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“Hmm.” Vera sniffs. “I should start charging you for modeling fee.” Although she wouldn’t, of course, because she loves being in front of Julia’s camera way too much. Julia has already taken countless photos of Vera in the process of making various teas, and Vera has discovered that she is quite the peacock. But if Julia wanted to, she could easily pay Vera. She could easily pay anyone, now that the first installment check from Marshall’s life insurancehas been paid out. Julia has given a large chunk of it to Riki to pay him for the work he did for Marshall, which made Riki burst into tears. Apparently, Riki’s little brother, Adi, will be joining them in the Bay Area any day now. Vera can’t wait to spoil Adi rotten.
For a while, they were all worried that Riki might get in trouble over the scalping bot. But Tilbert assured them that there are very few laws in place when it comes to NFTs. It’s a case of the law not quite catching up with the ever-changing world of tech, and since there’s no actual signed contract between Riki and Marshall, it would be a real challenge for anyone to press charges against Riki for making a bot. Currently, he and Sana are working through Marshall’s stash, contacting the other artists and returning their stolen art.
The rest of the money was put toward the mortgage, and without the weight of mortgage payments bearing down on Julia’s shoulders, she’s been able to blossom with her photography, taking more artistic risks and quickly creating a reputation for herself as the next photographer to watch.
Meanwhile, Alex’s trial is still ongoing. Tilbert has managed to get one of the associates at his firm to represent Alex pro bono, and all Tilbert will say about it is that it’s going “about as well as these things can go.” Vera has visited Alex twice already, and each time, she brings food for the guards so they will be nicer to Alex. They keep telling her that they’re not allowed to accept food from visitors, but Vera knows she will wear them down soon enough.
They make their way to the teahouse at a relaxed pace, chatting as they wait for the tram, taking in the beautiful, lazy sight of San Francisco as it slowly wakes up. When they turn the corner of Vera’s teahouse, Vera frowns to see a small crowd. Ugh, they must be Winifred’s customers.
But as they get closer, she sees that, in fact, the handful of people are waiting outside her shop. When they spot her, one of them nudges the others.
“It’s Vera!”
“No soliciting,” Vera says sternly.
“No,” one of them, a young woman with purple hair, says. “We’re customers.”
Vera gapes at them. For once, words fail her.
“Surpriiise!” Julia says. “Oliver wrote this beautiful article about you and your teahouse and the rich history behind it, and theBay Area Timesactually bought it. They ran the story yesterday.”
“Oh, I’m actually here because of your TikToks,” the purple-haired woman says.
Julia blushes, smiling. “I told you, Vera, they got good engagement.”
“I’m an art student,” the woman next to her says. “I wanted to see the painting inside. Our art teacher showed it in our class.”
Now it’s Vera’s turn to smile. She is so proud of what Sana has done with the space, how she’s poured her incredible art out everywhere, even incorporating things like the light sockets. Every time Vera steps inside her shop, she is immediately transported to an otherworldly place, a space between real Shanghai and one that only exists in dreams, where she and Jinlong sit in a little boat and sip tea while letting the tips of their fingers trail in the cool, calm water. She is so pleased to hear that Sana’s work is getting the recognition it deserves. Sana has been so busy; Winifred took one look at Vera’s shop and immediately hired Sana to paint her bakery, that copycat. And before that’s even done, Sana has already been hired to paint two more places—a dumpling shopdown the street and a swanky restaurant opening at the Embarcadero. The latter has agreed to pay her mid-five figures, which pleased even Sana’s mother.
“Well, I’m actually here for the tea,” a bearded guy says. “Yeah, CassieRed was raving about it. She says your teas are W.”
“My teas are... W?”
“It’s short for ‘win,’ ” Julia says.
“Why not just say ‘win’? Is longer to say ‘W.’ ”
“Just go with it, Vera.” Julia sighs, gently turning Vera around to face her store. “Now, come on and unlock the place so we can all have some tea. The others will join us soon.”
Even as she says this, Vera spots Tilly’s fancy car parking up across the street. Oliver is riding shotgun, and Riki and Sana are waving at them from the back window. Happiness floods Vera’s chest. She looks at the crowd—well, it is technically only three strangers, but as they say, three is a crowd—then at Julia and Emma, and Oliver, Sana, Riki, and of course, Tilly. She looks up at the sign that says:VERA WANG’S WORLD-FAMOUS TEAHOUSE. How funny that she used to long for her shop to be world-famous, when what she needed all along was a family like the one she now has. She slides the key into the lock and opens the door.
She turns to the crowd behind her and smiles. “Come in! What you all waiting for?”
Vera Wang’s World-Famous Teahouse is open forbusiness.