Page 34 of Born for Starlight

This was, I realized, what I'd actually summoned him for. Not logistics. This. One person in my life looking at my plan and saying yes instead of flinching.

"Okay." I scrolled down. "Second stop. Instituto Aurora."

"Mm."

This was a different sound. I looked up.

I turned my phone around. "This time no video. This came through my agent, Marty. He downloaded it and sent it to me. Very polished. Embossed letterhead, a welcome package, a whole proposed program for my visit. They'd be honored to receive me. Somebody on their board apparently loved my last film, which of course they did. Marty was thrilled. It's a state institution, official channels, great optics."

I watched as he scrolled through the documents. He took his time reading them, then finally looked up.

"It's certainly official." His voice stayed level as he handed me back my phone. "Who's your contact?"

I looked down at my phone again. "Frederico Costa, he runs Aurora. It's a school for orphaned girls."

Matthew nodded, his expression staying pleasant. But a wall came down behind his eyes so smoothly that if reading people wasn't half my job, I'd have missed it entirely.

"That's it? Casa Semente gets sixty years of clean books and I could sleep fine, and Aurora gets it's certainly official?"

"State institutions come with bureaucracy. Handlers, minders, an itinerary they control instead of you." He shrugged. "You'll see less of the real work. That's all."

"But you're not telling me to skip it."

"Would you skip it even if I did?"

"No."

"Then I'm not wasting my breath." One corner of his mouth moved. "I'll do my job at both. One of them will just be more relaxing than the other."

Every word he said was reasonable. Every single word. And I sat there with my thumb on the phone screen and thought, this man just told me something true in a way designed to keep me from asking a different question. A better question. I couldn't have said how I knew, I just did. He was like a director who told me the take was fine. Which meant it was shit.

"Miss Angel!"

I didn't even get to open my mouth. Bella arrived at our table like a little whirlwind, practically vibrating, with Trenda three steps behind, already resigned to it.

"We came to get muffins for the church ladies and Mom said not to bother you but this is not a bother, this is important." Bella planted both hands on the end of our table. "Have you confirmed the string quartet can play outside? Because the forecast says wind, and wind is fine for strings but not for sheet music, so they need clips. Does anybody have clips?"

"I..."

"Also, the flower girl baskets came in, and they're the wrong white. There are two whites, ivory and stark, and these are stark, and the dress is ivory, and someone has to call the company today because shipping takes four days and the wedding is in nine."

"Bella," Trenda said. I could hear the warning note in her tone, but Bella plowed on.

"And has anyone told the cake lady that James is allergic to strawberries? Because the filling was supposed to be changed and I have not seen it confirmed anywhere and if he swells up at the reception it will ruin everything."

"It's confirmed," I managed. "I called Monday."

"Written confirmation?"

"Email."

Bella exhaled and finally smiled.

"And the clips?"

"I'll get Ruby to confirm on the baskets and the musicians are professionals, they'll have clips."

She gave me a long look, deciding whether to trust me or not. She must have felt good enough about my answers. "Okay. Good. You can go back to your date."