“It will be nearly as bad as what I’m sure Ms. Warrick has said about me.”
“Ah, you know. She sees you like a third parent, so, she complains about you, but in the way everyone does about their parents.”
She laughed. I guess I said something good. “I have a few minutes to talk. I’m curious what Ms. Warrick’s work with the music industry has been, and if there’s a way we can leverage it. Are you a good cook?”
“Oh, um. I’d lie to you, but I feel like you’re the type to see through a lie.”
She waved me off. “I’ll finish cooking.”
Linyue making me breakfast wasn’t on my bingo card. But then again, neither was Helena tying me up and fucking me senseless, so I guess we were well off the beaten path.
She was surprisingly friendly once we were inside, and I probably shouldn’t have made up a story about Helena not feeling well, because Linyue insisted on Helena sitting down and resting while Linyue had me in the kitchen to help her finish up the meal, taking it somewhere much more interesting than scrambled eggs and toast. She barked a lot about what to do, but you could tell there wasn’t any hostility in it, just a whirlwindof a woman, and I made conversation with both of them as we finished a meal.
The tension between Linyue and Helena was gone once we sat down together with food, Linyue asking a thousand specific questions about the kind of work we were doing together, and we answered them all as truthfully as we could manage, talking about the upcoming industry event. Linyue penciled it into her calendar, and I tried to look normal while I ate even though the food tasted like the best thing I’d ever eaten. I mean, outside of everything I ate last night.
It wasn’t too much longer before Linyue checked her schedule and stood from the table with an irritable sigh.
“I have to run,” she said. “But it was good to meet you, Ms. Branch. Make sure Ms. Warrick feels better soon.”
“She’s not my nurse,” Helena laughed surprisedly.
“I could pad out my resume a little more,” I said. “I’m her nurse now. You can expect only the best results, Linyue.”
Linyue smiled. She didn’t seem like the type to do that often. “I expect reports.”
“On the nursing? Number of sneezes per hour, type of complaint…?”
“I trust you have your own system for that. No. On the music work. I will see who I can contact about your event.”
Oh, shit.Linyuewas using her network? I wouldn’t be surprised if her network included like… European royals, billionaires, King Solomon. “Yeah, will do,” I blurted. “I’ll talk to Krysten about the reporting system we want to implement for this and I’ll keep you in the loop. Thanks, Linyue. It’s a pleasure.”
She looked seriously at Helena. “Ms. Warrick.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t neglect your other work.”
“I won’t,” she said.
“She hasn’t been,” I said, which was probably ill-advised, but apparently Linyue didn’t mind the pushback.
“Then make sure it stays that way.” She narrowed her eyes, looking between us, before she turned back to Helena. “And keep me posted on developments.”
Helena pursed her lips, pupils going small. “Linyue.”
I think I was on the outside of an inside joke. But Linyue shook my hand again and made me promise once again to look after Helena, and then she was out the door, leaving us in the awkward quiet where I don’t think either of knew what came next.
“So,” Helena said, and I turned back to where she was giving me an intense, loaded look, rising from her chair. “What was that?”
“By all appearances, Linyue. Possibly a really good impostor.”
“You just walked in and dumped all our operations onto her.”
I scratched my head. “You looked stressed, and I… don’t… know how to mind my own business.”
“Julie,” she said, and I got a shudder. Shit, I’d introduced myself to Linyue as Julie because I’d been thinking of music work and…
“Helena.”
