Chapter 2
Three weeks before the party, Simone stood beside Adrienne’s desk with a tablet in one hand and a list of eighty-seven confirmed guests in the other, while he signed documents without looking up.
“The quartet is confirmed for eight,” she said. “Catering arrives at four. Security has the final guest list. And the florist needs your decision between white orchids and gardenias.”
“You decide.”
“Orchids?”
“Fine.” His pen moved across another page.
Simone waited. “Anything else?”
“You still haven’t decided whether you want me working the party.”
That made him glance up. “Working?”
“Someone needs to coordinate vendors, arrivals, and the staff.”
Adrienne leaned back in his chair. “You’ve coordinated enough. Let the event team handle it.”
Simone blinked. In five years, she had attended dozens of his dinners, fundraisers, and private events — always with a phone in her hand and a schedule in her head. She had never simply attended.
“So you don’t need me there?” she asked.
Adrienne misunderstood the question completely. “Come as a guest for once.” He returned his attention to the papers. “Bring someone.”
Simone remained still.
“A friend. A date. Whoever you want.” His tone was casual, almost distracted. “You do have a life outside this office, don’t you?”
Simone stared at him for one second. She wondered whether he realized how strange that question sounded, coming from a man who had occupied most of her waking hours for half a decade.
Then his phone rang. The moment vanished.
“That’s all,” he said, already reaching for it.
Simone walked back to her desk carrying four words she could not stop hearing.
Bring someone.
That evening, Daniel Hayes called while she was riding the subway home.
“How does jazz, overpriced food, and eighty rich strangers sound?”
“That sounds like a terrible first date or a corporate hostage situation.”
“Adrienne’s birthday party.”
There was a pause. “You’re inviting me into the kingdom.”
“Apparently I’m allowed to have a life outside the office.”
Daniel caught the edge in her voice immediately. “He said that word for word. And does he know what your life looks like?”
Simone watched tunnel lights flicker past the window. “I don’t think he’s ever wondered.”
Daniel became quiet. They had known each other since college — long before Simone learned how easily ambition could turn into service when you became too good at making someone else successful.
“Then come as yourself,” he said. “Not his secretary. Not the woman checking everyone’s reservations. Just Simone.”
The idea felt almost rebellious.
Over the next three weeks, Adrienne barely mentioned the invitation again. Simone chose the menu, approved the lighting, rearranged the seating chart twice, and made sure his favorite bourbon was stocked behind the bar. Adrienne approved the invoices and assumed everything would somehow become perfect — because Simone had spent five years teaching him that perfection required no visible effort.
On Friday afternoon, twenty-four hours before the party, she placed the final schedule on his desk.
Adrienne scanned it. “You’ll be here by six.”
Simone shook her head. “Seven-thirty.”
His eyes lifted. “That late.”
“Guests arrive at seven-thirty, right?” He seemed genuinely confused for a moment. Simone almost smiled. “Remember? I’m not working tomorrow.”
Adrienne studied her as though the fact had only now become real. “Of course.”
She turned toward the door.
“Simone.”
She looked back.
“Enjoy yourself tomorrow.” His voice was unexpectedly sincere.
Simone nodded. “I intend to.”
The following evening at exactly 7:41, the penthouse elevator doors opened.
Adrienne was across the room, surrounded by guests, when he glanced toward them. Simone stepped out beside Daniel in that deep red dress, smiling at something he had whispered. Adrienne stopped listening to the conversation around him.
Three weeks earlier, he had casually told Simone to bring someone. Only now did he realize he had never imagined she actually would.
For the next twenty minutes, Adrienne discovered that jealousy was not dramatic. It was quiet, repetitive, and embarrassingly precise.
It was noticing Daniel move a chair before Simone reached the table.
It was watching him exchange her sparkling water when a server mistakenly brought champagne.
It was seeing Simone lean closer when the jazz quartet began playing “Misty,” her face brightening before Daniel murmured, “I told you they’d play something you like.”
Adrienne stood twelve feet away speaking with a venture capitalist — and heard every word.
“You know Erroll Garner?” he asked before he could stop himself.
Simone turned toward him. “I love jazz.”
Three simple words, delivered without accusation, somehow made him feel foolish.
“Since when?”
The question escaped automatically. Simone’s eyebrows lifted. “Since I was thirteen.”
Daniel smiled. “Her father had an old record collection. She used to make me listen to it in college.”
Adrienne looked at Simone. Five years of airport lounges, late meetings, long drives through Manhattan traffic — and he had never once asked what music she liked.
“I didn’t know that,” he said.
Simone’s expression softened, but only slightly. “You never asked.”
A server passed with hors d’oeuvres, breaking the silence. Simone reached for one, and Adrienne noticed another detail. She was relaxed. At work, even during quiet moments, some part of her remained alert to his schedule. Tonight, she was not watching doors, checking her phone, or anticipating what anyone needed. She was simply enjoying herself.
And without the machinery of his life surrounding her, Adrienne could suddenly see how much of Simone had existed beyond his attention.
Later, when the quartet shifted into something faster, Daniel offered his hand.
“Dance.”
Simone laughed. “Absolutely not.”
“You promised.”
“I promised nothing.”
“College reunion rules.” He held out his hand until she finally accepted.
Adrienne watched them move toward the open space near the windows. Nothing about it should have mattered. Daniel was her guest. Adrienne himself had invited her to bring someone.
Yet when Simone laughed again, Adrienne felt an unfamiliar irritation settle beneath his composure.
“Your secretary cleans up beautifully,” one of his guests remarked beside him.
Adrienne turned slowly. The man appeared unaware that anything about the comment was wrong.
“Her name is Simone Carter,” Adrienne said, “and she runs half the executive operations at Romano Holdings.”
The guest blinked. “Of course. I didn’t mean—”
“I know what you meant.”
Adrienne walked away before the apology finished.
The irony followed him. Five minutes earlier, he had introduced Simone as his secretary. Now hearing someone else reduce her to the same title bothered him.
Across the room, Daniel returned with two glasses of sparkling water. Simone accepted hers without checking what it was.
Trust.
May you like
Adrienne realized: Daniel knew. Simone expected him to know. That tiny exchange disturbed Adrienne more than the dancing had.
At 9:17, Simone stepped onto the terrace for air. Adrienne waited perhaps ten seconds before following.
