She raised her eyebrows high. “Now you think I will believe you?”
“Okay—look, I wouldn’t believe me either. But you don’t have to. I’ll prove it by getting them to adopt it.”
She laughed. “You want the kickbacks, don’t you? Do you think it will help you pay your debt?”
“Well… I mean, that’d be a cool bonus…” I scratched the back of my head, talking in a gravelly voice. “But I’m, uh, you know. Shit, why am I still trying to come up with a cover story?” I shook my head. “I’m trying to get my foot in the door. And I’m just thinking, maybe, you know, if I’m trying to get people onboarded with a good system, then I’ve got more to offer studios than just being a weird stranger showing up. And maybe if I get some people on board with your app, then, uh, you’ll overlook the whole… stealing your friend’s identity thing.”
She grinned, her eyes sparkling. “You are a bold one, darling. Do you even know what Jewel is, or did you lie about that as well?”
“Oh, yeah, see, uh, thing is, yeah, I definitely lied about that too.” I scratched my head. “I mean, I’m guessing it’s sort of a… scheduling thing, managing clients, based on what you said. But yeah, I made up the studio night, I’d never heard of Jewel.”
“You preside over a court of foolishness from your throne of lies.”
“Look, I know I do. Can you just tell me what the app is?”
“But your intuition serves you well. It is an app for agents, promoters and event coordinators to collaborate and manage their clients, their talent, their precious jewels. So far it has found some success with the fashion industry. But music is an industry still ripe with potential for it.”
“Then let me help,” I said, sitting so far forward I was almost falling off the chair. “I can talk to people. Pound pavement, knock on doors. I know people. Well, I don’t know shit, but Kingmaker knows people, and I can know people through him. It costs nothing for you to let me try it, right?”
She put her hands up. “Please! You have nothing if not audacity.”
“Yeah, trust me, I know. But I’ve got lots of it. And isn’t that what you want from a collaborator?”
“Ah, but maybe you make a good point.” She smiled wider. “You come along, steal the name of my friend and lie to the woman from earlier, and now you come to me and look to work with me. You are perhaps a combination of brave and stupid that will work well.”
“Um, thanks, I think.”
She sipped her drink from a colorful straw before she set it down with an air of finality. “You will be a collaborator.”
“Oh, shit. Are you serious?” I half-stood, my heart hammering.
“You look too excited, darling. I am not giving you money, I am giving you thankless work.”
“I’ll do it. I mean it. I’ll talk to everyone in this city if that’s what it takes. Do you want me to wear a branded t-shirt too? A hat? A big jewel mascot costume?”
“I am telling you this for free. Looking desperate ingratiates you with nobody.”
I dropped back into my seat, kicking one leg up over the other. “So, if you’re looking for a collaborator, I might be able to find the time to help.”
She let out another loud laugh again, but thankfully, this time it didn’t escalate to an international incident. “I am glad that we met tonight, Julie,” she said. “I shall have some stories to tell about you.”
I was going to cry I was so relieved. This was literally nothing—like she’d said, she was giving me thankless work at best—but it was a connection. A claim to something. That was more than I’d ever gotten in two years in this city.
Krysten and I texted each other to finish trading contacts, and she set me up not only with the Jewel app but also with the backend app she had set up for collaborators, which was markedly uglier than the frontend one. She talked me through the structure of it, and I tried not to look desperate, because I heard it ingratiated me with nobody, but I was on the verge of screaming, crying, throwing up. She left not long after that, telling me in so many words that she had zero faith in me but that she looked forward to seeing if I would prove her wrong, and she went to talk to much more important and interesting people, but it was probably for the best, because I couldn’t be normal for one more second. I bolted for the door, or at least I tried to, but I only got to the door before there was a tug at the back of my collar, and my heart stopped at the sound of Helena Warrick’s voice like warm caramel.
“Hold it there, Houdini. Are you pulling an escape trick without even saying goodnight?” she said, and I had a panic attack and got turned on at the same time. Why was she using that teasing voice if she didn’t want it to instantly kill me? She let go of my jacket, and I turned back to where she stood behind me together with her friend she’d come into the party with, the woman, Estelle—a bit shorter than Helena, but still taller than me, especially in her chunky high-heeled boots, wearing jean shorts and a tight crop top with a loose, faded jacket over top. She was objectively beautiful, and the outfit was sexy, but standing next to Helena, she may as well have not even been there.
“Guess I’m really losing my edge, if you’ve caught me mid-escape twice in one night,” I said. “This is Estelle?”
Estelle smiled and put out her hand for me. “Estelle Fong,” she said, her voice high and bright, sweet, bubbly. Other end of the spectrum from Helena’s. “Me and Hellie are childhood friends.”
Helena elbowed her side. “At least when this one wasn’t off in Hong Kong.”
“What, like it’s my fault? You saying a six-year-old should have struck out and made a life for herself in New York while her parents were back in Hong Kong?”
“Yes. And you didn’t, and it was very cruel of you to abandon me like that.”
I shook Estelle’s hand, feeling remarkably out of place here. “Hi,” I said. “I was actually planning on getting in and out of here with as few witnesses as possible, so, ah… real shame that you caught me.”
