Something To Talk About

chapter one

Winter stood in the hallway in front of the suite door for ten minutes. She knocked at exactly 10:30 a.m.

The door opened right away. A short man with dark hair, close cropped on the sides and long on top, stood behind it. He grinned and gestured her inside.

“Are you the infamous Winter?” he asked.

“Winter, yes. Infamous, not so much,” Winter said.

The man led her into the living room area. The suite was huge—it even had an upstairs. On one side, there was a spiral staircase Winter didn’t trust her clumsy self to climb. Behind the staircase was a closed door that Winter assumed led to a bedroom. The other side of the room opened to a dining area. The living room itself had floor-to-ceiling windows, two couches, an overstuffed chair, a full-sized piano—God knows why—and a chaise near one of the windows, where Karina sat serenely as someone did her nails. She was a picture of luxury in a pink silk robe. She smiled at Winter from across the room. Winter waved, then dropped her hand to her side, wondering how dumb it looked.

“Karina’s never had someone else for us to style; you’re infamous,” the man who let her in said. “I’m Kyungsoo, by the way. I work with Giselle, who I think you know.”

Winter only knew Giselle from phone calls setting up appointments. She did Karina's makeup for events where there would be media.

“That’s me,” a woman said. She stood at a table covered with makeup products. “Nice to put a face to the name.”

Winter smiled. “You, too.”

“As soon as Ningning finishes touching up Karina's nails, it’s your turn,” Kyungsoo said. “Do you know how you want to wear your hair?”

“Um,” Winter said. She had googled hairstyles all day yesterday but kind of figured the stylist would have something picked out for her. “I like it down?”

“I can work with that.”

Winter felt a bit like a doll then. Kyungsoo played with her hair—inspecting her with each adjustment. Giselle brought over makeup palettes, holding each up to Winter's face to figure out what worked best with her coloring. Someone appeared with a glass of water. They disappeared before she could get their name. Winter trusted these people—Karina always looked great at events—but she’d never been primped like this before.

It settled down eventually. Ningning came over to do her nails while Giselle worked on Karina's makeup. Winter let Ningning pick the color of her polish. She stayed mostly silent throughout, only speaking when spoken to. She wanted to tell Karina she was robbed at the Producers Guild Awards last night, but she didn’t know how to bring it up.

“I thought you said she was talkative,” Giselle said, and Winter looked over at her.

“She usually is.” It was the first time Karina had spoken since Winter arrived.

“She said you’d probably talk our ears off,” Giselle told Winter.

“Whatever happened to beautician-client privilege?” Karina asked.

Giselle rolled her eyes at Karina. “It’s not that you have to talk,” she said to Winter. “But you don’t have to be afraid to, either.”

“I’m not afraid to talk,” Winter said, thrown by the idea of Karina discussing her with other people. “Nor am I particularly talkative?”

Keeping her eyes closed as Giselle applied shadow, Karina waved a hand at Winter. “You always have a gaggle of PAs around you.”

“Because I’m friendly,” Winter said. She made her voice go sweet. “And if they want to complain about their overbearing boss—”