“It ain’t like that,” he shot back heatedly, rising from his seat. “You don’t fucking get it!”
“Fuck,” I said, snatching my bag back up off the seat, “you, Kingmaker, you fucking—” I whirled on my heel, storming back to the door. “Sleazy-ass fucking con artist, stupid lying piece of shit, posing like you know what you’re doing when you’re just some asshole in a pizza parlor, pretending you have clients whenyou’rethe hopeless loser, and you get so fucking sore about it that you don’t even want me to succeed, so fuck you,fuckyou—”
I stomped out and slammed the door back behind me, buried my face in my hands, and I screamed.
I was getting the fuck out of this fucking city.
Chapter 19
Helena
Cassandra—well, Julie, I guess—didn’t text me the morning after Estelle had shown me the whole thing with Cassandra Evans-Pierre. It was probably my fault. After that whole conversation, I had a hard time talking like everything was normal, and I think it came through in my texts, my tone guarded, distant. She messaged that she was heading home, and I responded without giving her much, and she didn’t follow up.
And just like that, poof, Houdini disappeared. I wanted to send a message and ask if all was well on her end, but I felt so uneasy, like the floor was ready to drop out from underneath me.
I needed to stop taking people at their word when they said it would be okay for us to sleep together.
Luckily or unluckily, I had a busy day, meeting with some Shiyun stakeholders at an upscale gallery event in SoHo, and I kept my mind off Cassandra—off Julie—for the better part of the day, but it was four in the afternoon and I was back at my apartment getting ready when I finally had to break the conversational barrier.
HELENA
Are you on track to make it to the mixer on time?
I wasn’t normally so formal, but everything about this felt strange right now, from the lingering uncertainty aboutwhyshe wasn’t Cassandra Evans-Pierre to this whole awkward silence that had settled between us. I set about getting changed and touching up my hair and makeup, pretending I wasn’t anxiously watching the screen the whole time, and something surged in my chest when she texted back.
HOUDINI
Oh Jesus Christ I forgot about the mixer
I’m so sorry Helena I don’t think I can make it
Gone suddenly were all the concerns, the haunting mistrust, suddenly just a cavernous hole where the feelings were. Maybe there was a reason she hadn’t sent me amade it home safetext last night. Maybe she hadn’t made it home safe.
HELENA
What’s going on?
HOUDINI
It’s just some stuff. I’ll talk to you about it later.
Please tell Linyue I’m really sorry and that I trust fully in you and that I said she can be mad at me all she likes, I really fucked up this time
Or something less self-pitying than that idk
HELENA
Julie, talk to me now. I’m worried for you. What’s happening?
HOUDINI
It’s a developing situation. I’m trying to get it resolved as we speak. I don’t want to talk too much about it over text.
HELENA
Are you safe?
HOUDINI
