15. Grae
Grae
Out of all the places I own, I like this one the most. It’s not big and flashy like the L.A.
house. It’s a two bedroom with floor to ceiling windows in a nice neighborhood.
When you walk in, there’s a small foyer, and my kitchen with a breakfast bar is to the left.
The rest of the space is the living area, where the couch is situated in the center of the room and facing towards the TV.
My bedroom is to the right, and I turned the second bedroom into my office.
It’s cozy and has a quiet luxury. It shows I’ve done the work, and I deserve this life, but I don’t like keeping my awards on display. It’s too pretentious.
My phone rings, and I sigh. My manager is on the other end. “Hey.”
“Grae, I’ve got you an offer to work with Sunidays Strawberries.”
“The K-pop group?” Sunidays Strawberries has been on my career wish list for over three years now.
“Yeah, you need to be in Seoul in the next forty-eight hours.”
Their next album will send them into the stratosphere. We’re talking about massive international crossover appeal. But forty-eight hours will not be happening.
“Tell them I’ll be there in three weeks.” That will give me some time to woo Alana, and still do what I need to.
“What? No, it’s now or never.”
“Then it’s never or in three weeks.”
“God, why are you such a pain in my ass?”
“Because you push too hard when you shit and now you have raging hemorrhoids. Eat more fiber. Tell them my offer and get back to me.”
I hang up the phone and then text Mastodon requesting the cameras to be turned off for privacy reasons. Alana asked me if I could do that this morning when she agreed to dinner. Mastodon OKs it but wants vocal commands anyway.
The oven beeps, and I pull out the roasted veggies. I only need a few minutes to cook the steaks, and I can do that when Alana’s here. And that should happen any second now. The phone rings again, I answer the video chat.
“Hey Assbreath.”
“Fartface, how the hell are you?” I don’t think I’ve used my sister’s real name in fifteen years.
Her hair is pulled back in a slicked back ponytail. The scar on her face faded and is hidden by her make up. My stomach clenches whenever I see it. But her giant smile hides any residual trauma.
“I’m good. I wanted to check if you were going to Jacob’s retirement party.”
Shittttttt.
“Um, I’m not sure. It’s in a month, right? I might be in Korea.”
“Un-huh.” My sister seems unimpressed.
“You know I work too but Mom’s been planning this for months now.”
“Would it be tacky just to book them a cruise and be done with it? I mean, is my sparkling personality really going to be missed?”
“God, you’re such an ass.”
As I pull out plates from the cabinet there’s a knock at the door. Hmm, I might be able to win brownie points with Fartface, she always liked Alana, claiming I was dating out of my league. A fact I was and still am well aware of.
I open the door and I swear to God my heart flutters. Alana has her hair down, but it seems like it had been in a ponytail all day, so it has a uniformed wavey look. She smiles and I’m about to lean in for a kiss and then flash the phone in front of her face.
“Say hi to my sister.” Alana glances at me and then the phone.
“Hi Fiona.” Then steps to the side and silently appraises my apartment.
“UM… do you know who that is?” My sister’s voice screeches.
“Yeah, it’s Kinsley. You remember her, right?”
My sister drags her hand down her face. “Do you know who Kinsley grew up to be?” Alana is standing in my living room with one raised eyebrow. Then I look back to my sister.
“Alana King. Why?”
“Because when you fuck this up again, I’m on Team Alana. Since I don’t think you deserve a second chance and… you know what, this will be way more fun if you do a little work. Big Brother, what do I do for a living?”
“You are a system analyst for Grasshopper. Beyond the title, I have no clue what you do with your time.”
Alana pokes around at my mantle. I mouth over to her, ‘who are you, why is my sister being weird?’
She gives me a sideways smile and says, “She's right, you should do a little work.”
“Go ahead and search Grasshopper and Alana King on the interwebs,” my sister responds.
So I do…
“What the actual fuck? Alana, you own Grasshopper?”
“You asked if you would have heard of one of the companies I own. We were dating when I started it.” Well shit, now all the money makes a ton more sense.
I swallow as the gears start clicking together. “And my sister works for you.”
“I interviewed and hired her,” Alana says and leans on the breakfast bar.
“Your mother spawned geniuses, and your sister is excellent at what she does. She’s going to work for me for a few years, cut her teeth and then go work for another big company and triple her current salary.
” I blink a few times at her then look at my sister.
“Did you recognize her during the interview?” I ask in disbelief, “Because I’ve been searching for her for years.”
