“You accuse me of ego because I use discernment in whom I choose to downward dog with?” He paused. “Or dance with?”

Jennifer’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “Oh, is this personal? Are you talking about each other?” When no one acknowledged her, she cleared her throat. “Dorsey has a very particular taste, you know. It’s not just in friendships, but also relationships and business deals. His standards are so high because he holds himself to a perfect standard as well.”

“And what happens when one of those friendships or relationships falls below his standards?” Liza asked.

“I drop it,” Dorsey said without blinking. “Never look back.”

“Well, thank goodness I’ll never meet your particular standards for friendships,” Liza said. “It seems like maintaining your high regard is a full-time job.”

Dorsey’s voice had dropped a register, and he leaned in, giving off a kind of energy that Liza had never felt before. “I can assure you that the benefits are excellent.”

Liza swallowed. “With such a tiny applicant pool, it’s a wonder you have any friends at all. As for the ones you do make, god forbid they make a mistake . . .” She drew a line across her neck.

Jennifer thrust herself between them, blocking their intense eye contact. “Oh, Dorsey has many friends. And if he chooses to not slum it for friendships,” Jennifer said pointedly, “then that’s his prerogative.”

“I didn’t know friendship was something one could slum for,” Liza said. Why did Jennifer need to come to this grown man’s defense? Couldn’t she see he held her in the same contempt he held everyone else?

“When you’re a billionaire, everything is slumming,” Dorsey said, wearily eyeing Jennifer for a split second.

Liza whistled in her head. Yass, drama.

Jennifer’s eyebrows creased at that. “My family has produced five senators, one president, and three business tycoons in three hundred years in America. They built this country,” she said coolly. “And they did it without owning one slave, without shipping one job overseas, and without an ounce of corruption.”

Her blood was bluer than his, and her privilege went deeper. He was an adopted child of a wealthy family. He did nothing but luck out of some godforsaken Asian peninsula. Yes, you’re obscenely rich, but I’ll always belong here, I’ll always be white, she was telling him. He deserved to be taken down a notch, but Liza wondered how many microaggressions Dorsey had to field from families like this.

Jennifer squeezed Liza’s wrist and smiled. “You really bring out the beast in Dorsey, don’t you, Liza?” It was as if she was realizing just this moment that Dorsey was an asshole. “I guess I don’t need any help getting my blood flowing anymore.”

“You guys are so boring.” David emerged from a dark corner, drunk, with swollen lips and pants in a semi-tent. Liza looked away—that was none of her business.