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You only get so many shots in my business, and fewer if you happen to have a vagina. If CeCe Foust had a penis, I doubt I would have gotten that invite. A man mentor would have already washed his hands of me and moved on to someone else.
I have to focus or I’ll live the rest of my life in that six-hundred-square-foot apartment, and I’ve gotten used to having more than one bathroom. My place in San Fran had four of those suckers, and I would migrate between them, each with its own loving Japanese toilet…
“Where did she go?” Harper asks.
“She’s probably thinking about bathrooms again,” Anika says, getting back down to the business of brunch. She starts to work on her eggs Benedict. “That’s the look she gets when she’s thinking about her place in San Fran. She’s got weird ideas about bathrooms now. I blame California.”
I have news for Ani. There are some spectacular bathrooms right here in New York. We’ve simply never lived in a building that had them.
I thought we would be there by now. I thought we would all be living on Park Avenue building our businesses, and one of us would catch maternal yearnings so the two sane ones left could have a baby to love and send back home. It was going to be great.
I don’t even have a dog.
When I’d had the money and space for a dog, I didn’t have the time. Now I have the time but nothing else.
And just so we’re clear, Park Avenue is a metaphor. We don’t have to live there. It’s simply the place we were when we realized there was more to the world than tiny apartments and parents who fought and bullies who made fun of us because we wore hand-me-downs.
Not that I would pass up Park. I wouldn’t, but the key to all of those childhood dreams was being together and having financial stability.
Maybe that had been the problem in San Francisco. I hadn’t had these two women with me. Maybe if I had, one of them would have said, hey that Nick guy seems like a dick who’s going to play around with the investment accounts and fuck you over.
They probably wouldn’t have said it like that. But they would have said something.
I need to make my stand here in New York this time. I need to rebuild here, and in the right way. Where my best friends can help me. Where we can watch out for each other.
I sit back as the revelation kind of flows over me.
Change has to start with me. And that sucks. I really wish it could start with someone else because I’m super tired.
“Will it help you out if I talk to this Heath guy?” I ask, already knowing the answer.
Honestly, I owe her because she’s going to have to pick up the tab for this overpriced brunch she talked me into. Not that she knows it yet.
“Yes.” Harper’s lips turn up in a satisfied grin.
She really thinks I’m going to take one look at this dude and melt at his feet.
I don’t melt anymore. I am Elsa, and the cold does not bother me. I quite like it. I would especially like it if we had an air conditioner that worked. It’s getting hot in the city.
“Then I will call him back and help him with his app.” I can suffer through for her. I’m sure I’ll need her to return the favor at some point.
If things don’t go well with CeCe tonight, I might need a job. I might be learning how to nail things into other things—a gross misrepresentation of what Harper does, but I know no technical terms when it comes to construction. She will have to teach me those too, so my fingers are crossed that tonight goes off without a hitch.
“Thank you so much, Ivy.” Harper grins, and it’s like the sun is back in the world.
I love my friends. How bad can this be?
“And thank you so much for this magnificent brunch.” I lay down the bad news.
She waves me off. “I knew I was paying. And I knew I had to do this when I caught you double fisting tacos from the street vendor on 50th. I don’t think it’s healthy to eat that much meat.”
They’re tasty and two for three dollars. She will take those tacos from my cold, dead hands. But I do appreciate the brunch. More than that I appreciate sitting in a pretty place surrounded by pretty things and waiters who actually get tipped so they don’t throw your food at you to save time because they’re already dealing with the next customer.
I’ve gotten good at catching those tacos.
My cell buzzes as Anika starts talking about the new reality show they want her to work on. I hear her saying something about a king looking for a bride, which makes me want to vomit a little.
