“I really owe you for the help. I’m so relieved it’s you, honestly. The connection to Jewel and everything. You’re a lifesaver, Cassandra.”
I wished I had a stronger drink. Like horse tranquilizer, maybe.
Chapter 11
Helena
I turned off my mind and worked my way through the week, feeling and, for the better part, acting like an automaton. Frustratingly, it didn’t even pan out for me like it should have—I locked in fully, forgot everything except keeping on top of Linyue’s booked-and-busy schedule, giving my all at every social event and work meeting she sent me to, but I could tell I was slipping. I had a shoot on Wednesday with a director I knew well, a woman I’d worked with plenty of times before, and she had to correct me like it was my first day.
I didn’t even know what I was doing wrong—I was trying the hardest I could, but it was almost like the more effort I put in, the more it fractured, like trying to clutch at something slippery and pushing it further away. My evening bookings were just as bad—I attended social events and didn’t say the wrong things, necessarily, but I just couldn’t find the right words to draw people in, to connect, and I floated through events like a planet without an orbit, my usual gravitational field shrunken to nothing.
Linyue wasn’t mad at me since I was following her directions to the letter, but she was disappointed with me, somehow just knowing I wasn’t really with it. It weighed heavier and heavier on me through the week until I was ready to break, so when Estelle let me know about a prospective client she’d recommended me to who was interested in meeting me in SoHo, I jumped at the opportunity to go above and beyond a bit, to havesomekind of success to show instead of just trudging along through the motions.
It was the kind of day where it couldn’t decide if it was rainy or sunny, clouds coming in thin strips that poured a steady drizzle for the sun to shine on for fifteen minutes before the clouds muscled back in to assert dominance, and normally I’d have walked that distance, but some vain part of me wanted the vaguely untouchable air of emerging from a car to avoid the rain, so I took a taxi five minutes to the address. Once we arrived, I stepped out of the back, opening my umbrella, walked the five feet into the front shelter of the office building, and closed it to head through the automatic doors. The receptionist, a pretty young Black girl with a flashy manicure, smiled at me on my way in.
“Hi there,” I said. “I’m here to meet somebody?”
“Can I get your name?”
I had not expected that much of a Southern accent. “Helena Warrick.”
“No need,” another voice said, and I almost dropped my umbrella in surprise, turning to where I did a full double take at the sight: Cassandra Evans-Pierre, striding down the hall from the elevators, looking like a completely different woman from the one I saw in Williamsburg, a casually confident stride and a gleam in her eyes. “Ms. Warrick, so glad you could make it,” she said, leaning against the counter in front of me.
I admit I fully lost my cool. I was paid a good amount of money specifically to look cool and aloof, and for a second, this girl had me opening and closing my mouth, furrowing my brow, and then, finally, an awkward laugh, feeling my face warm slightly. “What magic trick do you call this one, Houdini?” I said.
“A little bit of ancient alchemy with three ingredients,” she said, holding up her fingers and counting them off. “The right time, the right place, and scheming with Estelle behind your back.”
“Oh my god, I should have guessed it was…” I laughed, shaking my head, and she reached a hand out.
“I’ll take your umbrella. My friend is all of one floor upstairs, so it would make sense to take the stairs, but you deserve a little pampering after going through the rain, so let’s get the elevator.”
“But the pampering doesn’t involve an explanation as to what’s going on here, does it? Is this a surprise birthday party?”
“Not unless you have a surprise birthday.” She took the umbrella, and she slotted it in by the door, giving me a small smile from the corner of her eye. “I’ve recommended you to my friend Krysten Adesina, the founder of the Jewel app. She’s interested in talking business.”
Well, gone was the nervous and blushing Cassandra from the rooftop party. “You didn’t mention you were friends with the Jewel founder,” I said, and she laughed, gesturing me down the hallway with her.
“A magician never reveals her secrets.”
“Estelle told me this was about modeling work…”
“Oh, yeah, Estelle lied.” She hit the elevator button, leading me into an elevator with a mid-century modern look, a bit flashy. “I figured you were attending the Galley launch party and hanging out with the tech crew for a reason. And you’re smart, have good instincts, great people skills, and first-handknowledge of the product. I told Krysten you’d be interested in leveraging those skills to work with her. I might have spoken for you,” she said, leaning back against the elevator wall, “but I tend to be stubborn and get my way.”
I could not get a read on this woman. One minute she was blushing and shy and awkward and needed to take a glass of wine like a shot to even speak coherently, and the next she was the most charming person I’d ever known. It was almost enough to forget about Saturday and about Linyue’s tracker on me. Almost. “If you talked to Estelle, you know what the problem is,” I said. “I’m locking in hard on my work right now.”
“And now you’ve been kidnapped by a scheming trickster to put you to work on something else. It’s very unfortunate for you that you’ve been trapped like this, but I guess you just have to go along with it.”
I laughed, giving her a playful push. “Oh, so I’m your prisoner, am I?”
“Absolutely. Fight it all you like, Helena. I’ve got you locked up and I’ll keep you here until Ifinallyfind an embarrassing nickname for you. Welcome,” she said, as the doors opened in front of us into a trendy loft-style office with lots of glass, wood and plants, open-concept work space with people scattered over different kinds of seating, and soft music playing, “to my prison. Don’t even think of escaping. It has free coffee.”
“Swanky prison.”
“Ah, you know. Only the best for my prisoners.”
“You got a lot of them?”
“Only you.” She winked, and then she stopped, only then, I think, realizing that she was flirting with me. She reddened a little, but she recovered quickly. Still cute to see her be human too. “Krysten’s waiting for us around the corner. You can go say hello, and I’ll grab us some coffees. She’s the one with the flashyred jacket and gold eyeshadow, Black woman, high bun. She’s excited to meet you.”
