Five
TJ
It’s been a rough morning for TJ. Though, come to think of it, TJ can’t remember the last time mornings weren’t rough. But this one has been particularly unpleasant. He’s pretty sure Robin genuinely hates him by now, not just the typical I hate everything that comes with puberty but actual, specific hatred directed toward him. And TJ can’t blame her. He takes a few deep breaths in his car and immediately regrets it. When was the last time he cleaned this thing? Smells like something’s died in here. With a sigh, he climbs out. He gives another sigh when he sees the office in front of him. When he first started up his firm over a year ago, he’d been so hopeful, practically skipping all the way from the parking lot to the front door and greeting his employees with a hearty “Good morning.” Now he dreads seeing them.
Somehow, TJ manages to trudge to the front door. A sign on the window says, TJ Vasquez Talent Management . TJ wants to lolsob every time he sees it now. He can’t even manage his own life. He braces himself before pushing the door open.
Elsie looks up from her desk and says, “Hi, boss.”
“Hi, Elsie. How’re you feeling today?”
Elsie pats her pregnant belly and smiles. “This one was treating my bladder like a soccer ball all of last night, but other than that, I’m good.”
TJ returns the smile. Elsie is having a girl. He’s sure she’ll be a way better parent than he is. Robin would probably agree. There are two other agents working at TJV Talent—Kit and Lomax—and they’re both at their desks scrolling through their phones. TJ greets them as he walks by but doesn’t stop to chat. He’s the only one who has an office, and he can’t wait to get inside so he can slump over his desk and close his mind off to the world. As soon as the door shuts behind him, TJ sags, the breath hissing out of him as though he were a sad, deflating balloon.
Who would’ve thought that just one single teen could ruin his entire career? But then, TJ thinks, there’s a reason why they’re called influencers. Because they influence. And anyway, it was his fault. He should’ve seen the whole mess coming. Then there was the horrible thing with Xander. TJ had barely been able to keep it together when the cops came to talk to him. He wonders, for the millionth time, how much longer he can keep the business up and running before he has to close up shop and leave Elsie, Kit, and Lomax unemployed.
A knock at TJ’s door makes him jump. He hurries to his chair, sits down with a straight back, and places his hands on his desk. Then he takes his hands off his desk and places them on his lap. After a moment, he places his right hand on his desk. Then he says, “Come in.”
The door opens. Kit and Lomax stand in the doorway, carrying a contraption that looks like a sex toy that a very adventurous couple might use on their wedding night. “Hey, TJ, we got something for you,” Lomax says. Lomax dropped out of high school junior year and, since then, bounced from job to job until TJ hired him. TJ likes him. He likes all three of his employees. They’re all good kids.
“Whatever it is you’ve got there, I think I would prefer you leave it outside,” TJ says.
Kit narrows her eyes. “Why? What do you think it is?”
TJ clears his throat, not quite meeting Kit in the eye. Kit had spent a couple of years in a correctional facility, and it shows. She’s tough and sharp as hell, and TJ is maybe a little terrified of her sometimes, but she’s still a good kid at heart. He thinks.
“Oh my god,” Kit says. “You think it’s a sex toy, don’t you?”
“No!” TJ says.
“That is some kinky shit, boss,” Lomax says.
“I wasn’t—”
“How would this even work as a sex toy?” Kit says.
“Well, there’s that bulbous thing on the end,” TJ mumbles.
“This is a neck and shoulder massager,” Kit says flatly.
“Oh.” TJ sets his mouth in a thin line. “A neck and shoulder massager. Yeah, of course, I can see that.”
At that, both Kit and Lomax burst out laughing. “It’s totally a sex toy,” Lomax says. “I don’t even know what it does. We got it off a site named WeirdSexToys.com.”
TJ buries his face in his hands and groans. “This is so inappropriate. Get outta here and do your work.”
They linger in the doorway, the laughter melting from their faces. “We’re here if you need to talk about shit,” Kit says, her face shining with earnestness.
