Chapter Nine
CHAPTER NINE
At the house, Kya swapped her loose T-shirt for a fitted one, and her faded blue jeans for a black pair. She added silver jewellery and stiletto heels so sharp they could double as weapons. Kya made no apology for her sartorial choices. She’d wear a variation of this outfit to the Met Gala, if ever invited. At the most, she’d throw on a blazer.
Quinn let out a low whistle when she came down the stairs. She was only teasing and Kya tried not to read too much into it. The guys weren’t home. She sent them a quick text on the group chat, set the alarm, and locked the door on her way out.
Back at Quinn’s, she disappeared into her bedroom and came out in a black minidress. Kya couldn’t have whistled if she’d wanted to. Her throat was dry. Also, Quinn had caught her snooping. She returned a framed photograph of Quinn, Ivy, and an Asian girl their age with blue-streaked hair, onto the bookshelf.
‘My girl gang,’ Quinn said, with a nod to the photo. ‘The one on the left is Amanda. She’s British and Thai. We were best mates at school. Then she went off to uni and I moved around to get my career going. We lived together in London for a bit before I came over here. Then, my first year in Miami, she reached out and asked if she could spend a few weeks in the summer with me. She moved in with me and Ivy and ended up spending an entire year. We were so tight. I thought nothing would come between us.’
In the photo, the three women were smooshed together in the back seat of a car. Daylight couldn’t come between them. While studying their smiling faces, Kya had felt a pinch of envy. She had no girlfriends to boast about. Throughout adolescence, there had always been some group of geeky guys willing to take her in. A geek herself, she felt right at home. Girls frightened her. She stuck to the same playbook through college; although by then, dread had been supplanted by desire.
Quinn sat on the arm of the sofa and fluffed her hair. ‘They called us the Spice Girls.’
‘What broke up the band?’ Kya asked.
‘Men.’
‘Right. Sounds accurate. But Ivy’s still here,’ Kya pointed out.
‘Ivy has Victor,’ Quinn said.
‘I wasn’t going to mention this, but …’ Kya hesitated. Should she mind her business?
‘But what?’ Quinn said. ‘Out with it!’
‘I’m pretty sure Ivy and Victor broke up at Blood Orange on Friday night.’
‘Oh.’ Quinn settled down. ‘They break up all the time. You’ll get used to it.’
‘Good to know.’
‘It’s unfair to pin it all on Victor. Ivy and I have our own issues. She handles my publicity and does a stellar job, but it hasn’t been the same between us since she took on this role. It’s like mixing genres, it doesn’t always work.’ Quinn checked her phone. ‘Oh God! They’re here!’
She shot up and flew around the apartment, as if on a scavenger hunt. She gathered a card case, a set of keys, a compact, and a tube of lip gloss, then crammed the items into a tiny, sparkly handbag. ‘That’s it! Ready!’ she announced.
Kya tucked her phone into her back pocket. ‘Same.’
Kya’s doubts were confirmed. Quinn’s friends absolutely did not have her in mind.
‘She’s still here,’ Ivy blurted as soon as the door to the black car swung open.
Quinn glared at her. ‘What’s the problem?’
‘It’s just … Nick will be there,’ Ivy said, as if this explained everything.
‘You mentioned,’ Quinn said. ‘He’s promoting the event. What does that have to do with Kya?’
Kya instinctively backed away from the vehicle. ‘I’ll Uber home.’
‘No!’ Ivy cried. ‘I wasn’t expecting you; that’s all. Come in. It’ll be fun.’
‘Are you sure?’ Kya asked.
‘She’s sure,’ Quinn said, flatly.
As Quinn touched Kya’s lower back to ease her into the back of the car, Kya couldn’t help but feel a spark.
At Smoke, Ivy and Victor kept Quinn on lockdown in the upper-level VIP area until Nick made his appearance a solid hour later. He was a good-looking guy, if you liked them tall and dark. Judging by the way she smiled at him, Quinn likely did.
Kya escaped the velvet-corded playpen and its free drinks and made her way to the bar to order a tequila – a move that was quickly becoming her MO.
A moment later, she was joined by none other than Ivy.
‘Glad I caught up with you, girlfriend,’ she said, sliding onto the vacant seat next to Kya’s. Her silver sequined top caught the gold light over the bar. ‘Didn’t mean to be rude earlier.’
