Chapter 6 #3
with them in the likely case they were ever recognized.
“Mooncakes,” Sunbern cooed, his arm draped over Shannon, “Lola is legit, trust me. My baby cousin can do literally anything.”
Shannon and Lola were looking each other up and down in that way that only two women can.
Shannon shrugged, unimpressed. “I mean, we didn’t have a manager before, and we did just fine.”
Lola snorted. “Right, Sunbern getting canceled for his commentary about your eager vagina seemed ‘just fine’ to me too.” She took a loud sip of her loose leaf mint tea from a scalding-hot glass cup.
Shannon scowled at her, then turned to Sunbern. “I mean, what does a manager even do?”
To be honest, Lola was not completely sure either. This was all just her improvised damage control.
Sunbern and Shannon’s viral reunion had been a tactical error for Lola, a rare misfire that she had not foreseen. Last night,
she had doomscrolled through accounts of their shenanigans in horror along with the rest of the internet, as it dawned on
her that her tidy little scheme had instead ballooned into a spectacle of sloppy proportions.
Even that morning, the Los Angeles Times had just published a think piece about whether SunShoo could be the new face of sex positivity. The couple’s social currency
was suddenly flush again, and with that came way too many eyeballs for Lola. Cursing at herself, she had wondered why she
hadn’t encouraged Sunbern to take Shannon somewhere more private. Leave it to her clueless cousin to choose an iconic tourist
trap like El Coyote, where thirsty wannabes watered themselves in droves.
“Good point,” Sunbern was saying. “Lo, what does a manager do anyway?”
Lola thought fast. “Think of me as your majordomo.”
Shannon frowned. “Oh, I didn’t realize you were gay.”
Lola stifled a groan. “No, think of me as your assistant. I’ll handle media requests, paid appearances, collaborations, product
placements, social media . . .” It was like ticking off a list of Lola’s least favorite things.
Sunbern was nodding exuberantly, feeding off of what he thought was Lola’s enthusiasm. He had always looked up to his baby
cousin, and the idea that she was actually willing to book his appointments was intoxicating to him. He felt on top of the
world. “Wow, doesn’t that sound baller, Mooncakes?” He grinned, squeezing Shannon’s shoulder. “You know, I’ve always wanted
to do a collab with Banana Boat.”
The two women stared at him blankly.
“Oh!” Shannon suddenly lit up, a light bulb in a dark attic. “Because you’re Sunbern!”
“I mean, that’s a big part of it too.” Lola nodded. “You two need to figure out what your new brand is. It seems like everyone
has forgiven Sunbern, so how do we capitalize on that and continue to evolve your public image?”
Sunbern and Shannon looked at each other, deeply pondering this profound question. “Well, what do you think?” Sunbern asked
his cousin.
Lola pretended to ponder with them. “I think it’s great that you two are the it couple of hot Asian sexuality. But that’s
going to get old fast like it did the first time. From what I understand about media attention, the public likes a storyline
that they can track. So basically, what’s next for you two . . .?” Lola let her voice trail off, hoping she had laid the groundwork.
Shannon tilted her head in agreement at her. She seemed to be warming to Lola. “Right,” Shannon agreed. “So . . . what comes
after sex?”
There was a long, pregnant pause. Lola held her breath.
“A baby?” Sunbern didn’t realize he was talking until he heard himself say it.
Bingo. Lola kept her mouth still, but her teeth were grinning.
Shannon gasped, swatting him. “Oh my god, Sunbern, don’t say something like that unless you mean it!”
Sunbern was sputtering a little as he turned red. “I mean—I mean I was just answering your question!”
Lola cocked her head as well, as though digesting new information. She began to slowly nod in epiphany. “Well, it actually
would redefine you two in a way that is unexpected but also is aspirational and positive. Plus, you guys would make a cute
baby, there’s no denying that.”
“If she’s a girl, we should name her Hyacinth!” Sunbern crowed.
“I’d sooner name her Satan,” Shannon grumbled. “Besides, I’m an only girl with six brothers. Chances are it would be a boy.”
It took all of Lola’s willpower not to jump up and do a jubilant jig. “That many brothers, huh?” she asked in genuine wonder.
This was going even better than she had anticipated. If Sunbern had a baby boy before Wayward, that would put them in a prime
position to pounce on what was rightfully Lola’s.
Shannon held up both her hands dramatically. “Hold a sec. Are we all actually serious here? Is this something we want to do?”
Kissing her on the cheek, Sunbern said, “It is up to you, Mooncakes. We were sorta talking about it before we broke up, remember?”
Both Sun cousins stared at Shannon earnestly. Shrinking a little, Shannon shrugged. “My only thing is that I just busted my
ass losing five pounds.”
