to stereotype or anything.”
“Stereotypes exist for a reason, puddin’.”
The building didn’t look any less intimidating. I almost asked Clementine if she would go in with me, but she had a job to do and so did I. Better just to get on with it. Taking a deep breath, I started the limb up the front steps.
I’d never really had a makeover before. Not an official one anyway. Mercy and I used to do each other’s makeup, but that was just for fun and she was always much better at it than I was. Her results had me looking like Audrey Hepburn. My results on her looked more like Gaahl from Gorgoroth. We took pictures for posterity.
They moved kind of like birds. Pecking and stroking at me with penciled and brushes, maneuvering my hair into new and interesting shapes. I could hardly believe the results when I came out the other end. I looked maybe ten years younger. My overall look was a modernized version of a flapper. Neck length, fire red bob and all.
“Right, to wardrobe,” Mari said. Tobias had lent me his assistant for the day. I had to make sure to thank him.
“Strip.”
This was the first word I heard upon entering the wardrobe room. Getting me down to my base garments, I was rebuilt once more. Like a house burned down to the foundations. I tried, I really did, but my jaw still dropped at the sight in the mirror.
“I know right?” the stylist asked, standing behind me.
“Holy shit!” Mari said as she entered the room unannounced.
“Thanks.”
“Time to go up,” Mari said, pulling herself back together.
Tobias Ford was waiting for us in the studio. My heart started pounding in my chest at the very sight of him. He was wearing a similar version to the day before, only his suit was midnight blue instead of black, and his shirt, still silk, was cream white.
“How are you feeling?” He asked.
“Good. I think.”
“A bit nervous?”
“Yeah, exactly.”
“That’s perfectly normal. Fortunately, the show isn’t live, so we can just keep doing it until we have a take you’re happy with.”
“Right.”
“Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
Taking me gently by the hand, a thrill ran through me as our skin again touched in real time. Tobias lead me over to the monologue chair, escorting me up onto the beautifully upholstered seat.
“It’s going to be fine,” Tobias said, taking me gently by the shoulders.
It really was surprisingly encouraging. I closed my eyes and did my best to just relax and be myself.
Two. That’s how many takes it took to get the monologue. It was actually an interview. Tobias asked me the questions in his naturally relaxing tones. Only I was wearing a microphone, so my answers were the only thing picked up by the audio track.
It was a pretty neat trick, really. The second take was done just to be sure, but Tobias swore up and down that the first was perfect and would most likely be used. It was just always good to have a backup.
The preliminaries finished in record time; it was time to get ready for the main event. Tobias stayed by my side the entire time, making me almost wish I was going on a date with him. Catching onto the idea, that was exactly what I planned to do right up until the moment of truth.
“Gino’s, please, Clementine,” Tobias said, getting into the back seat beside me.
“Right away, sir!”
“I thought the date was at the Blue Room.”
“Oh, it is. I didn’t mean to assume, I just figured it has been a while since you’d eaten.”
“It has,” I confessed. How he knew that was anyone’s guess.
“Very good then. To Gino’s for a slice so you don’t faint in the meantime and then on to the Blue Room to set up for the main event.”
“Great.”
Of all my demonstrable skills, fortune-telling had never been one of them, yet it turned out that I was indeed correct. It was great. There were few places I could think of that I would rather be than at one of the three small tables in an authentic New York pizza shop with Tobias Ford.
“Oh, wait minute,”
“What?” I asked, my mouth still full.
“Hold still.”
Obeying him at his every word, Tobias tilted my head back and wiped a bit of cheese grease from my chin before it was able to threaten the perfection of my outfit. Perhaps I should have been embarrassed at the fact that he was wiping me off like a dribbling child.
I didn’t feel it at the time,