TJ’s heart cracks open. If the business were to fold, what would happen to Kit, Lomax, and Elsie? The world would only see an ex-con, a high school dropout, and a single mother-to-be. They’re unhirable. Though maybe he should focus on his own shit, because it’s not like people would be scrambling to hire him either. “Thanks. I really appreciate that,” he says. “Now, please get that thing outta here.”
“Aye, aye,” Kit says, saluting with the terrible dildo. As they turn to leave, she adds, “By the way, there’s some old lady here to see you.”
TJ frowns. “What’s her name?”
“Vera Wang.”
The Vera Wang? TJ’s eyebrows practically disappear into his hairline. His hairline, which he’s noticed is slightly receding, just because life hasn’t been hard enough for him lately. But maybe things are about to look up for TJ. Why else would Vera Wang be here, if not to look for a new talent manager? TJ rises from his seat, then lowers himself again. Shouldn’t look overly eager. He clears his throat and says, “Send her in.” His voice comes out squeaky with excitement.
But the woman who strides in is very much not Vera Wang. She looks the opposite of Vera Wang, in fact, with a cloud of gray hair hidden under a visor so large it might as well be an umbrella, and is pulling along a foldable shopping cart behind her.
TJ gapes at her. “Who are you?”
“Vera Wong. I told your assistant. She didn’t tell you?”
TJ bites the inside of his cheek to keep from groaning out loud. Of course he would get the knockoff Vera Wang. He takes a deep breath and refocuses on the old lady. “Right, sorry. Are you…looking for representation?”
The old woman cocks her head to one side. “Representation? No, no, my son is lawyer. If I need representation, I go to him. Even though he will say conflict of interesting, but in the end he will represent me because he is a good boy.”
It takes TJ a moment to digest what she’s just said. Then the penny drops. “Oh, you think I’m a lawyer. I didn’t mean that kind of representation. I’m a talent manager.”
“What? What is that? Why would talent have to be manage?” Then she utters a small gasp of understanding. “Ohhh, you mean like that Kim Kardashian girl and her mom? Her mama is her momager. Like that?”
TJ is about to say no when he considers it. “Sort of, yes. I do most things for my clients, including booking them shows, coming up with collaborations for them, marketing and publicity, all that good stuff. But hang on, if you’re not here looking for a manager, then why—”
“Oh yes, I come here to ask you about Xander Lin.” The old woman rummages in her shopping cart and takes out a notebook.
And of course the knockoff Vera Wang is here to interrogate him about Xander. TJ’s neck and shoulders, which had only just begun to relax a few minutes ago, immediately knot up. He swallows to make sure his voice comes out even. “What about him?”
“Well, he is your client, right?”
“He was. I heard the news of his passing. Are you—was he of relation to you?” Did that come out sounding as awkward as he thinks? God, he’s bad at this.
“I think I ask the questions around here, young man.”
How could TJ have seen this woman as a kindly old lady? She’s obviously someone far more dangerous. An undercover cop. Yes, that’s got to be it. And at her age, she’s probably one of the more senior and most experienced cops they have. Which is why they’ve sent her to talk to him, because they know what he did—
Stop it! TJ mentally shouts at himself. Stop. Spiraling. You’re always doing that. Just stop.
He pulls at the collar of his shirt. “Uh, okay? What—uh, what would you like to know?”
“Well, I want to know what really happen to him,” she says, emphasizing “really” in a way that makes TJ’s pores open and start sweating. “But maybe you can start by telling me how you come to know Xander.”
“Okay.” TJ thinks fast. “Well, like you said earlier, Xander Lin was my client. I represent social media influencers. When an influencer gets over three hundred thousand followers on TikTok or one hundred thousand followers on Instagram, I reach out to them and ask if they would like representation. Sometimes they say yes, sometimes they say no. That’s usually how it works in this business.”
“So, you reach out to Xander Lin and offer to representing him, and he say yes?”
TJ nods.
“How long ago?”
TJ has no idea if the answer he gives would incriminate him or not, so in the end, he fudges it a little. “Three months ago. Maybe. I can’t remember. I have a lot of clients.” A complete and utter lie.
Vera’s shrewd eyes laser into him as though she can read the guilty thoughts scurrying through his head.
