Page 15 of Kiss & Collide
It gave her a little thrill, having a flash of inspiration about her work. To distract from Reece Hammond, she needed to make Chase Navarro a star.
6
“Honestly, I’m just excited to get behind the wheel and drive,” Chase said to the bank of reporters with a shrug.
“We can’t wait to see you do it,” one of them—Kathryn—replied.
“You guys all coming to Spielberg next week?”
They all nodded enthusiastically.
“Great.” He smiled. “Guess I’ll see you then.”
Violet stepped forward and angled herself in front of him. “That’s all we have time for today. If any of you are interested in interviews after Spielberg, email me and we’ll see what we can do.”
Violet must be good at her job, because they all told her they wanted time with him in Austria. He’d never gotten this kind of press interest in F2.
“See you guys later.” He waved. “And hey, Jon, don’t forget what I told you about Ascari at Monza.”
The middle-aged reporter he’d been talking to nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, I’ll check that out when we get there. Thanks, Chase.”
As the reporters scattered and started packing up their equipment, Violet turned sharply to face him.
“Do you have a minute?” she asked.
There was a look in her eye he had never seen before … elation?
“You seem happy.”
She promptly scowled.
“Ah, there she is.”
She was wearing another one of those tight suits she liked, black this time, with a black satin bustier peeking out from under the jacket. Her hair was slicked back behind her ears, and her earrings were two ferocious-looking dangling silver spikes.
She let out an annoyed huff. “My office.”
He followed her down the hall and into her office. It was small, with just one window looking out over the parking lot. It was also entirely bare.
“Where’s your stuff?”
Her eyebrows furrowed. “What stuff?”
“You know … house plants, pictures of your family … stuff.”
“I guess I don’t do stuff.”
He made a slow circuit of the room, opening drawers and thumbing through the folders on her desk. It had only been a couple of days since she’d started, but it was still so curiously empty it made him wonder what her home looked like. Did she like color or would she go for all white? Vintage or modern? Florals or skulls? Was it also this empty? Probably.
“Will you quit messing with my stuff?” she snapped.
“You just said you didn’t have any. Aha!” Behind a box of files on the corner of her desk he spotted one picture frame. But when he pulled it out, it wasn’t a picture of parents or siblings. It was her and Miranda Wentworth on the track, outsidethe Lennox mobile offices. They had their arms slung around each other’s shoulders and were both grinning widely. Violet looked different, the way he remembered her from past seasons. Ripped jeans and a faded black Violent Femmes T-shirt. Her hair was a windblown riot, held off her face with a pair of sunglasses. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen her smile like that. Certainly not when he was around.
“You guys are really close, huh?”
She plucked the picture frame out of his hand and set it back on her desk. “She’s my friend. Are you finished?”
He shrugged. “I guess. So what did you want to see me for?”
