Chapter 17
Helena
“Mr. Barakat will be at the mixer tomorrow,” Linyue said over the sound of heavy rain, her way of saying hello as I stepped out of the doors from the studio, following along next to me as I walked.
“He has some useful connections with the studios we’ve been talking about. Make sure to make contact with him.”
I opened my umbrella as I got out of the building, giving Linyue a smile over my shoulder. “Hello to you too, Linyue. The shoot went well, thank you for asking.”
“Hello, Ms. Warrick.” She had her own umbrella out in short order, walking next to me as traffic crawled past us, raindrops coming down so hard they bounced knee-high off the pavement. “I’ve gotten the feedback form for Jewel prepared. Make sure Ms. Branch sends them to Ms. Adesina.”
Houdini’s magic trick really was spectacular.
Cassandra… Julie? I still had never found a good opportunity to ask what was with the dual identity, not when she seemed awkward and uncomfortable around the concept, but whoever she was, she’d really managed to get in well with Linyue, if she was going through her now to work with Krysten.
“I wasn’t aware I was her supervisor,” I said lightly. “But I will do.”
“This rain is miserable. You have a minute to get a coffee.”
“I could well be going to meet someone right now.”
“Then all the better I interrupt, because I don’t see it on your schedule.”
Well, she won this one. I went with her into a tiny but flashy coffee shop, with tall ceilings and ornate crown molding, baristas with crisp black jackets, and a placard advertising an Ethiopian light-roast pourover, glossy copy that was lost on me.
I got a small americano while Linyue took her caffeine in a concentrated shot as espresso, and she stood at the edge of the bar nursing the demitasse while she spoke.
“I don’t intend to monitor your personal life,” she said, finally, venturing carefully, which was dangerous.
“That’s news to me,” I laughed.
“I don’t involve myself in your dates.”
“Oh, you don’t?”
“I usually don’t.”
I just smiled, sipping my coffee.
“But transparency is important,” she said. “If you’re in a romantic relationship with someone who has relevant connections, it’s helpful to know.”
I knew full well what she was asking, but I didn’t want to answer.
It wasn’t like I knew. Julie and I weren’t dating, even though I’d pulled her back to my apartment more than once now to spend the night since that last time, that time when I’d almost been ready to let go and then she’d turned my world upside-down talking to Linyue.
And it tore me every which way. I wasn’t looking to date right now. She was cute, good in bed, and I was happy to enjoy it a few times, but even if she weren’t technically still married…
But there was something magnetic about her. She just burned so brightly, like nothing could stop her from moving forwards. For better or worse.
“I don’t know if you know this,” I said, “but people typically don’t date as a business decision.”
“So you are dating her?”
“Julie?” I shook my head. “Nothing like that. Just a friend.” I sipped my coffee, and I felt her eyes boring into me. I tried not to show anything, but who knows if I pulled it off?
“You’re not seeing anyone right now?”
“I’m focusing on work.” That was a true statement. She sighed.
“Things have gotten back on track with Cheng Shiyi,” she said. “He has still been curious to meet you again. Perhaps he can be persuaded to go and spend time with you and Ms. Branch. Perhaps with Ms. Fong as well.”
I still couldn’t wrap my head around Houdini’s magic, but I guess that was the point.
As far as I understood, they’d kept in touch since they met, and now, Linyue had stopped tracking my location and was here apologizing for her reaction to the Williamsburg party, in her way.
“I’m sure Julie would love to,” I said. “And we all know Estelle would. I’ll be happy to actually meet him at his residence this time. ”
She made a face. “Well, the damage is done, unfortunately. He wants to meet you so he can go posture at another rooftop party. So you may as well invite him with you. Keep him happy.”
I laughed. “Estelle will be ecstatic to make sure that happens. Thanks, Linyue.”
“Hmm.” She knocked back the rest of her coffee, setting it down on the saucer and starting for the door. “Well, I have places to be. Remember what I said about Mr. Barakat. I won’t see you running a pointless event and dragging your name through the mud. I’ve updated your calendar.”
“Bye,” I laughed. “I will. Talk to you later.”
“Bye,” she said, and just like that, she was gone. I took a selfie with my coffee, sending it over to where I still had her contact saved as Cassandra and still felt strange about it.
HELENA
Linyue dragged me into a café to talk business. Did she send you anything about Mr. Barakat?
There was a long delay between her opening the message and responding. Looking at my face, I knew. Possibly picturing it above her at night. I wasn’t sad about it.
HOUDINI
He’s one of the people I should be looking for at the mixer, right? She sent me a whole dossier about people.
Also did you get your brows done?
HELENA
No, just had a makeup shoot, so I had about six different brow pencils go through them.
HOUDINI
Well, you look hot like this too, so clearly it’s working
Maybe they should have tried seven to see if it made you even hotter
I laughed, rolling my eyes as I finished my coffee. I could imagine her face right now, where she was probably worked into a nervous fit over a simple, unfiltered selfie and workshopped a few different ways to try flirting.
