Haley returned from the kitchen with the aforementioned mushroom caps, which were stuffed with garlic and cheese, only to find Luc waiting for her, leaning against the wall. He smiled and waved at her, motioning her over.

Haley felt like people were watching her as she walked over to him. All around them, the party buzzed, the beautiful people of New York and the world mingling as they all angled for a chance to meet the famous Luciano deLaurentis.

And here she was, little Haley Carter from Carter's Hollow, Kentucky, standing in her server's uniform talking to him.

"Mushroom caps, as ordered," she quipped as she presented him with the tray.

"Please, I only requested them," he responded, grabbing one and popping it in his mouth. He smiled at her, and again, Haley smiled back.

"So, Haley with the hazel eyes, tell me something about yourself," Luc said, taking another mushroom cap.

Haley saw Adele looking at her and getting ready to come over to ask why she wasn't working the entire room. She also saw Adele see who she was with, saw her eyes widen with recognition.

Adele, gave her a look, eyebrow cocked, and turned away without approaching.

"I'm sorry, what?" Haley asked, looking back at Luc.

"Tell me something about yourself," Luc repeated, taking yet another mushroom cap. This time, however, he held it toward Haley's mouth, and she had no choice but to open up and take it.

It was delicious, and she chewed and swallowed it as quickly as she could, trying to ignore Luc's mocking grin.

"Well, um, I'm a journalism student at NYU, and I'm originally from Kentucky," she finally volunteered.

"Kentucky?" Luc repeated. He looked at her consideringly. "And yet I hear no trace of an accent. You speak perfect newscaster American English," he noted.

"Yeah, well, I worked really hard on that," she admitted. "I did a lot of speech tournaments in high school and my first couple of years of college, and I found that I could get dinged for that twang, you know?"

"Dinged?" Luc shook his head. "I'm afraid I don't know this term."

"Marked down," Haley explained. "A Kentucky accent made me sound like a hick. So I worked on removing it. It still comes out when I'm excited or upset," she admitted.

"Oh, I see." Luc nodded. "I understand. There are certain dialects in my country that will immediately label one as 'a hick,' as you so astutely put it."

"Where's that? Where you're from, I mean," Haley asked, astonished at her bravery. She never talked to clients at parties, certainly never asked them about where they were from.

"Egypt," he said briefly, and Haley could tell he didn't want to talk about it anymore.

She merely nodded, and didn't say anything else.

"So, Kentucky? What's that like, then?" Luc looked at her, dark brows drawn together in query.

Haley shrugged. "I mean, I guess Louisville and those big places are like other big cities," she began. "But the place I'm from? Carter's Hollow? It's a tiny little place, named after my family, only about five thousand people, and that's counting the people who live outside of town, like really in the country, like we did. There's one main road, the state road, and we don't have a Starbucks or anything like that. It's literally a wide spot in the road, where everyone's goal is to get married and have as many kids as possible, as quickly as possible." She hadn't meant for her words or tone to sound quite so grim, and she smiled widely to mitigate what she'd said.

"And you? Haley Carter? You didn't want these things?" He looked around the room, and gestured out the windows, where Midtown glittered in the darkness.

Haley shook her head. "No, it wasn't for me," she agreed. "I wanted a job, a career, in a big city, like New York."

Luc nodded. "I understand this," he agreed, giving a little sigh. He leaned against the wall and shrugged. "I, too, was raised in a small town, and wanted nothing but to escape the poverty and oppression there, and to give my mother a better life." 

Luc looked at Haley in surprise. "You have the gift of being a good listener. I don't usually talk this much about myself."

Haley smiled, trying again to remember that she was working, that this was a professional interaction. She tried not to think about how good-looking he was, how suave, how fucking attractive. She reminded herself that he was probably a shallow, full of himself stuffed shirt.

Something about his eyes, though, when he was listening to her talk about Kentucky. And how he spoke of his mother.

Hmm.

Haley surreptitiously looked at him, leaning casually against the wall, expression pensive.

"So we have this in common, then," he finally said, giving her that same, mocking grin. "We both grew up feeling like we wanted to escape, get away from where we were, and we were both successful."

Haley looked down at her uniform. "I don't think we can compare, though. I mean, you're a world famous rock star, a millionaire, and I'm a student with two part-time jobs."

Luc merely shrugged. "This is a matter of degree only, I think." He looked at her, a piercing, brown-eyed look. "You have yet another job? What do you do when you're not being a student or a caterer's assistant?"

Haley blinked at him. Surely he wasn't seriously interested in how she spent her time?

But he was waiting for her answer, seemingly with all the time in the world.

"I'm a writer, what you call a stringer, for a small magazine. It's not even part-time, really, I just attend some editorial meetings and write articles. If they like them, they pay me a little bit and publish them, otherwise, I'm out the time I spent on the article."

Haley shrugged to show it was no big deal, but Luc was grinning at her.

"But you're a real, published writer, then?" he asked rhetorically, standing upright from his place against the wall. "This is marvelous!" He took another mushroom cap from her tray. "So what's this magazine called? So I can look for it?" He looked at her expectantly.

"New York World," she told him, unable to keep from smiling back. "Like I said, though, I'm rarely in it. And it's just a quarterly, only published four times a year."

"But you have been published in it?"

Haley nodded. "Three times."

Luc held his hand out to shake with Haley.

She hesitantly put out the hand that wasn't holding the tray.

"Congratulations, Haley Carter," he declared, pumping her hand enthusiastically. "You're so young and you've already done something wonderful with your life."

"I guess so," Haley agreed, smiling.

They stood in companionable silence for a few moments, then Luc reached out and twitched her braid, giving her a little smile as he did so.

"Well, Haley with the hazel eyes, I see some people with whom I have to conduct some business, and you, as you said, are meant to circulate, so how about if we both go do our jobs for a bit, yes?"

Haley nodded gratefully and left her place against the wall, knowing he was watching her go.