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“For now. Don’t be surprised, though, when the trolls show up.”
“Why are you talking about fairy-tale creature?”
Aimes sits down with a huge groan. “Oh man, my arms are killing me. I think we’re gonna have to get you a new sign.”
“You need to eat more, your arms so skinny, like Hong Kong egg noodle.”
“Okay, Vera,” Aimes says with a roll of her eyes. “Have you checked your DMs yet?”
“Ah, I keep forgetting.” Vera opens her DMs cheerfully and shows them to Aimes. “Look at that, so many fan mail.”
Aimes smiles. “Well, you deserve them.” They scroll through the messages for a while, most of them from people asking Vera to adopt them. Then Aimes starts. “Hey, did you miss this one?”
It’s a DM from an obviously fake account, and it says,Stay out of this, nosy bitch.
Coldness prickles in the center of Vera’s chest and spreads like melting ice across her torso.
“Vera, you okay?”
She blinks and forces a smile. “Don’t be silly, of course I am okay. Why not okay? Just because of one silly message?”
But then she scrolls down and sees another message, sent from a different account.Stop posting about Xander Lin, or I will make you stop, you old cu—
Vera slams the phone down, making Aimes jump. “Silly people,” she says.
“Vera, I really think you should take this seriously,” Aimes says.
Vera tuts at her. “At my age, if I take everything too serious, I will get nothing done.” Just then, a text comes in saying,I’m outside, and Vera smiles. “Let’s go.”
Julia and Sana are outside waiting next to Julia’s car. As soon as they see Vera, Julia starts in on her. “Have you told Selena about the vandalism?”
“Oh, not this again,” Vera groans. “You and Oliver are like naggy aunties.”
“Vera,” Sana says, “this is serious. Someone actually came here, like physically came here, and did this to your shop. You need to report this to the police.”
“The police,” Vera grumbles. “You know what they’ll say.They’ll tell me, ‘Stop looking into Xander Lin’s death, blah blah blah.’ ”
“Maybe you should,” Aimes says.
“You talking crazy talk,” Vera says.
“Aimes is right. No case is worth your safety,” Julia says.
“Okay, enough of lecturing. I am your elder, you have to respect me.”
“Vera,” Julia sighs. “I love and respect you like you’re my own mom, and that is why I’m really concerned, okay? Will you promise me that you’ll at least talk to Selena about this?”
Vera grunts. “I will think.”Not a chance in hell, she thinks. Then she says, “Enough about me. Aimes, go do the hang out with Julia and Sana.”
“Uh…” Aimes says. “What does that mean, exactly?”
“Well, you say you are unlike your name, all aimless. This is something Julia and Sana very familiar with.”
“Gee, thanks,” Sana says, but she’s smiling even as she rolls her eyes. She turns to Aimes. “It’s true though. I dropped out of college and was basically, uh, stalking a guy before Vera found me.”
Aimes gapes at her. “What? But you’re a super-successful artist.”
“Aww, stop. Well, yes, I am,” Sana says, flipping her hair over her shoulder and grinning. “But that only happened because of Vera here.” She reaches over and wraps an arm around Vera’s shoulders. “Before that, I was depressed and—um, like I said, kind of doing some light stalking. To be fair, though, it wasn’t like I was stalking him because I was in love with him or something; it was because he’d stolen my art, and I wanted to find a way to get it back.”