparently the hype woman in the duo. “We’d love to chat some more...” Yazmin cleared her throat and I noticed that Carrie shot a look in Chase and Kayla’s direction. The two of them were standing off to the side like sharks waiting to feed. Didn’t look like Smithson-Napa was Team Chayla, which was just fine with me.

“Let’s go somewhere a little more private,” Yazmin suggested, tipping her head in the opposite direction of the showrunner and his wife. Once we were out of the courtyard she spoke up. “We’ve been looking for an opportunity to launch a joint line with an up-and-coming designer.”

“Is that right?” I said, all nonchalant while every drop of blood in my body rushed to my head. I squared my shoulders a little more, to give off that “I am your woman” vibe, and ignored the thumbs-up Julia was flashing me.