They all looked at Lu, quirking their carefully threaded eyebrows. Lu wasn’t going to last. First of all, she called herself Lu. Not Luli or even Lulu. If you wanted a man’s job, you couldn’t have a man’s name. You needed to call yourself the least threatening name think you could think of. If they even suspected that you had any ambitions beyond the roles they selected for you, if you were stubborn, if you stood out in the wrong way, you could be cut. Just like that.

Poor Lu. She was already on a plane to Minnesota, and she didn’t even know it.

“Oh, you ladies are so kind,” Candi said. “But I couldn’t possibly get a pixie. I’m afraid I’m too attached to my hair as it is.” In other words, Don’t come for me, and I won’t come for you. And there are no guarantees I won’t come for you anyway, because that’s the way the world works.

Toni smiled. “I don’t blame you,” she said. “You do wear it so well.”

“Thank you, dear.” Candi patted the younger woman’s knee. “You might want to ask Belinda about her new eye shadows. She said those shadows can bring out even the smallest of eyes.”

Toni tipped her head like a puppy, trying to sort out what Candi had said, then her eyes narrowed in recognition. No matter. Toni was no match for Candi, would never be. Candi sipped her green tea and fortified herself with another kale chip.

“How’s the search going, Candi?” Lu asked. “Did you find that cat yet?” Again, the other women stared at her. You weren’t supposed to be so direct, unless you were making a video to put online, a video in which you ranted rather prettily about the president playing too much golf, or maybe the secretary of state operating a tax scam out of a cupcake bakery in New Jersey. The blond women might answer to Duke Goodson, but they had roles as commentators and panelists for various news stations and internet companies. A girl had to make a living.

“The search is going as expected,” Candi replied, her tone cool as the tea in her cup. “The cat is not just a cat, as you know.”

“Looks like a cat,” Lu said. “A big one, but still.”

“Well, it isn’t,” Candi said. “I have Staci, Suri, Jenni, and Zozi at work right now. And there are other forces at play.”

“What other forces?” said Lu. She dug her hand in the bowl of kale chips offered by another assistant and scooped out at least twenty or twenty-five of them. It was appalling.

“Forces that are different from the original forces,” Candi said. That should have been enough to shut the woman up, but this was Lu.