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It was lucky, really, that I lived alone. And that I didn’t have a mother to tell me it was unladylike to swear like a sailor on a daily basis – just a nearly-mute dad who had never really policed any of my behavior.
“For fuck’s sake.” I left the tests behind as I dressed and stomped through into the living room, where I slumped face-down onto the sofa.
I could take a nap. Maybe if I took a nap, I’d wake up and all of this would have been a horrible nightmare...
I was abruptly awoken from my uneasy nap by a phone call. It was the special ringtone I gave clients’ numbers so that I could answer with the urgency they required. I groaned and reached for my phone.Apollo Brock. That was a call I definitely couldn’t avoid right now.
I pushed myself into a sitting position and answered. “Hello.”
He was as emphatic as ever. “Luna! You are indeed alive.”
I suppose it didn’t matter if I sounded a bit croaky from the nap, since I was supposed to be sick. “Yeah, sorry again about cancelling our last two meetings. I promise as soon as I’m feeling better I’ll reschedule them.”
“Oh, yes, for sure. We have much to catch up on. But that wasn’t my concern. I was worried about you, Luna. Are you quite alright?”
“I’m still not feeling great, but I’m sure it’s just a bug or something.”
His response was quick and sharp. “Are you sure?”
“Sorry?”
He said it more slowly this time. “Are you sure it’s just a bug? There’s not something you aren’t telling me?”
The first thought my mind came up with was:how does he know about the pregnancy? I quickly realized that couldn’t be what he was talking about. Plus...pregnancy? What pregnancy?That’s right.
Then what was he talking about? Was he somehow suspicious that I’d had to cancel our last few meetings? The Brock brothers were a paranoid bunch – I guess they had the right to be. I hoped Apollo hadn’t learned I was working with Sylvester just yet, though. I could handle it, but not today.
It was best to handle such situations with humor – with this particular client, anyway. “Don’t worry, Apollo. If there’s something I’m not telling you, I’ll tell you.”
“Hmph. Is that a riddle?”
I could tell he believed me, despite his haughtiness.
“Fine. Get well soon. I’m practically bursting with ideas for the next book. But since you’re bursting with germs and disease, they can surely wait.”
An hour later, a gigantic gift basket of various health products was delivered to my door. The card read,For your good health and our continued collaboration.AB
I looked up at the delivery guy. He looked the same as any other delivery guy – indistinct, somewhat scruffy, clearly in a hurry to be elsewhere. But I wasn’t stupid. I knew how Apollo operated. He might consider me a friend, sure, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to check up on me. I smiled politely at the guy and gave him a little wave as I shut the door on him.
Well, Apollo would know that at least I was correct about being at home. On the plus side, I knew now he hadn’t secretly installed any secret cameras in my place, as I’d once joked about with him. But he did, of course, know my address. I’d never given it to him.
I thought back to what I’d overseen at his office and gave an involuntary shiver. It was an odd job that put me on an equal footing with some of the wealthiest people in the city.
I needed their money, sure, but they all needed something from me, something a little different for each person. They needed an image boost, to impress their ex, to tell their own side of a previously one-sided story, or something more personal... to feel accomplished, to feel like their lives had a narrative, rather than being the same meandering mess of chaos as everyone else’s lives were.
We were all the same deep down. I’d learned from my associations with the rich that there was no special secret. If there was a special secret, it was some combination of terrifying charisma, absolute conviction in one’s own beliefs often at the expense of truth, and inherited wealth. If that were the X factor to being rich, I’d rather not have it.
Sylvester
Ifinally managed to book Luna in for the next meeting of my ‘memoir’. I still didn’t have an angle to work on the Apollo thing, and I was getting antsy that we hadn’t made much progress on the ‘book’, so I managed to persuade her to block out a whole day in her schedule for me.
I was waiting in my office for her to arrive when my phone lit up with a call.Felix Hart. My brother.
Happy to hear from him, I picked up immediately. “Hey, bro! How’s it hanging?”
“It’s, er, hanging, just fine.” Felix was always a little stiff on the phone. He didn’t like calls in general, actually – it was usually me calling him.
Realizing the situation was unusual, I frowned out the window. “Something up?”
