Chapter 1 Lucy Green stood on a precipice. Really, she sat on a barstool contemplating her drink while she waited for her boyfriend, Caleb, who was working late again. If he didn''t cancel altogether, they''d order another round, talk about their routine days, go back to his place and have mediocre sex, and she''d fall asleep listening to him grind his teeth because he refused to wear a mouth guard. And that would be how she spent the final night of her twenties. But it was fine. She was fine. Everything was fine. "Would you like something different?" the bartender asked her.
"Hmm?" She looked up and found a handsome face hovering before her. She''d paid no attention to him when she came in, ordered her drink, and immediately proceeded to check her email, because it had been twenty minutes since she left her office and literally anything could have happened in the world of celebrity publicity. He looked like most bartenders in L.A.: tall, chiseled, probably an actor. Except in place of vain indifference was an interested warmth that made Lucy sit up and pay attention. He wadded a rag in his big hands then pointed to her glass. "Your drink.
You don''t seem to be enjoying it. Would you like something else?" She looked down at her martini and saw two olives staring back at her like skewered eyeballs. Her boss, Joanna, favored the drink, and Lucy found herself aspiring to such sophistication. "I like it just fine, thanks." He snorted a laugh. "That''s a lie. You''ve taken two sips." He leaned in and whispered like he was telling her a secret.
"And I make really good martinis." Lucy''s lips quirked, and she realized that she actually didn''t care for a martini. Though she aimed to someday be as classy as Joanna, a woman she greatly admired, perhaps her beverage choices were not the means to that end. She didn''t want to get drunk. She couldn''t. She had too big of a day tomorrow, with a promotion on the line. But maybe something different would be nice. She pushed the glass across the bar toward him.
"All right, then; pour me something else." He took the carefully crafted cocktail and dumped it into a sink beneath the bar with a flick of his wrist. "As you wish." He gave her a smile that could have easily landed him a role on a streaming series. He flipped his rag over his shoulder and turned around. Lucy swiveled on her stool to face the door, watching for Caleb. The bar had a beach-chic vibe with a big glass wall, white marble bar with copper finishing, and pops of teal and apricot on the walls, the stools, the chairs. It was more inviting than depressing, which was how Lucy found most bars.
Open and airy, it didn''t hide secrets in the dark. No sign of Caleb. She checked her phone again but only saw his last message from twenty minutes earlier. Running late. She scrolled up in their chat to see the selfie of the two of them standing in front of the condo they had just signed a lease on. They were two weeks from moving in together, and Lucy was counting down the days until she could stop tripping over all the boxes in her apartment and live with her boyfriend. Caleb was smart, kind, ambitious but not heartless; sometimes she couldn''t believe he checked so many boxes. He was the guy she could see herself marrying and moving to the suburbs with to watch their two kids chase a labradoodle around a pool someday.
After two years of dating, she was ready for him to drop to a knee and present her with the emerald cut of her dreams, and if Hollywood was to be believed, he would do it tomorrow on her birthday. If only he could show up for drinks on time. She distracted herself from waiting by scanning social media to make sure everyone was behaving. It was the best source for any breaking client drama. At the top of her search was her own problem child client, Leo Ash, whom she''d inherited when she made junior publicist at her firm, J&J Public. Leo was a rock star in his late twenties who got famous as a teenager and had a celebrity scandal rap sheet a hundred miles long. Next was one of her boss''s star clients, Ms. Ma, a female rapper releasing a music video the next morning that was sure to set the music world on fire.
No scandals on either front. "Here you are," the bartender said. "Something different." He slid a martini glass filled with lavender-colored liquid over the marble. Tiny bubbles spiraled from its center like it might have champagne in it. A lemon wedge clung to its rim. Lucy huffed a laugh. "What is this?" She pulled it close and got a whiff of sugar.
"It looks like something a sorority girl would order on her twenty-first birthday." The bartender grinned. "Perhaps. But it''ll cheer you up." "Who says I''m unhappy?" "You do. With the way you''re checking your phone, watching the door, and ordering drinks you don''t like." Heat flushed her cheeks. She felt totally exposed.
Naked in front of a stranger. But in his hazel eyes, she saw that he wasn''t being cruel. Just observant. Lucy smirked at him. "Aren''t you keen." "That''s why they pay me the big bucks." He swung his rag over his shoulder again. "That, and making life-changing cocktails.
" A dimple popped in his cheek, and Lucy could easily see him on a red carpet, looking dashing in a tux. She looked at her glass, and the playful swirl of purple inspired her to make a wish. It seemed appropriate on the eve of such a milestone birthday. Not to mention, she could use all the good luck she could get for her big day. She tilted the glass toward the bartender with a smile. "Well, tomorrow is my birthday, so. Cheers." As the tiny bubbles fizzed her tongue and the smooth liquid poured down her throat, she silently wished for the next day to be perfect.
"How is it?" the bartender asked. "Life-changing." He nodded in approval. "My work here is done. I hope you have a happy birthday tomorrow." Chapter 2 Though she expected some kind of tectonic shift, perhaps cosmic acknowledgment that there was now a three in front of her age-a sore hip, a chin whisker, a wave of suffocating Millennial guilt that she hadn''t accomplished anything despite her achievements-Lucy''s birthday began like any other day. She woke in her bed, alone because Caleb had in fact not shown up for drinks. Sorry, babe.
I have to cancel. I''ll see you tomorrow night. Although not surprised, she had been disappointed. She stared up at her powder blue ceiling, which she''d painted in a fit of freshening up her small living space the previous summer-she''d found the tip in an article called "How to Freshen Up Your Small Living Space"-and took a deep breath. It was a big day. Yes, her thirtieth birthday, but also the day she would secure her promotion at J&J Public, a Hollywood institution, and best the insufferable Chase McMillan, her workplace archnemesis. His rise in rank right alongside her-intern, junior assistant, assistant, junior publicist-had earned him the nickname Chase McMillan the Supervillain in Lucy''s innermost circle. Admittedly, he was excellent at his job, but he was also callous and often handed things Lucy deserved.
They were both vying for a seat at the table with the senior publicists that had been left vacant by a recent departure, and Lucy would be damned if he beat her to it. She wanted it so badly she could taste it. She could taste it like a champagne toast on the rooftop at Perch, the exact restaurant where she''d be holding her birthday party later that night. After she got her promotion. First, she had to nail her lunch date with Joanna and Lily Chu, the hottest new starlet in Hollywood, who was already generating Oscar buzz for her breakout role in an indie film. Lucy was no stranger to lunch with celebrities-it was literally in her job description. Like half of Hollywood, J&J Public was competing to reel in Lily, and Lucy was going to be the one to land her. Lily & Lucy: she already liked the way their names sounded together.
She would win her over, she knew it. And Lily Chu as a client was the exact edge she needed to land that promotion. All in a day''s work. 1. Lock down Lily Chu. 2. Secure promotion. 3.
Gracefully ascend into the divine decade of her thirties. 4. Have one hell of a birthday bash on a rooftop in downtown L.A. where her boyfriend would finally propose to her. She was ready. She was ready. All she had to do was get out of bed and start her day.
She stretched her arms over her head. Her elbows popped, but that was normal, definitely not a sign of age. She threw back her duvet, swung her legs over the bed, and saw that her mother was calling her. In fact, she saw that she had a missed call and two texts from her mother already-alerts she didn''t hear because she gave herself the birthday gift of.