But I didn’t get to deliver a snappy response before I got another text.
STELLIE
hellooo with the dreamy little smile
what are you hiding over there??
I didn’t even need to check the title to see who sent it. I also wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of a reaction. I typed a reply.
HELENA
you could try saying hello like a normal person
STELLIE
ooh there’s the scowl
That was enough for her—Estelle’s voice picked up from near the doors as she came towards me.
“Are you texting someone cute?” she said, and I slipped the phone into my pocket, turning to where she was dressed for the rain in an oversized pink coat, tugging the hood down and freeing her ponytail.
“Sending status reports along to Houdini. Do you just follow me everywhere?”
“I was free and remembered you were just finishing up a job here, so I decided to see if you were hanging out in the closest coffee shop texting your girl.”
“I’m not…” I sighed, rubbing my forehead. “She’s not my girl.”
“I’m teasing you,” she laughed, but something in her expression said she wasn’t entirely just teasing. “So you—”
“It’s good to see you, actually,” I said. “Linyue was just talking about you.”
She paled. “I’m a dead woman.”
“Positively, actually. She said Cheng Shiyi is coming back around in line, and suggested I could meet him at another… fancy rooftop event. And that you and Ms. Branch could be there too.”
She lit up. “You want me to score you an invite to a fun night out? Oh my god, you should have said so earlier! What are you thinking? Sunset drinks? Late-night dancing? Yacht party? Estate party? Uptown, downtown? Something classy? More techies?”
“How many upcoming parties do you know of?”
“Like, all of them.”
“I’ll ask Julie,” I laughed, and she stopped, quirking her eyebrow at me with her smile faltering.
“Is that her name?”
“Oh, er…”
“You said it before like it was just a pseudonym she used for her music work, but now you’re talking like that’s just her name.”
I pushed out a breath. “Honestly, I don’t know. I haven’t asked.”
“You haven’t? I thought you two were, like, inseparable.”
“We’re just doing business work together,” I said. “But I’ll ask her anyway.”
“Aren’t you curious?” she said. “I’m not even the one who’s hanging out with her and I’m dying to know.”
Mostly because I knew she was uncomfortable about the subject.
And besides, I had so many nicknames for her at this point, it was hardly a concern.
But I didn’t want to tell Estelle that we were avoiding the topic of her marriage and that we got around it by me just having a lot of pet names for her.
“I figure if she wants me to know, she’ll tell me,” I said, and she snorted, leaning against the bar next to me.
“Okay, virtuous. Gentle and gracious. You can do your saintly thing and I will google her.”
That felt like such a violation of her privacy, around a topic she obviously wanted to be private about, but…
it wasn’t like I hadn’t thought about it.
I was desperate to look up the husband, figure out what I could about him, but I’d talked myself down from it multiple times now saying I respected her privacy.
But if Estelle was already looking her up anyway…
I was so damn selfish. But I guess I knew that already.
“I don’t know how you made it this far without googling her, frankly,” I said. “But I’m nosy too. Report back.”
“It was Evans-Pierre, right?”
“Mm-hm.”
“Oh, you remember it well now, huh?” she said, elbowing me.
“Stop it,” I laughed.
“I’m just saying! She has a massive crush on you and I know you know it. And with how much you’ve been hanging out with her, it’s…” She frowned, scrunching up her face at the screen, scrolling around. “Uh… huh.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Say, she’s not a shapeshifter, is she?”
“Did you find her?”
“I found someone called Cassandra Evans-Pierre. Married, works in New York.”
“How many can there be?”
“Well, at least two, apparently.” She turned the phone around, and I stopped, an uncomfortable feeling clamping tight in my chest.
Cassandra Evans-Pierre, public speaker in the tech sector. Married to Jacob Evans-Pierre. Forty-nine years old, tall, blonde, and very, very not my Houdini.
What kind of magic trick did she call this one?
“That’s… strange,” I said coolly. She flicked her gaze between me and the screen.
“Your little magician isn’t committing identity theft, is she?”
“No. I… I mean, I didn’t think so.” I felt a chill building in my stomach. She’d always insisted he was so far away, that he wasn’t going to come looking for her, that he had a different woman he was happy with.
Had she been lying this whole time?
I didn’t even want to think the thought, but the face looking back at me from the screen felt like it bored into my thoughts in a cold, oppressive weight.
“Do you want me to ask her?” Estelle said, her voice small and soft now. Comforting. Shit, that meant this was something to comfort me over. It was that bad, wasn’t it?
“No, it’s… I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for this.”
“Yes, babe, that’s actually what I’d ask her for. To hear what the perfectly reasonable explanation is.”
“No, I… no. No, I’ll… I’ll ask her.” Once this event had passed. It was coming up soon, and I… I didn’t want to interrupt it if things went… if this broke something. “Next time I see her, I’ll ask,” I lied.
Estelle looked down at the picture one more time, her brows furrowed, and I did too, a knot in my chest tying tighter at the sight.