NOTHING HAD CHANGED for Rose and Bobby. They were still meeting at Rockefeller Center and having coffee on Broadway. He had kept his word about his musical; he'd said that he wouldn't bring it up until Rose trusted him and asked to see it. But she hadn't asked. There were times when she thought if she could, maybe other things would happen. Maybe he'd ask her to come to his apartment. Maybe he'd kiss her. He hadn't given her one single reason not to trust him—she knew she was being unfair. But something inside her just wouldn't give in.

She told herself that inviting him to her mother's party wasn't a test. Even though he would be meeting a laundry list of Broadway movers and shakers, she told herself that she was absolutely positive that he wouldn't try to hustle his musical to any of them. He'd promised her he wouldn't take advantage of her and her connections, and he'd keep that promise. She told herself she was absolutely positive about that too. So there was no test and it was perfectly okay when she asked Lu if they could add Bobby Manning to the party guest list.

“Who is he?” Lu asked.

Rose found herself spilling everything, telling Lu about Bobby's ambitions and the promise he'd made. “He says now that he knows me, he could never ever try to use me to get to you,” Rose wound up her recitation. “And I believe him.”

Almost.

“Oh, shit,” her mother muttered.

“What's wrong?” she asked.

“You were just starting to like me, and now I've got to say something that you aren't going to want to hear.”

“You think he is trying to use me.”

“Do you really think he isn't?”

“If he was, why would he be so up front with me?”

“Obviously he's very smart.”

“Or maybe what he said was the truth. Maybe he did want to meet me because of you, but now that he knows me, things are different.”

“If you believe that, why are you making him prove himself?”

“That sounds ugly.”

“It is. If this man is as desperate as you say he is—”

“I never said he was desperate.”

“Rose, he's thirty years old and he's been knocking around trying to get a break since he got out of high school. Believe me, he's desperate. And putting him in a room with the people who could give him everything he's ever dreamed of is like putting a starving dog in front of a porterhouse and telling it not to eat.”

“He's not trying to use me! He cares about me.”

“He can care about you and use you at the same time, honey. People do that.”

“You don't know him!”

Her mother sighed. “Oh yes I do, Rose. I know your Bobby Manning without ever saying hello.”