“Hey,” I said.
“What’s up? Everything go okay at the shoot?” Her voice was chipper, bright, cheerful. Always was. Maybe that was what happened when you weren’t micromanaged. Or maybe she was just that kind of person. Moodily, I sipped my coffee.
“The shoot was good. The problem was on the way out. Linyue descended on me like a hawk,” I said. “Apparently this big Shanghai investor is coming to New York, and Linyue wants me to meet him tonight. She rescheduled myfree eveningfor tomorrow.”
“What? Tell her you’ve got plans.” She sounded as crestfallen as I was, even though she could go to parties whenever she wanted to.
“Estelle, you’ve met the woman. I could get shot in the head in front of her and she’d still tell me I need to get to my next booking.”
“So you’re not going to the launch party after all?” she said. “If you’re not going, I don’t want to go either.”
“I wish I could. But with all the pressure from Shanghai lately, I don’t think I can afford to skip out on this.”
“Hmm-m-m-m-m,” she said, punctuating it out with the staccato rhythm like she did, before I heard the small intake of breath as she lit up. “Why don’t you just invite him?”
I squished up my face at the phone. “To a launch party for a random tech group he has no connection to?”
“Think of it from his perspective! He just dropped in last-minute, right? It must be, or Linyue would have had this on the books years in advance. So he drops in unannounced, and you show up and say,hey, good of you to come by, I was just heading to this hip, cool party on the waterfront, do you wantto come with?It’s cool, it’s real, and he knows it’s authentic like that.”
“I don’t know if he wants authentic. I think he wants a limousine to take him to a pristine penthouse and have hot girls wait on him.”
“Tell him to book his limo to the waterfront, and there will be hot girls there. At least ask him. If he says no, you’re not any worse off than if you just gave up in advance.”
I fussed with my demitasse of espresso. “Estelle, I don’t know…”
“Oh, you’re such a little shrinking violet, Hellie! You told me you wanted to get out of your shell a little more. That’s why you’re going to the party in the first place! Isn’t it what you wanted?” she said, her voice lighting up more and more. “The hip and happening world of tech startups, meeting up with your crew at the local coworking space to make something happen against all odds, the camaraderie, the excitement!”
“The multi-billion-dollar company breathing down my family’s neck?”
“Jeez.” Again with the sharp intake of breath before she lit up with her new idea. “Fine then, I’ll ask him for you!”
“What—Estelle, please don’t,” I said, but she was one step ahead of me.
“I’ll let you know how it goes! Bye, babe!”
“Estelle!” I shouted down the phone, but she hung up, and I panicked, my fingers working quickly on the screen. Estelle was my best friend, but she and subtlety had never met. If she did something to offend Mr. Cheng, I’d never hear the end of it. I had to get to him first, or Linyue would have my head.
I sent Linyue a text asking for Mr. Cheng’s number, saying I wanted to welcome him right away, and she sent it along in about three milliseconds. I took a deep breath before I called the number, and I took the little spoon on the side of my demitasseand tapped it anxiously against the saucer while I waited before it connected with a click, a man’s voice coming through speaking Mandarin. “Hello?”
My Mandarin wasn’t as good as my father’s, but I knew the basics. “Hello, Mr. Cheng? This is Helena Warrick, Robert Warrick’s daughter.”
His voice brightened. “Oh, the lovely daughter,” he said, before he switched to English, thickly accented and a little shaky in places. “What a surprise to hear from you! Is something wrong? Why are you calling?”
I switched to English as well, enunciating just slightly more—not enough to be patronizing but just enough to make it easier to follow over the phone. “I hope you’ve had a pleasant trip, Mr. Cheng. My father says I should meet you at your residence here, but I just wanted to ask, I…” What was I even saying? I was going to kill Estelle for this. “I was just on my way to an event in Williamsburg, a small party at a rooftop lounge with a few tech founders, and a few of my friends from the fashion industry. Would you prefer for me to meet you at your residence, or do you want to join me for the event?”
My face burned with embarrassment, and I braced myself with one hand gripping the table hard, waiting for him to scold me, but he sounded like a little boy invited to the candy store. “Oh, yes,” he said. “I would love to see what the city has to offer. Thank you for the invite. You can send me the address, and I will give them to my driver.”
Oh—my god. Was Estelle right? I blinked fast for a second before I remembered to smile and respond. “That’s wonderful, Mr. Cheng,” I said. “I’m delighted to hear it. I think you’ll like my friend Estelle. I’ll send you the address.”
We said our goodbyes, and my hands were shaking by the time I hung up the phone, settling back with a long, nervous breath in my chair. Linyue was going to kill me once she foundout about this. I’d just… make sure she didn’t find out until it was done and Mr. Cheng was happy.
I called Estelle. Didn’t give her warning this time, just called, and she was stifling laughter when she picked up. “Don’t bother,” I said. “I called him.”
“I figured you would,” she sang. “I don’t have his number, babe.”
I stared straight ahead a good, long while before I slumped over the table, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Estelle…”
“So? He said yes, right?”
