Page 111 of Feed Your Fiends

“The Beaumonts?” I ask tentatively.

His eyes fall on the box. “Stassi Beaumont isn’t just a girl you can be with, even if she wants you to. It isn’t that simple.”

“Because of her family?” Rie Rie asks. “Because you’re not in their circle?”

“Alistair Beaumont doesn’t like me for his daughter. A dickhead to keep his son company until he grows up and ditches me for other blues, sure.”

“Does he prefer jazz?” Rie Rie asks, her lenses flashing.

“He means blue bloods, Rie. People like Gant and Aria,” I mutter.

Aria…

“Does Stassi know about her father’s disapproval?” I ask. “She seemed angry the other night.”

“It’s not that Stassi doesn’t know. She just doesn’t understand how important it is for her father to accept it. She wants fun.”

“And you want forever?” I ask, my heart fluttering madly.

“How can you be so sure of someone you’ve never even dated?” Rie asks. “I dated my last husband for five whole weeks, and it still didn’t work out.”

“I’ve known Stassi since I was seven. I’m as sure of her as my mother is sure that I won’t ever be accepted, no matter how hard I try. She would know.”

“So it’s not just about class.” Rie Rie nods sadly. “But pass or no pass, the Beaumonts undoubtedly know your backgrounds, ethnically, and the strip club, and they won’t stand for it.”

His mother wants him to give up on where he’ll never fit in. Hadn’t I had the same thoughts about Gant? Hadn’t Delphine and Silas both confirmed it?

The difference between Hale and me is that I know my place, and I’m not trying to shift out of it, for some stuffy bitches' approval. But that’s because I know marrying Gant is never going to happen. But Hale…he’s really trying for Stassi. Just to have a plausible shot…

My heart twinges at his uphill climb yet swells that he’s climbing rather than taking Stassi out of her comfort zone. She’s a powdered princess, and he wants to keep her as one by meeting her on her level rather than bringing her‘down’to his. But these ‘levels’ aren’t real, and why should the opinions of people who wouldn’t likeanyoneunless their great-grandfathers were white millionaires, too, matter? Is it really worth it to lose the family that does accept you, while trying to earn another family’s approval in the process?

Judging from the boxes, Stassi is worth the shot. Then again, Hale doesn’t have a shot at all. If the Beaumonts are racist and prejudiced, there’s nothing Hale can do to win them over. Their minds, just like Jaime’s when it comes to Jarett, are set in concrete.

Hale looks up at the skylight as a miserable laugh leaves his lips. “When she came on opening night and saw the water, she literally laughed at me. She said it was worse than Pierrot’s, that I was trying so hard to get away from. My efforts, all of it, was funny to her. Just like hers was funny to them.”

I gaze up guiltily at the damp, marked ceiling. “Hale, I’m so sorry. Gant—”

Hale shakes his head. “I knew what I was doing by taking you on, Elle. I’m not slow. I’ve known Gant since forever. I knew how he’d react, and I didn’t care because I wanted the money, and I felt like the horsemen had abandoned me. Now my mother has too.”

“We’re here,” I say. “If that matters.”

“It does,” he says softly.

Rie Rie strokes his back as he peers into the box of framed documents.

His mother may be angry with him, but it’s obvious she cares. Jarett would’ve let his blunts out on my certificates. I eye one for a reading competition Hale had won in second grade, the golden-embossed paper raised behind the layer of glass.

“My mother says I’m just like her. A hustler. Beaulieu says I’m a ladies’ man. The horsemen say I’m everyone’s man.”

“What do you say?” Rie asks as Hale peers into the glass, clearly eyeing his reflection and not the award.

“I don’t know. But I know what I want to be.”

“What?” I ask with baited breath because I know what he’s going to say. It’s what I felt I lacked when I first strolled into Delphine’s home and Gant’s penthouse.

“Worthy.”

“You are worthy,” Rie tries to assure him.

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