~*~*~
    Lisa looked in the mirror one last time and turned a bit this way and that. The dress shimmered magically around her and the heels Mindy had packed brought her legs into stunning relief. She had, of course, followed Mindy’s orders regarding her hair and pulled it back into a curly, messy ponytail that cascaded down the back of her head and did not in any way cover her smoky kohl-lined eyes. Leaning closer to the glass she ran a finger under her left eye to remove an invisible smudge and examined her lipstick.
    Perfect.
    Kapow yawned widely at her from the letto while Shazam put a paw on her suitcase and eyed her suspiciously.
    “Oh would te relax?” Lisa scolded, taking the small cartella, satchel up away from the dog and starting down the stairs. “Lanie is going to take good care of you.”
    Lisa paused in front of the mirror da the front door and examined herself yet again, looking for any imperfections she had missed. A rattling sound brought her attention to the side tavolo where her phone was lighting up and having a seizure and the number in the window was
    “Hugh…” she detto into the mouthpiece, a sudden and uncontrollable smile completely overtaking her countenance. “Hey. How’d it go?”
    “You look absolutely gorgeous,” his British accent wormed its way through her ear canal down into her heart, where it promptly curled up and made itself at home. A warm flush began to spread through her entire body and she closed her eyes, reveling in this completely unanticipated feeling—only a giorno fa she had been in complete and total despair…
    “You hooked up a video feed to my house already?” She teased. “Usually I make a guy wait at least two days before I allow that kind of thing.”
    “I don’t need any such thing as a video feed to know that you’re beautiful.” Lisa opened her eyes and stared at herself in the mirror as Hugh’s voice continued in her ear. Her eyes… “I need te here… now. I’m bored.”
    “You’re bored.” Lisa leaned in and narrowed her eyes at herself critically. Something different. Not bad different, but…
    “Meeting’s over but people haven’t started mostrare up yet. I want my conversationalist here to amuse me.”
    “You want someone to talk to?” Lisa tilted her head, still looking at her eyes. “Talk to Katie. Talk to David. Talk to Greg.”
    “I want you.” Somehow Hugh’s voice managed to be flirtatious and peevish all at the same time. “When are te coming?”
    “Soon,” she whispered. That was it—every time Hugh spoke, her eyes softened and deepened into a color unlike any she’d ever noticed before. “And after…”
    “You are coming with me.” Hugh’s voice lowered as if he were trying to avoid being overheard. “Lisa… I put my ring back on.”
    Lisa swallowed hard. “Oh.”
    “Please don’t—I don’t want to—bloody hell, can te just get here and we’ll find a closet o something and I can put my arms around te and explain?”
    “I do understand,” Lisa reassured him, but her stomach still felt queasy. “No, I do. It only makes sense…”
    “Please come.”
    “I’m on my way.”
~*~*~
    Hugh slid his phone into his pocket and fiddled with his ring absently. He had hurt her, and he knew it. As he had walked from his car towards the building for the meeting he had realized that his left ring finger felt… well, empty; after all it had been years and years since he’d taken it off for anything other than filming. But to walk into that meeting without it… to endure the stares and the domande and have to fend them off when all he wanted was to get it over with…
    No. And the same could be detto of this event tonight. But already he could imagine the look on Lisa’s face when she saw it, and all her earlier doubts and fears came flooding back upon her…
    No. Absolutely not. There would be no più backing out for either of them and damn the consequences. Just let her get there…
    “Hugh!” David came up from out of nowhere, looking harried. “I just wanted to give te a heads up. I know we detto it was going to be a closed affair…”
    “What?” Hugh’s head snapped around at the sound of the a-word before he realized David was talking about the party. “Oh. What?”
    “The party is going to get crashed. Photographers and I think possibly TV Guide might mostra up at some point…”
    “How did that happen?” Hugh tried to hide the edge to his voice, but this was not the night for cameras and outside eyes to be watching his every move.
    “It’s good press,” David detto tiredly. “And it’ll only be for the very beginning, the arrivals, maybe a domanda o two. Katie thought it would be a good idea to get as much good press as we possibly can now, before next—we don’t know how the viewers are going to react, so—”
    “Great.” Hugh gritted his teeth and tried not to resent this unwelcome news. “I’ll behave myself, then.”
    “We certainly would appreciate it.” David detto dryly. “I know it’s early but people will be mostrare up pretty soon. You’re not wearing that, are you?”
~*~*~
    Lisa narrowed her eyes slightly as she pulled into the parking lot of the party and turned off her car. There were camera crews and flashing lights and… what the hell was going on?
    There weren’t supposed to be any press at this event. It was meant to be a private party for the cast and crew to celebrate and let their hair down a little after a long season… She hesitated slightly, then realized what she was walking into. Any secondo they would realize she was there, and Lisa was not about to give anyone the smallest bit of suspicion that things were not as they should be.
    And so, head high, she entered the fray.
~*~*~
    A sudden clamor arose from the general direction of the entrance, and Hugh looked up from his conversation with Jesse to see what was going on.
    He immediately regretted it.
    “No woman should be allowed to be that stunning,” Jesse detto from successivo to him, and Hugh immediately fixed him with a glare. “Well? Look at her!”
    “I’d find myself blinded da the cameras if I tried,” Hugh detto sourly, doing his damn best to not let his eyes seek out hers across the room. He looked down at his suit, checking to be sure he had zipped his pants and that his camicia wasn’t sticking out anywhere it wasn’t supposed to… The dark grayish silver of his tie shimmered slightly in the dim light of the party as he slid his hands into the pockets of his trousers and looked away from the entrance. “I’m going to get some water.”
    “You… are in such trouble.” Robert sidled up beside him as he made his way to the bar. “I see you’re wearing your ring again…”
    “I’m not going to bring up my divorce in the middle of all this,” Hugh muttered to him. “And I presume I can count on te to keep it to yourself until the announcement is made?”
    “Of course.” Robert turned slightly to his left and started, raising his eyebrows. “Wow. Lisa’s here.”
    “I had guessed as much,” Hugh said, taking a goblet of water from the bartender. “I heard the shrieking.”
    “She’s—glowing.”
    Sighing slightly and setting his shoulders, Hugh finally turned around to see what everyone was apparently staring at—and the glass slid immediately out of his fingers and to the floor.
    Heads whirled in his direction at the sound of the shattering glass as water splashed upward and outward and shards of crystal shot across the floor, luckily missing anyone’s feet. Lisa’s eyes sought out the cause of the commotion and met Hugh’s and locked, an invisible golden thread linking their hearts and minds immediately as they read each other’s expressions.
    My God…
    A very slow, very seductive smile bloomed on Lisa’s lips as she watched Hugh suddenly start an awkward dance to avoid stepping on the bartender, who was trying to sweep up the glass that surrounded Hugh’s feet. Right before she turned back to the cameras she saw him look up again, and the look on his face completely erased any doubt that might have been lingering in her mind from their earlier conversation.
    He meant business.
~*~*~