"Hey, man," Griff says to Wyatt. "Good to see you again."
"Love the dress," Nia says, then smiles at Wyatt and extends her hand. "I'm Nia."
He arches a brow. "Nia Hancock?"
She glances at me. "Gorgeous and psychic. Quite the combination."
I roll my eyes. "Wyatt Royce, meet Nia Hancock."
"Best friend, protector, and sometimes job facilitator," she says. "The pleasure is mine."
"Why are you here?" I ask her, and she glances toward Griff.
"He's here because he's working on that movie with Lorelei. I'm here because his usual date--that means you--bailed on him."
"Excellent," I say. "Anyone else here I know?"
"Know?" Nia says. "I don't think so. Know of. Definitely."
"She's been playing the celebrity sighting game as we walk the house," Griffin says.
"I think that's cheating here. I'm pretty sure my grandmother invited all the celebrities. At the very least, she crossed the ninety-five percent mark."
"Oh, fuck me," Nia says. "You're Wyatt Segel."
"I thought you knew that," he says, but Nia's scowling at me. "You never told me he was one of those Segels."
I shrug. "Sorry. It never occurred to me."
She swoops her right hand under her left arm. "Water. Bridge. Moving on. The point is that everyone is here. And now I need to borrow my girl," she says to Wyatt. "Because we totally have to gossip. Fair enough?"
To his credit, he laughs, then kisses my cheek. "I'll find you."
"You better."
Nia and I head off, with her pointing out everyone I don't recognize. "That's Nikki and Damien Stark," she says gesturing towards a man I recognize as the tennis star turned billionaire entrepreneur.
"He paid a million for her nude portrait," I say, feeling a kinship with the woman. "It was supposed to be anonymous, and then someone found out."
I shiver, thinking how awful that would be if it happened to me with Wyatt's show.
"And that woman they're talking to is Jane Martin--she wrote that movie about the kidnapped kids. And the guy to her left--isn't he hot?--that's Dallas Sykes."
"Really?" One of my guilty pleasures is reading the tabloids, and he was all over it for a while. "They called him The King of Fuck. I guess he slept around."
"They're married now," Nia says. "But there was so much scandal, remember?"
I don't, and she's about to clue me in, when two stunning women walk over and introduce themselves as Wyatt's mother and sister. Like Anika, they're both down to earth, and before they continue to mingle, Lorelei stresses that I really should audition. "I can't get you the role, but I can get you access. And in this town that's important."
"Thank you," I say, and I really am grateful, even though I probably won't ever take her up on it.
We wander some more, and I realize after a while that Nia has been steering me to a quiet corner. "Okay," she says once we're sitting on a small divan, fortified with fresh glasses of wine. "Tell me what's up with Wyatt."
I consider dodging the question, but Nia's my best friend. And I don't really want to dodge. I want to talk.
So I tell her the one thing that I've been holding inside. The one thing that's been building in me for days. "I think I'm in love," I say, but instead of congratulating me or even arguing with me, Nia rolls her eyes.
"Girl," she says, "you fell in love twelve years ago. Love is not your issue."