“Of course I recognized her, and I knew you wanted to reconnect. But I sure as shit wasn’t about to tell you where she was. As I stated, you don’t deserve a second chance.” I’m about to respond with something snarky, but I think she’s right, and I’ve been treading on thin ice.
“Well thanks for the vote of confidence. Love ya.” I hang up and toss the phone on my counter. “You hired my sister?”
“Yep.” She points to the steaks and veggies, “Smells good.”
“My sister? And you never thought of reaching out?”
“Not once,” she says then pops a carrot slice into her mouth.
“Ouch.” I turn away from her and start to heat up the pan for the steaks. “I will do my best not to be offended.”
“Being butt hurt about our past is not exactly the best use of your remaining time.” She’s not wrong. Ok, redirect focus.
“I might be going to Korea in a few weeks. Japan isn’t that far away.”
“I know how maps work, Grae.” Ouff, she’s not giving me anything.
“Well, maybe we could go to Kyoto for a few days, and then I could go to Seoul, and you could return home. First class all the way… or if you are a private jet kinda gal, I could swing that.”
Sometimes my partners are only with me for the money and fame, but I don’t need to flex or get all bougie with her because we’re on equal financial footing.
I drop the butter in the pan and watch it bubble up.
“That’s well beyond your trial membership. I don’t know if it's a good idea to do long-term planning.”
“You. Don’t. Want. To. Plan?” I gasp, “Who are you and what happened to Alana/ Kinsley, who would live and die over a plan?”
She’s quiet for a moment, and her silence bothers me. It means she’s lost in her head, and that’s not a good place for her to be at the moment.
“I mean,” I need to get her back on track, “it’s only fair I take you to Kyoto, since you took me to Reykjavík. And if you are going to claim it’s the greatest city in the world there needs to be a comparison.”
“Hmm. I think you’re wrong.”
I turn towards her, shifting my weight, and I lean against the counter. “I think you’re scared Reykjavik won’t measure up once it’s compared to any city larger than 200,000 citizens.” Gauntlet thrown.
“We already had this conversation yesterday, and I’m not scared.” She pushes off the breakfast bar and crosses her arms. “It is superior in every way.”
“But you don’t want to see my choice…”
“We’re looking at five days minimum.”
I shrug, “Still falls within the fourteen-day limit.”
“You’re down to twelve days.”
“Again, falls within the time limit.”
“I agreed not to ghost you, not to sacrifice all my time. And do you really want to waste your precious days on a plane?”
“Lots of fun things we can do on a private plane for thirty-two hours.” I wiggle my eyebrows, but I'm pushing it, and the ice is getting thinner by the second. “Fine, win by default, which is the lamest way to win anymore.” This earns me a half smile, and it’s almost as good as an actual win. “And you’re right…”
“I love that phrase.”
“Oh, I know.” I nod, “There are better ways to spend my efforts convincing you to extend past the two-week trial period.” I flip over the steaks and my stomach growls. “I could just keep telling you how right you are over and over.”
“While appreciated, it’d get boring after a while.”
I take a few steps out of the kitchen, brush against her as I go into my office and return with an envelope. I slide it down on the counter next to her and return to the steaks. A quick poke tells me it’s almost done.
“What’s this?” She asks.
“Well, if I only have twelve days left, I might as well get something out of it.” The envelope seal rips open. While I’m putting the steaks on the plate, she makes a confused huff sound.
“Why are you giving me a bill for thirty thousand dollars? Your cock is good but not that good.”
“You wound me, woman.” I slide the plate and silverware in front of her, before I slice into my own meat. The buttery beef almost melts in my mouth like a high-end cut should. “That’s the bill for the extra storage units I had to rent over the years.”
She glares over the paper at me and puts it aside. “You still didn’t answer the question, why?” She cuts into her food and takes a bite, covers her mouth and says, “That’s good.”
“See, when we were dating and I was offered a contract by Legacy to be a song writer and a producer, you called the lawyers and made them add a little rider to the contract.” She chews like she’s trying to recall.
“The rider said that I would receive a box of pens for every time my songs placed in the top 200. The office supplies got better the longer and higher the songs climbed and stayed on the charts.”
Alana’s eyes get wide and she covers her mouth. “Oh no.”
“And the rider can’t be removed by anyone but Kinsley Adams and needed to remain in every contract I signed in perpetuity. Do you see the problem?”
She huffs through her closed lips, and a chuckle escapes. “Oh shit.”