Chapter 3
Helena
“Change of plans, Ms. Warrick,” Linyue said, catching me at the door on my way out of the building, dressed in her lavender suit jacket that, in all my years with her as my agent and manager, I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen her without.
That and the round glasses that were almost comically small for her face, and—a dignified woman in her late forties, I thought her rather pretty, all things considered, except that the glasses were…
well, let’s say not flattering. But she wore them so often, I probably wouldn’t recognize her without them.
She pushed off from the corner of the wall, attaching to my side as I walked like a shadow.
“Well, well. Not even a hello, nice to see you?” I said, looking to either side to make sure it was clear before I stepped out onto the sidewalk.
I wasn’t a big enough name I had to worry about being papped every minute of the day, but I’d been planning to be a bit…
stealthy today. Getting caught by Linyue was already more than I wanted. Photos? Not what I needed.
“It’s always nice to see you,” she said, in her short, curt voice that put a fine point on everything she said.
“And I’m sure your shoot went well, as it always does, because you are your father’s daughter and you see to it that the work gets done.
Now, speaking of work,” she said, “Cheng Shiyi is coming to New York. Something of a last-minute decision. You’ll be receiving him at his residence in the Upper East Side tonight. ”
I stopped, my stomach sinking, as I turned to her in the glow of the streetlights, cars rolling by just past us. “Tonight? This was specifically scheduled as a free evening for me. It’s been weeks since I got one.”
She was immediately on her phone, my schedule up on the app. “We’re canceling your attendance at the gallery night tomorrow,” she said. “So you can have that free evening then instead. I’ve arranged for a massage.”
My heart broke over silly little things.
It shouldn’t have been a big deal—there would be other opportunities—but it was about more than just a party.
I’d been so looking forward to it, which was silly because half of the work I ever did was going to parties, but this one was different.
This one was my own volition, my own crowd, my own scene, instead of being Dad’s tool, Linyue’s tool.
I shouldn’t have been complaining. I liked my job, my life, really. But times like this made me feel like a caged bird.
“I had plans for tonight,” I said, even though I never made any headway arguing with Linyue.
She’d been working with my father for eighteen years now and had known me since I was a kid, and she’d been my agent for so long that some days I wasn’t sure I knew how to buy dinner without her.
And so far, I wasn’t sure I’d won a single argument against the woman.
But nonetheless, I persisted. “Is there nobody else who can meet Mr. Cheng?”
She raised her thin eyebrows high. “You had plans? What plans did you have? There’s nothing in my calendar.”
“I know how to make my own plans, too, Linyue, I’m a full-grown woman.”
“Then why is it not in my calendar?” Her Shanghai accent popped out more, like it always did when she was trying to scold me. I sighed, my shoulders dropping.
“I was spending the evening with Estelle.”
“Oh, Ms. Fong.” She relaxed. Probably she was just making sure I wasn’t sneaking off for a date.
She knew how that went the last time. “Ms. Fong will still be there another day. Cheng Shiyi is a big investor in the parent company. It’s very important to receive him gratefully.
You are the daughter of the head of operations in America. You will be expected to be there.”
“Why won’t Dad be expected to be there? He is the head of operations in America.”
She dropped her arms by her sides. “Your father has plans.”
Yeah, yeah, I saw how it was.
Well, his plans were objectively more important than mine.
The parent company, Shiyun Group, had been putting the pressure on him lately—the Chinese market had been stagnating, and they were trying to squeeze more out of their operations in Paris, New York and Tokyo to make up for it, so Dad had been working overtime lately trying to keep up with their demands.
Me, I was trying to sneak out to a rooftop party across the river to hang out with tech startup founders. That wasn’t as important. But it was important to me.
I relented eventually, and Linyue told me where to catch my car and when, and she was off again, disappearing into the crowds of the SoHo streets like water disappeared into the river.
I still had a bit of time before I needed to catch my car, so I walked moodily to the café at the corner to sit on a small terrace with a decaf espresso, and I texted Estelle to ask if we could call.
She didn’t even answer, just called me, and I could hear I was pouting in my voice when I picked up.
“Hey,” I said.
“What’s up? Everything go okay at the shoot?” Her voice was chipper, bright, cheerful. Always was. Maybe that was what happened when you weren’t micromanaged. Or maybe she was just that kind of person. Moodily, I sipped my coffee.
“The shoot was good. The problem was on the way out. Linyue descended on me like a hawk,” I said. “Apparently this big Shanghai investor is coming to New York, and Linyue wants me to meet him tonight. She rescheduled my free evening for tomorrow.”
“What? Tell her you’ve got plans.” She sounded as crestfallen as I was, even though she could go to parties whenever she wanted to.
“Estelle, you’ve met the woman. I could get shot in the head in front of her and she’d still tell me I need to get to my next booking.”
