Estelle laughed. “Oh… whoops. Well, I assume it went well, or you’d already be booking it over here to get your hands around my throat! So, you’re welcome.”
“Uh-huh…”
“Now come over here and say hi to him!”
“You have him with you?”
“Yeah, he’s flirting with a bartender right now. Anyway, financing one little tech project is going to be pocket change for a guy like him, so come help me convince him of his chance to be a part of the New York music and fashion industry and give a speech at the Cheng-Jewel Talent Mixer so he can feel like the most badass guy alive.”
“Estelle—”
“I already told him you and your girl were going to come and make the formal offer to him soon, and he’s having the time of his life!” She paused. “I think it made it sound like Julie is your girlfriend, but she kind of is, so it’s fine.”
“I guess this is working, because I am on my way there to strangle you,” I said casually. “My family is going to disown me for how much I’ve screwed up the plan with this man.”
“Aw, don’t worry.I’mthe one who’s screwed up the plan. And it’s screwed up now, so we might as well just run with it! Okay, I’ll talk to you soon! Love you, babe! Tell Julie I love her too!”
“Estelle—” I started, but she hung up. I sighed pointedly, dropping the phone on the sofa and looking at Julie. “So, how much of that could you hear?”
“Enough to know we don’t really have any say in the matter?”
“The Cheng-Jewel Talent Mixer… if Linyue doesn’t kill me, Krysten will.”
She beamed. “Well, Krysten’s gonna kill me, too, so let’s go together.”
At least I had good company, then.
Chapter 28
Julie
Krysten slumped back in her seat, a hand to her forehead.
“I should have recognized how dangerous you were from the very beginning, little one,” she said, and I dropped down at the desk across from her, folding my arms on the table. The office was lively around us, but right now I was so locked in that all of it seemed to disappear into the background.
“Let’s be honest,” I said. “You absolutely did.”
“I thought I did! But I had no idea what was coming.” She picked up her coffee, taking a long sip before she went waving it around dangerously. “You’ve been doing a lot with my brand without my authorization. How do you think that reflects on you?”
The wildest and weirdest part of all this was that I didn’t even feel anxious in this kind of exchange. Just a couple months ago I freaked out in confrontation and shrank into myself like a dying little flower. But now it just felt a little like how people communicated sometimes, and it wasn’t like I was doubting myself. I mean, I was the one Helena Warrick calledher girl.
“Ambitious,” was the answer I gave. Krysten laughed.
“Ambitious! I think you are colluding with my blood pressure.”
“You can still withdraw,” Helena said, sinking gracefully into the seat next to me. “But you have to admit, Julie’s handed you a good opportunity, neatly curated on a platter. You were looking to expand, and now you have a full expansion plan, a target audience already cut out, everything in place for a launch, and financing to boot. What else do you want?”
“A longer timeframe, for one.”
I laughed. “Yeah, touché. But once we’re working together full-time, we’ll be able to work out better timelines.”
“Listen to her talk.” Krysten polished off her coffee and set it back on the desk, leaning forwards. “You have not even talked to my tech team.”
“Your tech team? What kinda enterprise do you think you are?” I turned two inches to Tanner. “Hey, tech team. Can we make this work?”
He didn’t even flinch. “We can have an MVP to present in time for it.”
Krysten waved him off. “Tanner! You are sabotaging my case.”
