I’d make it work, though. Heading to the office for a meeting. Shit. I’d have to bust out my suit again.
I was riding the high all through the next day, where I kept busy the same as ever—I’d sleep when I was dead, which, to be fair, felt like it was rapidly approaching at this rate—and when I got back to my place sleep-deprived and half-dead after a late-night practice session with Stephen Shale, I found a block of texts that was very nearly everything I’d dreamed of—very nearly, just one person away from the one I was thinking of.
ESTELLE FONG
hey houdini!
it’s estelle, from the galley party
any chance I can meet you sometime this week, or are you too busy working on the next great hit?
it’s about helena
Chapter 10
Julie
The bar was a sleek, upscale lounge-style place with a terrace that had a view of Central Park, which meant I was scared for my life what they would charge for a drink. Estelle met me by the polished wood bar that was probably worth more than my life and probably had more history in this city than I ever would, but she was oblivious to my crisis, because of course she was. She was dressed more casually than me, in a sweater and shorts, but I guess when you were hot, you could get away with wearing anything to any occasion. She raised a hand with a classic French-tip manicure in greeting as I approached.
“Cassandra,” she called, a reminder of how I was not, in any way, shape or form, supposed to be here. “Over here. Hey. How’s it going?”
“Hey,” I said, leaning against the bar next to her, trying to look as effortlessly cool as she did. I bumped my elbow on the corner of the bar top, and I pretended it didn’t hurt. “Tired. Been working late nights and early mornings, but… city that never sleeps, you know?”
She sighed. “Maybe I shouldn’t be talking to you about Hellie. You’re going to encourage the worst parts of her.”
She really shouldn’t have been talking to me about Helena. Just not for the reason she thought. “Well, if you want someone to convince her to take a nap, I am currently ready to worship at the altar of naps, so maybe I’m the exact right girl for the job.”
She grinned, flashing teeth. “Huh.”
“Huh, what?” I’d said something weird.
She shook her head. “Nothing. Let’s grab drinks. Where do you want to sit?”
I was like a kid at a candy store with a big city view at night. I tried to play it cool, though. “Let’s take the terrace, get some fresh air. I’ll sleep on the table if we’re in a dark room.”
She laughed. “Good call,” she said, and she turned to the bar and ordered a cocktail, glancing down at a laminated menu card, and I followed her gaze and had a heart attack. When she gestured me up to the bar after her, I played it casual and saidjust a soda water for me,giving Estelle a knowing look like it was just because I was too much of a lightweight to have a drink right now, and not because I’d have to take out a fucking mortgage to get a drink. In short order, we were sitting out on the terrace with her colorful layered cocktail and my poor-person’s drink, and she leaned across the table and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper. “So, feeling more comfy, huh?”
“Yeah, it’s a nice chair.”
She grinned wider. “Good to appreciate the little things, but I more meant you’re not so nervous tonight.”
Shit, I was an idiot. Well, I guess the etiquette lessons were working. Or maybe I was just too tired to second-guess myself and panic. “Oh, uh, yeah,” I said. “Well, hard to be nervous when I’m in such a nice chair.”
“Try not to sleep in it, babe.”
“I’m not making promises. So, uh… something up with Helena?”
Otherwise known as the woman I was not supposed to be thinking of. Kingmaker had even dropped me a line to ask me if we could meet at Tasty Slice tonight and talk the plan from here, and I’d lied and said I was too busy handling music work tonight. If he knew I was breaking from the plan to go talk to Helena’s friend about her, he was going to kill me and chop me up in the back of Tasty Slice, because I was sure there wassomedark secret about why their pizza was so good, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was murder. Maybe Tubman’s tub served double duty.
But Estelle was oblivious to this crisis too, and she sipped her drink as her expression turned pensive. “So, you know about her family. A bit controlling.”
“Linyue, her father, the pressure from Shanghai. I hear it’s ramping up with the parent brand hitting some roadblocks. Linyue laid into her on Saturday morning, didn’t she?”
She gave me a cautious smile. “She’s been keeping you up to date with a lot, huh?”
“Oh, uh, not really. We haven’t texted since Saturday, when she told me that Linyue had, uh,reminded her where her focus was supposed to beand she told me we probably wouldn’t be crossing paths again for some time.”
“She told you that?”
