Only it wasn’t myself.
It was some imagining of just who Chaz thought I should be—styled to a fault, not a hair out of place.
“This isn’t me,” I told him, looking at my sleek bob that shined beneath the lights overhead. There wasn’t a square centimeter of my face not covered in makeup. I had eyeshadow all the way up to my brow bones. At least my outfit was a little bit cute, but I was not in love with my face—not one bit.
“Exactly,” Chaz said easily. “You’ll be great. Though I still think it would be better if you could hold a Texas accent throughout the interview.”
“That would mean I’d have to hold a Texas accent for the rest of my life, and that’s not happening.”
“You could lose it in a couple weeks,” he said, returning his attention to his phone. “You’d just tell everyone you took a class for fun to get rid of it.”
“No way,” I said. “I let you take everything else from me. Let me have this one.”
“Fine,” Chaz said.
Devon picked that moment to get home. “Wow!” he exclaimed, coming up behind me. I looked at our shared reflection in the mirror in front of us. For the first time, it looked like we maybe belonged together. That’s how drastically my physical appearance had been altered.
“What do you think?” I asked uncertainly.
“It’s a big change,” he said diplomatically.
“I don’t look like myself.”
“You’re still beautiful.”
“I think it’s the hair, mostly,” I said, staring at myself. “It looks like a shiny black helmet. It’s too perfect.”
“Easy solution.” Devon ruffled my locks.
“Don’t touch her!” Chaz shrieked at him. “We’ve been at this project all afternoon! You’re going to ruin her!”
“I’m not going to ruin her,” Devon laughed, continuing to play with my hair, moving it aside so he could kiss the back of my neck. His lips there made me shudder. “She was perfect just the way she was, but this is nice, too. Are you ready to go?”
Oh, yeah. I’d forgotten that all of this was leading up to getting interrogated about my intentions with America’s boyfriend.
“As I’ll ever be, I guess,” I said.
“Well, thanks for your help, Chaz,” Devon said. “I’ll take it from here.”
“Oh, no you won’t,” he said. “I’m witnessing this debacle firsthand.”
“You’ve been prepping her all day,” Devon said easily. “If it’s a debacle, that’s your problem, not hers.”
I couldn’t hide my smug grin as Chaz paled. “You can’t blame whatever she says on me,” he said, clearly panicked. “That’s not the way this is going to work.”
“Let’s go,” Devon said, and I could’ve sworn he was fighting laughter. It made me feel better that we were both on the same side ahead of this stressful interview. Ganging up on Chaz helped take my mind off of the task at hand.
The ride to the studio passed by too quickly. Chaz barked questions at me the entire ride, quizzing me harder than he had all day on questions Kelly would ask.
Finally, though, I was freshly powdered and varnished and miked up, seated across from a woman who, if possible, was wearing even more makeup than I was. Kelly’s hair was mile high and rock solid, curls cascading over her shoulders like blond boulders. She checked her lipstick in her cell-phone camera, baring startlingly white teeth, before smiling at me.
“You ready for this, darling?” she asked, and I couldn’t help my stomach’s flopping, full of nerves.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I squeaked.
“You’re going to be marvelous,” she assured me. “Everyone will be tuning in.”
“That’s kind of what I’m afraid of,” I admitted.
“Nonsense.” She laughed. “That’s a good thing.”
A good thing for who? Excellent for her show’s ratings, I surmised. But not great for me, as millions would tune in to analyze every feature of my face. For the first time, I wished there was a way I could be wearing even more makeup, if only to hide myself.
“You’re live in fifteen, Kelly,” someone from behind the bright lights illuminating us called. She slipped her phone into her jacket pocket and beamed.
“Wait, this is live?” I asked, my mouth dry. “I thought it would be prerecorded.”
“Darling, this is a historical moment,” she said. “Relax. Ride the wave. You’re about to be famous.”
I didn’t have time to puzzle out what that meant.