Chapter 5: The Performance of Falling Apart

The makeup artist's name was Kelly, and she had done this kind of work before — not this precise kind, not a president's son, but the kind where the subject sits very still in the chair and lets her do what she needs to do without asking what she is doing or why. Hayden appreciated this about her. He sat and looked at the mirror without looking at himself in it, which was a technique he had been practicing since Blair House and was getting better at.

"You have good bone structure," Kelly said, which was either a professional observation or small talk, and either way he let it pass. She was touching something under his eyes. He had not slept in two days, which was genuine, and she was doing something with concealer that would undo it, so he said, quietly, that she could leave those alone.

She paused. "The under-eye."