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One of the greatest advantages to the alien tongues was that it served as a sort of code. Keeping our secrets from our parents as well as our classmates. More than once we embarrassed a teacher who intercepted a note we’d passed with the intention of reading it out to the class. Most of them stopped trying after a while.
“How’s the job search going, working girl?
“You could make me sound less like a prostitute,” I giggled.
“Right, sorry.
“It’s stopped actually. I’m still a bit dumbfounded, but I got a post at Boucher Books.
“Boucher, as in Hugo Boucher?
“The same. He even sent me the acceptance himself.
If there was one word to describe Maya Domingo, it would be unaffected. She never put up any sort of front, what you saw was what you got. I also had no memory of her getting flustered. Yet, in that moment, she gasped.
“It’s not that strange,” I said, her reaction confusing me.
“You know he’s been in hiding, right?”
“Like from the police?
“Oh, no, nothing like that.”
“Oh, thank goodness. Thought maybe he pulled a Polanski or something.
“Not that I know of. No one really knows for sure, what happened. He just disappeared one day, about five years ago. The rumor is he’s living at his vineyard upstate. Runs the publishing house over email.
Just when I though Hugo Boucher couldn’t get any more mysterious and fascinating, Maya goes and tells me that.
“Interesting,” I stammered hoarsely, trying to hide my surprise.
“Kinda sexy though, yes? Makes him even more mysterious.
I couldn’t admit it right then. My trained shyness getting in the way of my natural curiosity. If I was honest, even only with myself, Maya was absolutely correct. It wasn’t much of a surprise to me that he disappeared.
He’d always been media shy, even at the best of times. I always thought it was to maintain his mystique. Maybe he just genuinely disliked the attention. He would hardly be the first. Plenty of creatives withdrew from public life.
As much as a contradiction as it might sound, building fame only to hide from it.
“Do you think you’ll get to meet him?”
“I doubt it,” I said, my hopes deflating a little, “I mean, I’m just a lowly newbie.”
“I dunno. You’re pretty sexy, hon. He might want to whisk you away.”
“That’s crazy talk,” I denied, a distinct heat raising in my cheeks as I laughed, “I work remote, he’ll never even see me.
“You sent in your picture with your application, didn’t you?
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean anything.”
“Just saying, don’t count anything out. I never do.
Wasn’t that the truth. Still, I couldn’t really criticize, Maya always seemed to land on her feet.
“I’ll take it under consideration.”
“See that you do.
A note alert came up out of nowhere. The little alert popping up in the lower corner of the phone screen.
“Duty calls?” Maya asked.
“So it would seem.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” she said with a giggle before hanging up
Sound advice indeed. Switching gears to a more professional setting, I joined in the Slack group chat. Even though I didn’t actually remember joining it. It was all something of a giddy blur. Everything I did after receiving the acceptance was kind of lost to me, except by way of evidence after the fact.
The Slack group was all women. Not the oddest thing, but something I took notice of. Another similarity I’d picked up on was that they had all been there for at least two years. I was a bit surprised I was accepted into the group, being the new girl and all.
As good as my English had gotten over the years, parts of the conversation were lost on me. Opening another window, I tried to keep up as things went by, translating any words I didn’t understand. Slowly, things became clear.
The heat returned to my cheeks, joined by another heat considerably further down. My embarrassment collided with a deep desire. From what I now understood, Hugo Boucher wasn’t quite as reclusive as some people believed.
Every year, he brought a single female employee to his vineyard to work on a ‘special project.’
Even if I hadn’t read between the lines, the gossip from the others in the group made things clear, and I couldn’t help but feel an immediate stab of envy. They’d not only gotten to meet my idol, but they’d gotten to live my fantasy.
They’d gotten to sleep with him.
I didn’t honestly think I was even in the running, not least because I was so new, and it was deeply disappointing to think about. But after all, why would he pick me?
Chapter Four - Hugo
Everything was set. The table as well as otherwise. I liked everything to be just so. I didn’t think of it as being fussy, so much as organized. The ease flowed in my life, an argument in favor of the approach.
There were still problems. As there were in every existence. At least I had the comfort of knowing I hadn’t created any of them for myself. The psychological set would, no doubt, have some fascinating theories on the roots of my need for order and control. Though the truth was much more boring and sad. Not the sort of thing that papers tend to get written about.
