Her gut told her otherwise, and the shake of Simon’s head proved it correct. “Vivian doesn’t do friends. Not the kind you mean, anyway. She’s had too many bad experiences. She—look, I didn’t tell you any of this, okay?”

Whatever Simon said, Jules would take it to the grave if it helped her make sense of this. “Of course.”

“You lose a lot of friends in a divorce. Now imagine losing three times that many. Now add in that when you’re powerful and famous, it’s impossible to know who cares about you and who’s just using you. Now add in all the people you stepped on while you made your way to the top—”

“I get the idea.” There was likely even more to it than that. Vivian was strong-willed but intensely private. It was easy to see she’d put up walls within walls. She’d have a hard time keeping close friends even without the factors Simon had mentioned.

“Are you her friend?” she asked. “Are you as close as she gets?”

His silence told her everything.

And right at that moment, Jules’s phone rang. Vivian. She tried to keep her voice steady as she said, “Hello?”

“Where are you?” Vivian asked.

“Um. With Simon. Um—”

“Come back now.” Vivian disconnected.

Jules winced. “We’re being summoned. Or I am, anyway.”

“Ah.”

“Maybe the phones started ringing again,” she said glumly. Then she glared at him. “Or maybe she realized you were going to try to worm stuff out of me.”

“Or maybe she panics when she realizes you’re more than ten feet away.”

Jules blushed, then felt embarrassed for blushing because Simon might take it the wrong way, which only made her blush harder.

“You’re heading into undiscovered territory, you know,” he added. “And every explorer should be cautious.”

The words gave Jules a shiver. “What do you mean?”

“To be honest, I’m not sure what I mean.” He waved their server down for the check. “We haven’t seen anything like you yet.”

She inhaled sharply.

He looked at her with an expression she couldn’t decode. “Good luck.”

* * *

When she returned to Du Jour, Jules found herself in Vivian’s doorway wringing her hands.

“I’m back,” she said.

“Obviously.” She kept her eyes on the editorial spread in front of her. “Where’s Simon?”

“He’s gone home for the night.”

“And where did you two go?”

Might as well ’fess up. “He took me to Federico’s.”

“Sit down,” she said, still not looking up.

This couldn’t be good. Jules tried not to shake as she sat across from Vivian’s desk.

“Well?” Vivian said.

“He knows,” Jules mumbled.

Vivian looked up sharply at her.

“I didn’t tell him,” Jules added quickly. “He already knew. He guessed.”