guage swimming before her eyes. Fifty thousand dollars. The number blazed in her mind like

ce carefully measured as he watched h

n read." The words came out sharper than she intend

sanitizer in his jacket pocket, a tell she was already le

wn the familiar sting of shame. She'd heard worse assumptions a

her finger along the timeline. "Ch

ht the slight tremor in his voice. "You'll have your own room, of course. We'll need to est

g should

so long that my mother would expect more... ad

a living, he sure got flustered easily. "What about my background? You said

ed it open, revealing pages of handwritten note

keley with a degree in art history. Your father is a retired professor

h. "You know that's like, the complete opp

e rhythm-one, two, three, tap, pause, repeat. "We need to create some

She'd barely passed regular history in the tenth gr

before Christmas Eve. I'll tea

ty? Julian, look at me." She gestured to her thrift store jacket and scuffed boots. "I work

trolled facade slipped, and she saw something r

handled those men at the bar, how you're analyzing this contra

me? I mean, really. You could hire an actual actr

izer, pumping once, twice. "They'd ask questions about my personal

think I

ke the money and disappear." He met he

ena thought. H

name at the bottom of the contract with a b

ame precision he probably used for surgical instruments. "We'll need to work on spe

riate are w

ulled out his phone and showed her a photo of an elegant woman in pearls and a tailore

in a place like Murphy's Bar, never worked a double shift, never coun

d a makeover t

ance. And we'll need to do

dark waves, currently pulled back in a m

ntled slightly. "But it needs to look... int

ulders like a heavy coat. She was going to have to become

e start?"

at probably cost more than Elena made in six mon

cracked. "I've never even

lian stood, leaving a twenty-dollar tip

strange, rigid man who was

ing across his features. "My mother... she's very good a

tion in her voice. "I've been pretending to be fine my whol

and decisive. "Then we hav

around her-the gleaming espresso machine, the customers in the

ow, Elena Martinez would start learning how

was a better actres