Page 5 of Seeking Stars
Ana crossed her legs and put her hands on her lap. She knew better than to get on her phone. Instead, she inspected the room, paying attention to the decor and willing herself to calm down. Not knowing the purpose of the meeting made things worse; she didn't even know if she'd meet with one or ten people. Being in the dark never failed to make her feel lost at sea. She hated it. But surely, focusing on the cool red vase with exotic flowers would help her rock the meeting.
"Ms. Lira, perfect timing." A new person stood at the edge of the sitting area. "I am Magda. They're ready for you. If you'll follow me," she said, and with a full-body movement— one side moving back three quarters, a sweeping hand casually indicating a sanded glass door— showed her which way to go.
Ana stood and followed. Hoping no one spied on her, she allowed herself one nervous gesture: she tugged at the hem of her blazer, straightening it down.
Magda opened the double glass doors and went into the boardroom. Ana put on her biggest, brightest smile, using her best feature as a shield, and went in after her.
"Ms. Ana Lira, Mr. Coulton," Magda announced.
Ana walked into the room and stood to the side of the conference table, between two men sitting opposite each other. She ignored the broad-shouldered man with his back still to her. She focused instead on the man facing her, noticing a few of his features in a flash: black hair with a high forehead, deep wrinkles marking an expressive face. Thick eyebrows, smart gray eyes. Tanned skin, and a smile so friendly that it had to be practiced. He stood and shook her hand, strong but not crushing.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Lira. I've heard some good things about you."
"The pleasure is mine, thank you, Mr. Coulton."
"Please call me Coulton, everyone does."
"I will, thank you."
Making herself acknowledge the second person in the room, she turned, focused, and froze, her smile still in place.
"This is Liam McMillan," Coulton said next to her. With a knowing chuckle, he added, "I'm confident you know who he is."
The world scratched to a halt. She stared at him for an indefinite amount of time— a tenth of a second? A full minute? Five?— her mind slow to pick up.
He slouched in his seat. A mix of casual and despondent, an elbow on the arm of his chair and his head heavy on his hand, only his eyes looked up at her. Big, green, intense eyes, bestowed with thick, long eyelashes. The most striking green eyes Hollywood had ever known, as she’d once seen them described in a magazine at a grocery store's till. The preferred color of so many romance novels, despite the implausibility of having every attractive man blessed with them. Perfect for the leading role he often occupied everywhere. Ideal to bring the best romantic heroes to the screen. He stood out, close up shots making those eyes shine and promise you the perfect happily ever after was possible for you, too. No matter the law of probabilities. He'd won the phenotypic lottery and it put her on guard. No one had a right to be that gorgeous.
Her awareness seemed to flip back on with a mental gasp, and a loud voice begging to the universe that this was all a mirage and she had not appeared shocked. Nor made it awkward.
His head pointed down and to the side, the corner of his mouth curling down. She welcomed his preemptive displeasure at... something... everything? It let her see through his Hollywood charm to the condescending man he clearly was. Her awareness narrowed, and the resolution to be unaffected by him came right after, grounding her in a second.
She shot her hand forward. "Hello," she said, pleased at how calm her voice sounded. "Nice to meet you."
There, perfectly polite. She gave herself a mental pat on the back.
He hesitated, she was sure of that, but finally extended a hand to shake hers.
"You too." He didn't mean it.
The hand holding hers was soft, his voice deep and clear in real life too; she had wondered, from the movies she'd watched of his. She tucked that annoying detail away in her brain to consider later; right now she needed to focus on being unmoved. His voice had also been full of annoyance and Ana didn't deserve that treatment.
"Sit down, please," Coulton said next to her, and she took the seat at the head of the table, between both men.
As if on cue, Alexis brought in a tray of drinks.
"Thank you, Alexis."
Soon the three of them sat alone again.
"All right, let's talk," Coulton said. "I suspect you don't know what you're doing here, Ms. Lira."
"Ana, please, and you're right. I wasn't informed about the purpose of this meeting, but I understand that I will be seeing Diana later today."
"You would know that better than me, really." Coulton dismissed Diana without a care. Ana could feel green lasers pointing at her from the other side of the table. "I just asked Magda to make sure you joined us for this meeting and she made it happen."
Ana said nothing about the casual show of power.
"You like Queen?" Liam asked, drawing her attention back to him. At her look of confusion, he gestured to the shirt she wore under her patterned blazer.
