When I was nineteen and on the night of the auction, I hadn’t seen his face. Back then, his face had been buried in the crook of my neck, and on the stairs he’d been behind me.

But this time, he’d had no way to hide from me.

And for the first time in my life, I felt like I had control of something. No matter how little, there was power in making a man weak for me.

This man.

But now I had to stop thinking about it because it wasn’t helping, and there was no way I’d show up to a charity event unprepared. I had been to enough in my life to know that it was never truly about charity, no matter how people tried to spin it.

It was a fashion show at best, a disgusting display of money at worst.

But I would work with what I had.

“You could just hire someone,” Piper said, looking over some of the blush in the beauty store I had taken her to.

She had a coffee in hand, large and matching mine, both courtesy of Warren’s black card that he so hastily forced into my hand.

It had already been fifteen minutes, and everything I looked at was far over the amount I wanted to spend.

When did makeup become so expensive?

“I mean, you have his card. The possibilities are endless.”

“I don’t want to splurge,” I said, looking toward the exit. To be honest, I didn’t even want to be here. “Knowing how much of a prick Warren is, he’s likely going to take all this out of my payment. The dress alone is a huge chunk.”

I couldn’t even let myself think about the price tag of it all without getting discouraged. If he truly took it out, I would have to do some rethinking.

Mom’s hospital bills come first. Then credit card debt, mostly Mom’s. The house, maybe the car⁠—

“I have some videos I can send you,” she said, setting the blush down with a huff. Her voice pulled me out of my spiraling before it got too bad. I was always bad at crunching numbers, but when it came to debt, I was even worse. “It won’t be professional, but it will be enough not to embarrass you. I can’t believe the asshole. Doesn’t he know showing up to one of these unprepared is like social death?”

“He probably does, and that’s why he’s doing it. Or maybe he just doesn’t care,” I grumbled and looked at the door again, only to see a girl in a familiar-looking uniform push into the store.

I relaxed a little now that the gang was all here.

“Sorry!” Violet said, a breathtaking smile spreading across her face. “I just got off my shift and hurried over here.” She held up a bag. “I brought goodies.”