the makeup artist asked as she stepped back so that Ella could see her reflection in the mirror. She looked older in spite of her years. Seasoned. No. At peace. She turned from side to side. She’d have to remember this eye shadow trick. “Nice. Thank you.” One of the assistant producers for Global Now tapped on the open door. He glanced at his clipboard and then back up. “Five minutes, Miss Northington.” “Good luck,” the makeup artist said as she removed the drape protecting Ella’s navy suit and then disappeared from the room. Ella nodded and drew in a deep breath. Going against her father’s publicist, she’d done a whirlwind of appearances, speeches, and talk shows since being outed. At first she had wanted solitude but after Natalie and the Femme Coalition’s generous donation for cystic fibrosis research, Ella realized she finally had the platform she needed to bring awareness to the disease. In addition, she’d taken on another cause. LGBT rights. Even her father—after a certain amount of soul-searching—fired his publicist and began working within his party as an advocate for LGBT rights.