“So you’re not going to the launch party after all?” she said. “If you’re not going, I don’t want to go either.”
“I wish I could. But with all the pressure from Shanghai lately, I don’t think I can afford to skip out on this.”
“Hmm-m-m-m-m,” she said, punctuating it out with the staccato rhythm like she did, before I heard the small intake of breath as she lit up. “Why don’t you just invite him?”
I squished up my face at the phone. “To a launch party for a random tech group he has no connection to?”
“Think of it from his perspective! He just dropped in last-minute, right? It must be, or Linyue would have had this on the books years in advance. So he drops in unannounced, and you show up and say, hey, good of you to come by, I was just heading to this hip, cool party on the waterfront, do you want to come with? It’s cool, it’s real, and he knows it’s authentic like that. ”
“I don’t know if he wants authentic. I think he wants a limousine to take him to a pristine penthouse and have hot girls wait on him.”
“Tell him to book his limo to the waterfront, and there will be hot girls there. At least ask him. If he says no, you’re not any worse off than if you just gave up in advance.”
I fussed with my demitasse of espresso. “Estelle, I don’t know…”
“Oh, you’re such a little shrinking violet, Hellie!
You told me you wanted to get out of your shell a little more.
That’s why you’re going to the party in the first place!
Isn’t it what you wanted?” she said, her voice lighting up more and more.
“The hip and happening world of tech startups, meeting up with your crew at the local coworking space to make something happen against all odds, the camaraderie, the excitement!”
“The multi-billion-dollar company breathing down my family’s neck?”
“Jeez.” Again with the sharp intake of breath before she lit up with her new idea. “Fine then, I’ll ask him for you!”
“What—Estelle, please don’t,” I said, but she was one step ahead of me.
“I’ll let you know how it goes! Bye, babe!”
“Estelle!” I shouted down the phone, but she hung up, and I panicked, my fingers working quickly on the screen.
Estelle was my best friend, but she and subtlety had never met.
If she did something to offend Mr. Cheng, I’d never hear the end of it.
I had to get to him first, or Linyue would have my head.
I sent Linyue a text asking for Mr. Cheng’s number, saying I wanted to welcome him right away, and she sent it along in about three milliseconds.
I took a deep breath before I called the number, and I took the little spoon on the side of my demitasse and tapped it anxiously against the saucer while I waited before it connected with a click, a man’s voice coming through speaking Mandarin. “Hello?”
My Mandarin wasn’t as good as my father’s, but I knew the basics. “Hello, Mr. Cheng? This is Helena Warrick, Robert Warrick’s daughter.”
His voice brightened. “Oh, the lovely daughter,” he said, before he switched to English, thickly accented and a little shaky in places. “What a surprise to hear from you! Is something wrong? Why are you calling?”
I switched to English as well, enunciating just slightly more—not enough to be patronizing but just enough to make it easier to follow over the phone.
“I hope you’ve had a pleasant trip, Mr. Cheng.
My father says I should meet you at your residence here, but I just wanted to ask, I…
” What was I even saying? I was going to kill Estelle for this.
“I was just on my way to an event in Williamsburg, a small party at a rooftop lounge with a few tech founders, and a few of my friends from the fashion industry. Would you prefer for me to meet you at your residence, or do you want to join me for the event?”
My face burned with embarrassment, and I braced myself with one hand gripping the table hard, waiting for him to scold me, but he sounded like a little boy invited to the candy store.
“Oh, yes,” he said. “I would love to see what the city has to offer. Thank you for the invite. You can send me the address, and I will give them to my driver.”
Oh—my god. Was Estelle right? I blinked fast for a second before I remembered to smile and respond. “That’s wonderful, Mr. Cheng,” I said. “I’m delighted to hear it. I think you’ll like my friend Estelle. I’ll send you the address.”
We said our goodbyes, and my hands were shaking by the time I hung up the phone, settling back with a long, nervous breath in my chair. Linyue was going to kill me once she found out about this. I’d just… make sure she didn’t find out until it was done and Mr. Cheng was happy.
I called Estelle. Didn’t give her warning this time, just called, and she was stifling laughter when she picked up. “Don’t bother,” I said. “I called him.”
“I figured you would,” she sang. “I don’t have his number, babe.”
I stared straight ahead a good, long while before I slumped over the table, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Estelle…”
“So? He said yes, right?”
“He said yes.”
“Yes!” she cheered, and I heard her moving on the other side, probably getting up and doing her little happy dance. “I’ll see you both there. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to chat to him, introduce him to people, get him drinking, so you don’t have to babysit him the whole time.”
“I can’t believe you,” I groaned. “But… thank you.”
“I promised you I’d help get you out seeing the world a little. So? Party time?”
I took a long breath, looking up at the sky, thinking soon, I’d be seeing this part of the city from across the river. “Party time,” I said.