Page 28 of Keep Your Friends Close and Your… Work Enemy Closer?

She swallowed a forkful of her salad before answering. "Great actually. And awful too."

"What?" I laughed. "How is that possible?"

"It seems like it's going great. But I also doubt myself all the time. Like I'll finish something and think it's brilliant one night. Then the next day, when I come in, I hate it and it's the worst thing I've ever designed."

"I know it's brilliant," Aria said. "Everything you touch is gorgeous."

"Mm-hmm." I nodded in agreement because my sister truly was talented.

"And how's the dress coming for the Midnight Masquerade Ball?" I asked, watching with amusement as Astrid shot Aria a quick glare. "I already know. She told me."

"I'm so sorry. So, so sorry," Aria said in a rush, apologizing to our little sister. "It just kind of slipped out."

"It's okay." Astrid sighed. "It was bound to come out anyway. Just don't tell another soul. This stays between the three of us only."

Aria and I both mimicked zipping our lips, something we'd done countless times growing up. "Why didn't you tell me too, though?" I asked Astrid, a little hurt that she hadn't confided in me to begin with.

She shrugged, her eyes full of concern, and I suddenly knew why. Because I would have talked her out of it, or said it was a bad idea, or some other bullshit. Maybe I needed to work on biting my tongue a bit more and practicing that whole if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

"Never mind. I get it. And for the record, I say go for it." Even though I really thought it was a terrible plan.

Her eyes lit up. "Really? You think so?"

I took a long sip of my chilled white wine which wasn't so chilled anymore. "Sure. Why the hell not?"

Because a million things could go wrong with Astrid's plan to go to the annual winter ball and hook up with a complete stranger, anonymous and masked the entire time, most especially my sensitive little sister getting hurt.

Astrid had never in her life had a one-night stand, and I wasn't sure how she would handle it. But that was for her to find out, and for Aria and me to be there to pick up the pieces if needed.

There was a pause as the waiter stopped by to refill our water glasses and make sure everything was okay. A slight breeze rustled through the open-air restaurant, lifting the hair off my neck, a much needed cooling while I wore this stupid wig that mimicked my real hair.

To pull off being Cordelia and to mask my real identity of Annalise Stratton, I'd dyed my dark hair blonde and cut it into a bob. For the millionth time, I wondered if I'd done it backwards. Maybe I should have worn a wig as Cordelia and kept my real hairstyle the way it was.

But it was too late, and now, I was committed to my two identities and trying to keep them separate.

Once the waiter left, I put my wig hair back into a low ponytail.

"Hot?" Aria asked me.

"Yes. I picked a fine time of year to wear a wig, didn't I?"

They both laughed before Astrid turned serious again. "How's your work going anyway? Have you recovered from the whole elevator incident with Jared?"

"I don't know if I'll ever recover from that. But thankfully, with the exception of Jared being his usual loud, crunching,slurping self, the rest of the week was uneventful. All we did was finish up the proposal and send it out to Venus' people."

"It'd be so much easier if you could just be your real self and use some family connections, you know?" Astrid said.

"Yeah," Aria agreed. "Pull out the ole 'Don't you know who I am?' card."

We all laughed and did a round of 'Don't you know who I am?' in snooty voices, something we'd heard plenty of times throughout the years at society events.

Once we all quieted, I sighed. "Well, that's kind of the whole point, to see if I can make itwithoutusing our last name. But God, sometimes it gets tiring. Not to mention all the wig stuff and subterfuge. Like the other night after the elevator fiasco, Jared saw where I lived, and I swear he was suspicious."

"He went in with you or saw it from the outside?" Aria asked.

"Just the outside. But it wouldn't make sense that Cordelia would live there. I mean, what do I have to do? Get two residences?"

They both looked at me with the same sympathetic expression, Astrid speaking up first. "Everything's so complicated for you right now."

---