"Maddie."
I turned quickly.
Felix stood behind me. Close behind me. Instinctively I took a step back. I hadn't seen him since the incident at the castle and my cheeks instantly flooded with heat at the sight of him now.
He was dressed in his usual khakis paired with a white button down. Though I supposed as a concession to the fashion vibes crackling through the air, he'd slipped a dark brown blazer over the top and traded in his Sketchers for a pair of dress shoes. Overall, the effect was a casual sophistication that, I had to admit, he pulled off well.
"You look a little flushed."
My hands immediately went up to my fire-filled cheeks.
"Me? Oh, uh, well, Jean Luc's had us running around all day."
Felix nodded. Then handed me a bottle of water. "You look like you could use this."
I took it, making a conscious effort not to skim his hand as I did. "What are you doing here?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Jean Luc invited me. A sort of peace offering for the mess with the necklace."
"A mess you started. Did Jean Luc know you were dating Gisella?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.
Felix looked heavenward. "We're not going to let that one go are we, love?"
"No we're not."
"Look, I told you, we went out a few times. It was nothing serious."
I unscrewed the top from the bottle. "You never did say why you broke it off."
Felix paused. "No, I didn't."
"Well? Come one. For a guy who makes his living prying in other people's private lives, you're nuts if you think I'm gonna let you clam up now."
He gave me a long hard look. Then, "There was someone else."
I raised an eyebrow. "You're quite the ladies man. Another model?"
"No."
"Actress?"
"No."
"Come on, who is she? How long have you been seeing each other?"
Felix's gaze didn't waiver, his entire body suddenly rigid, at attention, focused entirely on me. "Perhaps I worded that incorrectly. I wasn't seeing someone else. There was just… the hope of someone else."
I cocked my head to the side. "The hope?"
"She…" he faltered. Then cleared his throat. "I supposed I'm destined to admire her from afar. But, as long as I am, it's hardly fair to lead anyone else on."
A bad feeling churned in my stomach, one that warned I never should have started this conversation. I looked left and right, searching for any way out of it.
But before I could find one, Felix did a short humorless laugh. "You really don't know, do you?"
I bit my lip. "Felix, I don't think-"
He didn't let me finish, instead taking a step forward, his voice low and laced with emotion. "And here I thought I was being pretty obvious." His eyes finally broke their unnerving contact with my own, lowering, settling on my lips.
I sucked in a breath.
Oh. Hell.
I instinctively licked my lips, my throat suddenly drier than my mother's elbows in January. I tried to take a big breath of much needed oxygen, but my lungs sudden felt two sizes too small. Especially with Felix standing so close. It suddenly felt like he was everywhere, closing in on me, suffocating me. I opened my mouth to speak. But only a little squeaking sound came out, like I'd swallowed a mouse. I wet my lips again.
"Stop doing that," Felix whispered.
"What?" I squeaked again.
"Moving your tongue along your lips."
"I…" I trailed off. I had no response for that.
"A man only has so much self control, Maddie."
The mouse in my throat piped up again.
Felix's eyes went dark and heavy, his breath coming faster. "Maddie, I-"
"Maddie, dahling, there you are!"
I gave myself a mental shake, Jean Luc's voice breaking the way-too-intimate moment Felix and I were having in the middle of a crowded room.
Disappointment welled in Felix's eyes, though he covered it well, taking a step back and casually running a hand through his ever-disheveled hair.
"Maddie, sweets, love, darling, we have got a problem. We are talking show stopper here, honey."
I cleared my throat, willing my cheeks to stop burning. "Yes?" I asked, addressing Jean Luc.
What little hair the man had was standing on end, a sheen of perspiration covering his forehead, his pupils dilated to an unhealthy size. "It's Angelica. She broke a heel. Damned cheap pumps! You've got to do something, now! She goes on in ten minutes, God help us all." He paused, spotting Felix for the first time. "Oh, hello Lord Ackerman, I trust you are enjoying the circus, no?" he said, gesturing around himself.
Felix gave Jean Luc a curt nod, his eyes still on me.
"I'm on it," I promised.
"You are a lifesaver. I swear if I can get through this day without killing myself, I will die a happy man. Now, go, go, go!" he shooed me.
I went, capping my water bottle again as I tried not to meet Felix's penetrating gaze. I wasn't sure what he'd been about to say, but I was certain I didn't know how to respond. He had to be joking, right? I mean, this was one of his sick jokes. He was teasing. He was just playing with me. He was…
I turned around. He was still standing in the same place, his eyes on me, hands shoved in his pockets, a look in his eyes that was surprisingly vulnerable, making his boyish good looks that much more endearing. I'd never seen Tabloid Boy like this. Teasing, yes. Playful, yes. Even infuriatingly selfish, self absorbed, preoccupied. But never laid this bare.
I snapped my head back around. This was all too much.
I took a sip from the water bottle in my hands, my mouth going Sahara on me as I threaded my way through the makeup chairs, wardrobe racks and general chaos to where Angelica was holding a broken heel in one hand and trying to zip up a black baby-doll dress with the other.
"Heel emergency?" I asked.
Angelica nodded. "Sorry. I tripped over a makeup case."
I pulled a tube of superglue from my pocket. "No problem." I applied a thin layer to the heel, sticking it back in place. Were she going on a day trip to the mall, no way would this hold. But, for a two minutes strut down a runway, it would do.
"Love the outfit," I said, gesturing to the dress. It featured a high, empire waist and a flowing bell shape, al la vintage Audrey Hepburn. Totally sixties chic.
"Thanks. It would have been better if we'd had a real necklace to go with it," she said, adjusting the piece of costume jewelry around her neck that Jean Luc had found as a last minute replacement for the real deal, still squirreled away in Moreau's evidence vault along with two dozen pairs of my very best work.
A thought I shoved to the back of my mind, lest I break out in tears right then and there.
"Damned, Gisella. Even dead she's still screwing me over," Angelica mumbled to herself.
"Well at least she can't steal any more boyfriends away," I reasoned.
Angelica cocked her head at me, her red curls flopping to the side. "What?"
"Like she did with your boyfriend, Sam."
She grinned at me, showing off a row of ultra-white teeth. "I never said Sam was a man. Samantha was my girlfriend."
Mental forehead smack.
"Oops. My bad. I guess I just thought…" I trailed off. Considering the type of files on Gisella's camera, I'd just assumed that we were talking about a guy here. I never guessed Gisella might be stealing a woman away from Angelica. I guess I assumed Gisella only swung one way. Something I supposed I shouldn't have.
But in my defense, "Sam" wasn't exactly the most feminine name. Had she said "Sally," I so would have been right there with her.
Angelica waved me off. "No biggie," she said, doing another of her Eastern European Americanisms.
"Angelica, you're on," Jean Luc shouted, grabbing her by the shoulders and propelling her into the wings where Ann shifted her into line.
I watched her go, taking another sip from my water bottle. Sam was a woman. Somehow that new bit of information seemed like it should be significant. But I wasn't quite sure how.