“And what was Xander like?”
“Polite,” TJ says immediately. Was that a good answer to give? It was true, to a point. Xander was polite until he was very much not. “A hard worker.”
“Mm,” Vera grunts as she scribbles in her notebook. “That not saying much about him. What else?”
“I mean…to tell you the truth, I didn’t know him that well.” That’s sort of true. The best lies all have a grain of truth in them, don’t they? “In fact, I never even met him in person.”
Vera’s head snaps up. “You never meet him? Aiya, how can? You are his manager, but you don’t even care to spend time with him?”
“This is how things work in the industry,” TJ says. Too defensive , he thinks. He must reek of guilt. But he’s not lying about this. He hasn’t met most of his clients. But maybe that’s the whole problem. That’s why he’s in this mess now. Because when it comes down to it, who are all of these people he’s representing? And what a word—“represent.” Such a heavy one, and yet he’s rarely stopped to think about it. What they do reflects on him, and vice versa. So much trust placed in each other, and yet they are in effect strangers.
“Oh, if I am in industry, it would not be how it works,” Vera says smartly, and TJ believes her. “You never meet with Xander, so how you contact each other?”
“Mostly over email and text. Occasionally, if there is a significant offer being made, I would make a phone call, but you know young people nowadays, they’re allergic to calls.”
“Not the young people I know,” Vera says, and again, TJ believes her. If there’s anyone who could make a young person pick up their phone, it would be this surprisingly terrifying old lady in front of him. “So, what kind of deal you get for Xander?”
“Let me think.” Again, that question running through his head: What can I tell her? What can’t I? “A couple of sponsorship deals. One was with a local IPA, and another was with a sneaker company. Then there were the collabs.”
“What is collabs?”
TJ can’t figure out if she really doesn’t know what a collab is or if she’s testing him. “They’re collaboration deals between two or more promising influencers. I reach out to my other clients or other influencers who I think might work well together and ask if they want to do a few posts with each other. That way, you hit both audiences with one shot. It’s a great way to get more exposure.”
“I see. Like networking.”
“Yeah, exactly.” Then it hits TJ that he really, really shouldn’t have told Vera about collaborations. Oh my god, he really is bad at this. But then again, she probably knew the entire time what they were since she’s an undercover cop. Or maybe she’s the FBI. He can see that. But then, wouldn’t she have flashed her badge at him? The FBI does that a lot. They’re like that proverbial Harvard grad—how can you find out if a guy went to Harvard? You don’t, he’ll tell you within five minutes of meeting you. The FBI’s like that, right? In all the movies, they talk to someone—anyone—and first thing they do is show their badge. TJ doesn’t blame them. If he were an FBI agent, he’d do the same. And it would probably annoy the hell out of Robin. He can practically see her rolling her eyes and saying, “Okay, Dad, no one’s impressed.” Why is he thinking about this right now when he should be thinking about what a massive mistake it was talking to this woman?
“Anyway, I have a lot of work to do, so…”
“Oh yes, young people are so busy nowadays.” But she doesn’t make a move to leave. Instead, she rummages once more in her shopping cart and lifts a couple of containers out. “Claypot rice with Chinese sausage and mushrooms, and this one is crispy roasted pork belly. I cook for my family, but you looking like you need it more.”
“I can’t possibly—”
But already she’s opened one of the containers, and the smell that wafts out is so delicious that TJ’s brain zaps his mouth shut. And fills it with saliva. Shut up and eat , his brain tells his entire body, and TJ finds himself reaching out and picking up a piece of roasted pork belly. The skin is crunchy and salty, and the meat is juicy, and it is quite possibly the best thing TJ has ever put in his mouth. His eyes close, and a sound that’s almost scandalous comes out of him.
“Don’t forget to share with your colleagues,” Vera says.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” TJ mumbles through a mouth full of delicious pork. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I will be back. I bring more food next time.”
Yay , goes TJ’s stomach. Nooo , goes his survival instincts. He can only watch helplessly as Vera marches out of his office, her foldable shopping cart trundling along behind her.