Sunbern hopped up, already thinking of boy names. “No pressure of course! I gotta take a leak.”
Their buffer gone, Lola and Shannon awkwardly stared at the untouched hookah between them. A waiter came by with a cone-shaped
bucket and placed a couple of glowing coals on top of the bowl.
Lola heard her Sunfang phone chime and glanced at the incoming text. It was from Wayward . . . yet again. She quickly put
it on silent.
“So. You really are involved with Sunbern these days, aren’t you?” Shannon asked, peering at Lola through her alien blue contact
lenses. With no one else around, her voice was deeper, her words more clipped and crisp.
Lola squinted back at her. “Sure, we’ve always been close. Why do you ask?”
Shannon took the hookah pipe and brought it to her lips, inhaling the Exotic White Peach flavored tobacco deeply. The thick,
silvery smoke spilled out upward from between her shimmering nude lips like a waterfall in reverse.
“Oh, you know, you hear all sorts of things,” Shannon replied airily as she exhaled. “After all, no one in LA really reads NDA’s, right?”
Before Lola could react, Sunbern bounded back to them from the restroom. “What did I miss, my two favorite ladies in the world?”
Shannon giggled at him as she handed him the pipe, her tone light and vapid once more.
And Lola stared at her with new eyes, realizing for the first time that Shannon Shoo just might be a spider.
Every Thursday at lunch, Bessie Machado’s longtime girlfriend Kat met her in Century City on the benches outside the Sunfang
Global Building, bringing Bessie her favorite hot dog, the mushroom-Swiss-cheese dog from Pink’s.
Every couple demonstrates their love in myriad different ways. Kat Norfolk, a vegan chef with short-cropped sandy hair and
Athena-gray eyes, demonstrated hers with Los Angeles’s most famous all-beef sausage. Besides, Kat knew how demanding Bessie’s
gig was, and that Bessie generally refrained from eating meat as a compromise for her. But yes, usually by Thursdays, Bessie
just needed processed animal fat and carbs. Kat understood that as with most evil corporations, Sunfang Global was an intense
place to work.
Bessie took a hedonistic chomp of her lunch, her eyes closed in fervor, and moaned as the gooey cheese, toothsome mushrooms,
and greasy meat invaded her mouth. “Thanks, mamí,” she sighed as she squeezed Kat’s arm. “I really needed this.”
“That bad, huh?” Kat asked, concerned. It was an overcast day with a chill in the air, and she took off her sweater to wrap
around Bessie as the two snuggled together.
“I don’t how bad it is,” Bessie replied, “but I don’t think it’s good.
After Wayward lost his temper at the board meeting, he went to talk to his aunt in her office, and then poof!
Missing now for two days. The only time I can remember Wayward missing work was because his appendix burst, and he was still rolling calls from the hospital! ”
“Maybe he’s seen the light and quit,” Kat mused, “and good for him.”
Bessie rolled her eyes. “You gonna start with that even before I finish my lunch?”
Kat gesticulated at the Sunfang Global Building. “We are literally standing in the shadow of a company that was called out
by The Wall Street Journal as a leading contributor to climate change. The Wall Street Journal, babe! That’s like being told by Putin you’re too bossy.”
“The proposal Wayward and I put together is one hundred percent sustainable construction within a decade, starting in South
America with an added focus on reforestation of the ,” Bessie countered, “and as the grandson of the company founder,
Wayward could actually pull it off!”
“Clearly not. If he could, he wouldn’t be hiding right now. You said he was supposed to get promoted to president? How’s that
going?”
With a groan, Bessie threw her hot dog into a nearby trash can. “?Mierda! Well now I’ve lost my appetite.”
Kat pulled Bessie close, though Bessie refused to meet her eyes. “Hey, I’m sorry, babe. I just think you’re brilliant and
you could actually make an impact somewhere else. Let’s face it. Wayward might be a Sunfang nepo baby, but he’s queer and
you’re queer AND Brown. You two are up against generations of greed and corruption at Sunfang Global. You have vision, but
you have no clout.”
Bessie pried herself from Kat’s embrace, but she did meet her eyes. “You know, before this week I thought we had a fighting
chance. But now . . .”
Then Bessie spotted someone in the distance behind Kat.
Quickly walking through the courtyard’s manicured foliage in front of the Sunfang Global Building was a full-figured Asian
woman in her fifties, wearing black sunglasses and clutching a sensible leather purse.
Bessie squinted. “I think that’s Wayward’s mom!” she whispered to Kat, who spun her head around to peer over as well.
Indeed it was. Iris Sun-Kwok paused to look up at the skyscraper, as if scanning the upper floors in search of someone way
up there.