Page 11 of Except Emerson (Detroit ABCs #7)

“Y ou know how I’ve been saying that things feel wrong?

Like, I was complaining that the sun wasn’t as bright, maybe due to some kind of solar storm?

And I said that I wasn’t sleeping well and I was tired all the time, and that could have been a reaction to the new mattress.

Also, I was always getting tearful and it must have been because of your dander and an adult-onset allergy. Remember?”

Coral looked at me balefully, but I pressed on.

“That was how I felt in the nightclub,” I told her. “It was off. Wrong. And I could be wrong now, too, but I’m fairly certain that Levi’s friend August was asking me if I would be willing to do something with their books that I wasn’t supposed to. Cook them,” I clarified.

She hissed and I figured she’d had enough.

But who else was I supposed to tell? Hernán would have been upset, because one of the things I’d gleaned from our many conversations (lectures) was he was very serious about integrity and honesty.

I also knew that his daughter’s important job included a level of government security clearance, of which he was very proud.

He wouldn’t have wanted to be mixed up in anything that might have, even peripherally, threatened her success.

Anyway, the two of us didn’t talk about anything personal—or, I didn’t.

I knew all about his divorce, how he’d struggled financially in its aftermath and how much he missed his ex-wife and blamed himself for their break-up.

I knew about the health problems of his parents, about his daughter’s last few boyfriends, and about his own fears that he would struggle with aging and that Lucía would end up as lonely as he was.

But me? No, I hadn’t shared in the same way. There just wasn’t much to tell.

I had talked to Levi after my interview with his friend had concluded.

I’d tapped him on the shoulder, signaling that it was time to go, and he’d helped me up the horrendously long set of stairs.

“I won’t be taking on August and this club as a client,” I’d stated when we were back outside on the dirty sidewalk.

“Why? Did he come off badly just now? He’s ok,” Levi had told me.

I didn’t say more until we were in the car. “Is that guy up to something sketchy?”

“What?” He’d seemed slightly startled, but he hadn’t automatically said “no.” Instead, he’d asked, “Why did you say that?”

“Does he have the proper licenses for the club? You said that its appearance on the street was a ‘cover.’”

“I only meant that he was making it seem like a speakeasy to be a hook for guests,” he answered.

“He hides how it looks underground so that they feel like they’re doing something secret.

But I don’t know about his licensure and I never thought to ask.

Does that matter if you’re only doing his books? ”

“Is he selling drugs down there? Promoting prostitution? He could also be laundering money,” I mused.

“I don’t think he’s doing any of that. Why are you saying these things?”

I explained the same thing that I later said to Coral: I thought that August had been asking me to do something illegal. Levi was more interested in the story than the cat had just been, but he was very doubtful.

“He’s successful, which doesn’t mean he’s a criminal,” he told me.

But it might have. “How well do you know him?” I asked.

He explained again how they had hung out in the pretty park together when they both should have been in class, and how they’d been friends ever since.

He didn’t know much about August’s current business except that it was profitable, based on the car that the guy now drove and the house he lived in.

Then Levi had gotten quiet and when he’d dropped me off, he hadn’t said anything about our reciprocal deal of me helping him develop and pursue life goals and him being my friend.

Later, I had looked up business licenses for the address of the nightclub, and there was nothing. But I had found that his old friend August had served time. It was only brief and it was for relatively minor stuff, but there it was.

“It’s another thing that doesn’t speak well of Levi,” I mentioned to Coral. “This is the kind of person he chooses to associate with?” She ran off into the other room and got under the bed to hide, so the conversation really was over.

Another thing that didn’t speak well of him, in my opinion, was his absence.

I was supposed to be his career and financial coach…

well, we had never really set that in stone.

He had vaguely agreed to come over, but he’d never directly said yes to it.

I’d poured over our conversations, which I’d transcribed onto my laptop.

I couldn’t find a place where he’d stated, “Yes! I want to be part of a productive relationship in which I end up as a professional, successful, law-abiding participant in society and you get stable relationship bonds.” He hadn’t communicated anything like that affirmative statement.