Didn’t she, though? Kya wondered. And since when were they girlfriends? She gave Ivy a pass, for Quinn’s sake.
‘I get it,’ Kya said. ‘I wasn’t on the list.’
‘I can get anyone on any list,’ Ivy boasted. ‘I’ve worked as a hostess up and down the beach, and I know every doorman, every bouncer, and everyone who matters.’
‘Impressive,’ Kya said dryly.
Ivy bit her lower lip and gave her a look. ‘You don’t like me. Just say it. You can be real.’
‘I don’t know you,’ Kya said. ‘Real enough?’
‘You barely know Quinn, and you like her.’
‘Quinn came highly recommended by my brother-in-law,’ Kya said coolly. ‘I trust his opinion.’
Ivy shook her head. ‘That’s not it. Everyone likes Quinn. She’s the nicest person you’ll meet. Nick likes her, too. He’s been hounding me to hook him up, but Quinn’s schedule is tight. Tonight’s the first time I’ve managed to get them together.’
‘Does Quinn know?’ Kya asked.
‘I dropped hints.’
‘Couldn’t you have asked if she was interested?’
Ivy gave her that look again. ‘You think I’m a crappy friend, don’t you?’
Her standards were low. So long as a friend didn’t cost Kya her livelihood, betray her, or make her feel like a fool, they stood a fighting chance. However, odds were that Ivy already knew she was a crappy friend to Quinn and didn’t need Kya to hammer the point home.
‘Does it matter what I think?’ she asked.
‘Nick knows people,’ Ivy said. ‘Who knows? Maybe someday he’ll refer a client. I can’t afford to piss him off.’
‘Yeah,’ Kya said, unconvinced. ‘Who knows.’
‘If you’re wondering why I’m jumping through hoops for a “maybe someday situation”, you should know that I lost a client last month.’
‘One client?’ Kya said. ‘That’s not so bad.’
‘I only had two clients.’
‘Including Quinn?’
Ivy nodded slowly.
The bartender came around and addressed Ivy. ‘Can I get you something?’
‘I’ll have what she’s having,’ Ivy said, with a nod towards Kya.
‘Tequila and lime?’ he asked.
‘God, no!’ she cried. ‘I’ll have a cranberry vodka.’ To Kya, she said, ‘I don’t know why I used that line. It sounds so cool in movies.’
Ivy wasn’t the cool girl she was pretending to be. She was awkward, insecure, and covering all of that with blush and golden highlights. Kya was warming up to her.
‘If it makes you feel any better, I was fired last week.’
‘I know,’ she said. ‘Victor told me. And it doesn’t make me feel better. It makes me feel terrible. Can a girl catch a break?’
The answer was no, but then Kya remembered Quinn and her billboard. Hope stirred within. Maybe someday her dreams could come true, whatever those dreams happened to be.
The bartender set Ivy’s drink before her. She raised her glass. ‘Let’s drink to the struggle!’
Kya was done struggling, at least for today. While Ivy knocked back her cranberry vodka, she stole a glance at Quinn up in the highly visible VIP area. She and Nick seemed engrossed in conversation.
‘Looks like they’re getting along,’ Kya said.
‘Who?’ Ivy asked.
Who did she think? ‘Nick and Quinn.’
Ivy craned her neck to get a look at them. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘That’s not Quinn’s happy face. Besides, she’d more likely go for a girl like you than a guy like him.’
‘I call BS.’ Kya had a good sense of these things, and that wasn’t the vibe she was getting from Quinn.
‘Yes, really!’ Ivy cried. ‘Why do you think I was thrown when I saw you? I figured she wouldn’t want to spend any time with him if you were around. Unless I’m wrong about you?’
Was Kya wrong about Quinn? That was the more interesting question.
Ivy didn’t wait around for an answer. ‘I’ve got to find Victor,’ she said. ‘Next time we hang out, no boys allowed, okay? And I’ll be the better version of myself. I’ll work on my attitude, cleanse my aura, all of that. Sound good?’
‘Sounds great.’ Kya waved her off. ‘Good luck!’
‘Thanks! I need it.’
Kya waited until Ivy was far gone before she chanced a look at Quinn again, but she’d disappeared.