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restaurant, where the waiters were known to tip off the paparazzi as soon as a celebrity arrived. Now they could photograph her having dinner with her mother.
    Her mother stopped mid-rant and stared at something at the other end of the room. “Isn’t that your new publicist?”
    Grace turned her head. From their discreet corner table, she let her gaze sweep through the room.
    Most of the guests were couples holding hands across the table, the candles throwing flickering shadows over their engrossed features. Grace didn’t recognize any of them. “Where?”
    “There.” Under the pretense of fluffing her hair, her mother reached up and pointed.
    Grace looked in that direction. “Yes,” she said. “I think that’s her.”
    At one of the smaller tables, Lauren and another woman were sharing a bottle of wine. Well, the woman was gulping down wine while Lauren was on the phone. Probably an occupational hazard. Just when Grace was about to look away, Lauren stood and rounded the table. She took her companion’s hand and kissed her on the lips, lingering a little too long for it to be a gesture between friends.
    What the…? She’s gay? Grace swiveled around to face her mother. “Did you know about that when you hired her?”
    Katherine clutched the table with both hands and looked as if she were about to faint, so apparently she’d been as clueless as Grace. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “What on God’s green earth was George thinking? Hiring a lesbian to handle your PR?”
    “I have no idea,” Grace murmured, still watching Lauren, who now turned and walked toward the exit.
    “Call him!”
    “Now? It’s almost nine already.”
    “Call him,” her mother repeated. “This can’t wait until tomorrow.”
    Grace pulled her phone back out of her clutch. She hesitated for a second before pressing the icon with George’s picture on it. “Hi, George,” she said when he answered. “Sorry to bother you this late, but…did you know that Lauren Pearce is gay?”
    George didn’t answer for several seconds. “Uh, yes, I knew. Why’s that important?”
    Grace wasn’t sure it was, but somehow, it felt that way. “I don’t know, but I would have liked to know before I decided to hire her.”
    “So you wouldn’t have hired her had you known?” George asked, sounding stunned.
    Honestly, Grace had no idea how to answer that question. “I probably would have hired her anyway, but…”
    Her mother waved at her to hand over the phone, but Grace pretended she hadn’t seen. If she let her talk to George, her mother would only shout at him, and George didn’t deserve that.
    “Ms. Pearce comes highly recommended,” George said. “Everyone I talked to has good things to say about her. In the last few years, she has made a name for herself as the go-to publicist for celebrities wanting to come out as gay. She’s the best in the business for that kind of thing.”
    “Yeah, but this isn’t that kind of thing ! I’m not gay.” Grace realized she’d spoken more loudly than intended and quickly lowered her voice. She looked left and right, glad when she found that no one seemed to pay them any attention in their secluded booth. “My publicist is a reflection on me, and I’m trying to convince people that I’m straight, so do you really think it’s a good idea for me to work so closely with a gay person?”
    George was silent for a moment. “You already do,” he said quietly and took an audible breath. “I’m gay, Grace.”
    In the sudden silence, the background buzz of the restaurant sounded incredibly loud. “I know,” Grace finally said just as quietly.
    “You…you knew?” George stuttered. “You never said anything.”
    “I wasn’t sure.” George wasn’t exactly obvious, but since she’d worked in showbiz all her life, Grace could usually tell when she met a gay man. That skill apparently didn’t extend to lesbian women. She hadn’t even considered for a second that Lauren might be gay.