Lately, I hadn’t heard much from him and, of course, this was how men acted. They forgot to text, they forgot to call, and they forgot you. Once you were out of sight, you were often out of mind. I had been out of Grant’s mind. When he was with his boys, for example—

My phone chirped since I left the notifications on all the time now. I heard and Hernán across the hall probably had, too, because I’d turned to volume way up. I grabbed it to see who had texted me.

“Hi! This is Ava Blanchette. I hope you don’t mind that I got your number.”

She’d gotten it from her brother Levi, she meant, because I was willing to bet that she didn’t know the owner of the party store or any of my other work clients. I doubted that any of the doctors I’d visited would have given it up or the bill collectors, either.

“I was wondering if you’re free later today,” she sent next. “We’re having a cocktail party at six at my house and I’d love for you to come.”

Well! Who needed Levi? I could make a friend in another way.

“I know this is last minute,” Ava continued, “so don’t worry if you have other plans.”

When she’d gotten my number from her brother, he must have kept to himself all the things I’d told him about being desperate and pathetic, which I had been sorry to reread in the transcript.

I’d admitted to being sad and lonely, too, in need of relationships and human bonds, and here was my chance.

I waited a beat, though, before I replied.

“Sure,” I told her, “thank you. I’d love to come.

” Was that too eager? I sent it anyway, and she wrote back immediately that she was glad and also gave me her address.

Then she told me that Levi no longer lived with her—actually, she conveyed that information a lot more casually.

“I’m spending the day cleaning,” she said. “Now I can put all the toys down in the basement again. It’s back to being a play space for the kids and not a temp apartment for my brother. I’m sure you already know that he moved into his own place.”

I hadn’t heard that but again, I hadn’t heard much from him lately. She said she’d see me soon and that was it, no additional information about Levi or where he’d gone.

I had a lot of time before the party was supposed to start, and I occupied myself with cleaning my apartment, working to open the window, planning my outfit, and finally, taking a walk around the neighborhood.

I wanted to get just the right amount of exercise so that I was loosened up but not tired out.

I wanted my outfit to be just right, too, so I tried to replicate what the wife of Grant’s best friend would have worn.

He’d always told me how great Vivienne looked, how she knew exactly what looked good.

“Why don’t you dress like that?” he often asked me after we’d seen that couple, which had been all the time.

Lance came from a very wealthy background, which meant that he had cool stuff.

For a wedding present, his parents had given him and Vivienne a house with a big back yard and a pool (although it wasn’t really necessary because he also had a job with their company, so he could have bought it for himself).

They also had free use of all the family vacation homes and Grant and I had tagged along on many trips to those, as well as on excursions on their yacht.

They were the reason I’d needed to get my first passport, which had involved a major issue with my birth certificate.

Anyway, I picked out what I thought Vivienne would wear, as close an approximation as I could get because all her clothes had been designer stuff and mine weren’t.

The dress I chose didn’t fit exactly right when I tried it on, mostly because I’d lost weight after the car accident and my breasts had suffered.

I looked kind of scrawny and as if I was wearing hand-me-downs, but I could do a little stuffing to improve the bust area.

Unfortunately, there were more issues…like my skin.

It was pale and tinged with grey, the same problem I’d noticed with my hair.

I searched in the boxes I’d recently opened on my hunt for makeup and I found a bottle of self-tanner that was almost totally full.

I’d only used it once before, and I vaguely remembered being pleased with the results.

Were the expirations on these products real?

The makeup had been ok, despite having dates were well outside the time frames listed on the packages.

I still had a few hours until the party, so I carefully applied the tanner and when it seemed dry enough, I put on the dress. Hernán, of course, heard me leaving, and he came out to see what I was up to.

“? Qué bonita !” he said, squinting a little to offset his poor eyesight. “I like that dress and I’m glad you left your hair down. Do you want me to send a picture to Lucía for confirmation?”