“Glad you got in okay, sweetheart.” Her father’s voice, calm and reassuring, relaxed Jules at once.

“Yeah, me too. The flight was fine, everything was fine. Is fine.”

“Did your mom say something about a luncheon?”

“Yeah. At the Ritz. It was okay.” She hesitated. “But the fish was, um, bad.”

Her dad snorted. “I’m sorry to hear that. And your boss? How’s she treating you?”

How, indeed? Let me tell you about my Christmas present. I talked about musicals to a CEO. “Not too bad. She looks kind of sick.”

“She’s already got you running errands and making calls, I guess.”

“Not…not really,” Jules said. “I don’t have much to do, other than the lunch. Well, and she’s bringing me to some dinner tomorrow night.”

“Some dinner?” His voice rose in apparent disbelief. “What do you mean? I thought she dragged you across the ocean on Christmas Day because she needed an assistant right away.”

This wasn’t going well. “Uh, I’m sure she’ll have something for me to do. She’s just tired right now.”

“Fine.” There was a growl of impatience there. “Where are you staying? I hope, at least, it’s some fancy hotel she’s paying for with the company card.”

“Uh, no,” Jules said. “I’m actually at her place. I guess she didn’t want to pay for—”

“Her place,” he said. Jules heard her mother say “what?” in the background.

“I-I think it’s kind of nice, actually,” Jules said. “I’m sure she’ll keep me busy”—eventually—“but I don’t think she usually puts people up in her house.”

“She calls you over there not to get to work but to go out to lunch and dinner with her, she’s in the middle of a divorce, and you’re staying at her house,” her dad said.

“What?” Then Jules realized what he meant. She sat bolt upright as her heart started hammering. “No, Dad. Come on, that’s” —What word was strong enough?— “Outrageous!”

“No, this is outrageous. Quit your job,” he said. “Quit and come home. I don’t like whatever this woman is up to.”

“Oh, my God, Dad!” Jules dug her hand into her hair just as she had when talking to Vivian on the phone in her parents’ kitchen. It was like she’d fallen down Alice’s rabbit hole. “No! It isn’t like that. She wouldn’t—”

“Look, after what I’ve seen and heard, I’m starting to think there’s nothing she wouldn’t do.”

Thank God her parents would never know that Jules had imagined Vivian in lingerie only a few minutes ago. The memory lit her up like a match, which was just so stupid, and now was definitely not the time for it.