Vivian’s eyes narrowed.

Oh shit.

Maybe she could still save this. “Since you’re busy tonight, I thought—”

“Still thinking about moving to Beijing?”

The words fell between them like an ax, the meaning unmistakable, and the two of them stared at each other in silence.

Finally, Jules broke it. “No, Vivian, I am not.”

In her head, Simon’s voice told her that she really should, that escaping halfway across the world would get her out of this emotional clusterfuck. She shushed it.

“I never was,” she continued.

“Then who invited you? Prabal Gurung himself, was it?”

Jules took in a deep breath to confess the truth.

“Don’t bother lying to me,” Vivian said. “I guessed right away.” She crossed her arms. Her pale cheeks were starting to flush. It had been quite a while since Jules had seen her this pissed.

In fact, the last time had been when Page Six broke the news of her pregnancy to the whole world. But this couldn’t compare. Vivian wouldn’t get that mad about her personal assistant going to somebody’s party. Right?

Either way, that had been a shitty thing to say. “I wasn’t going to lie,” she snapped. “There’s no reason to accuse me of that. Yes, Monique’s assistant invited me. That’s the whole story.”

“That’s never the whole story, Julia.” Vivian’s eyes flashed. “You think you were invited because Prabal Gurung couldn’t find enough people to attend? Of course there’s an agenda.”

“Oh? What is it?” She threw back her shoulders. “I’m all ears.”

Vivian inhaled sharply. “You can’t be serious. You’re going to a party with this woman after she all but sedu—tried to hire you right in front of me, and you expect me not to believe we’re in for act two? Why did her assistant wait to invite you until I was away?”

“Was he supposed to invite me when you were in the middle of telling me to do something?” After all, Vivian didn’t tell Jules anything else these days. “Vivian, there’s no way the editor in chief of Du Jour China would go to all this effort just to maybe hire someone as far down the food chain as me.”

“Finally you’re getting it.” Vivian’s eyes had gone from flashing to ice-cold.

Jules hadn’t gotten that kind of look from her in a while. She shivered accordingly. Get it together, Moretti. Don’t let her win this one. It’s ridiculous. “So what are you so worried about?”

“I’m not worried.” The frost in Vivian’s voice could have killed all the houseplants. “I’m reminding you of your job, which I can’t believe I have to do. You’re forgetting yourself.”

Wow. That was a really shitty thing to say. Judging by the way Vivian kept steady eye contact with her, she didn’t give a damn.