Fashion with posture, every angle deliberate, every line clean. Mariah brought the kind of presence that makes styling look like architecture, and the frame just had to be worthy of it.

The whole room went warm and amber that afternoon, light bouncing off the wall until her skin looked lit from inside. I caught her against the mirror, half turned, mouth open mid-word, and her reflection answered her back from the right edge of the glass. Two of her, both certain, neither asking permission.

Red lips, big lashes, that loose dark hair falling over one shoulder. She held the look like she’d already decided how it would land, and she was right. I just made sure I didn’t get in the way of it.