Page 61 of All the Right Words
Brenda swept out of the cubicle, and Gina followed her. Gina didn’t understand how she could look completely normal now. Perhaps the meltdown had done her some good.
Gina had to admit that Brenda had a point. Gina was scared of emotion. Who wasn’t? It was scary stuff. She wondered if it was the real reason she’d given up on writing. Had it really been the scrapped deal that had finished her? Or was it the work, what it connected you with?
Gina would have liked to escape the emotional rigamarole and live in a flat, grey landscape. Like a psychopath. One of the non-violent ones. She could go and work in banking, make a ton of money while she was up to her tits in coke and not give a shit. It would be fantastic. And she wouldn’t care what she’d done with Harper. She’d have done a lot worse. She might even be with her now, not caring who it hurt—just taking exactly what she wanted.
Then again, Harper might have had something to say about that. She’d made her choice. She was standing next to that choice this very second, having a lovely time.
Gina was less than thrilled to go back to the reading to see them together, but if Olivia kept her word, this was it. The final few hours of painful interaction. She knew she was behaving like a child by ignoring Harper. But she didn’t see another way to be in the same room as her anymore. Damn that woman and her lips. They’d ruined her life as much as anything else had.
Thirty-Six
Harper was relieved to see Brenda walk back in, looking calmer. Gina was quick to peel off from her as they entered, going off to put out some other fire, no doubt.
Harper wondered if Brenda had thrown her customary breakdown. She did it every launch, every reading. Many’s the time Harper had awkwardly patted her back while she’d cried in a toilet just before it was time to face her public. That job may have landed on Gina’s slender shoulders tonight. Harper sometimes thought her actual job was running a writer’s creche. And she wasn’t even that good at it. Yet more evidence Harper was in the wrong career.
Brenda approached breezily. ‘Right then, is it go time? Because I’m hot.’
Harper examined her. ‘Temperature-wise or…?’
‘I’m in thezone,’ Brenda said with a tut.
‘Let me just find Olivia. She’s going to MC you,’ Harper said, looking around. She spotted her having a quiet yet tense discussion with a guy across the room. She was brandishing something small in her hand that Harper couldn’t make out.
‘I think I’m just gonna let her finish up her conversation,’ Harper said.
‘Well, I wanna go in the next five minutes,’ Brenda said. ‘I’m primed.’
Harper nodded. ‘I’m on it.’
Luckily, Olivia broke off the conversation seconds later and came through the bustling crowd to them. ‘That bloody caterer,’ Olivia snarled. ‘I’m taking him off the vendor list. Blacklisting him, in fact.’ She held up the item that she had been waiving at the man. ‘Cheese and pineapple on sticks? It’s not a ten-year-old's birthday party!’
Harper was surprised that Olivia would be holding pineapple in her hand, considering her allergy. But the itchiness was possibly confined to her consuming the stuff.
‘Olivia, I want to read now, so can we get cracking?’ Brenda demanded.
Olivia forced a smile. ‘Sure.’
And then Olivia did a truly astonishing thing. She popped the cheese and pineapple in her mouth, chewed, swallowed, and said, ‘Right. I’ll do your intro.’ She walked off like she hadn’t done anything strange. And itwasstrange. What the hell was Olivia thinking? She was going to break out in hives!
Olivia went to a mic stand next to a stool and began to talk to the room. But Harper wasn’t listening to her. She wondered if she should find a chemist and buy whatever cream would ease the suffering that Olivia had thoughtlessly inflicted on herself. Why had she done it? Had she forgotten? That didn’t make sense. If Harper remembered it and she’d only been told once, how had Olivia, thesufferer, forgotten?
Olivia addressed the crowd with enthusiasm. ‘Hi everyone, thanks for coming. I know you’re all excited for a taste of Brenda’s new work - and rightly so. Brenda’s written some fantastic books for us at Parker, but this book is Brenda at the absolute top of her game, and we can’t wait to share the finished book with you later in the year. Until then, please welcome Brenda Kildare to share her first two chapters.’
Brenda accepted her applause with a smile, and Olivia stood to the side while she took her seat, collecting the pages left for her on a small table. ‘The woman in grey sat patiently in the café across from a bad hotel, the kind built for afternoon liaisons. She was waiting for a particular someone to come out. And if they did, she knew one thing. She would have to do a terrible thing...’
Harper tried to listen, but she was watching Olivia. Awaiting a scratch or shuffle or a twitch, some sign of a skin eruption. But as Olivia stood listening, she was happy as Larry. Not a solitary indication of discomfort.
***
The reading lasted about fifteen minutes. When it was over, everyone clapped while Brenda preened. She left the stage regretfully, and Olivia followed her back to Harper. ‘How was that?’ Brenda asked Harper.
Harper had barely taken in a word. ‘Riveting.’
Brenda beamed. ‘It went alright, didn’t it?’
‘It certainly did,’ Olivia jumped in. ‘It’s gonna be a hit. I know that much.’ She turned to Harper. ‘Harper?’
‘Umm, yeah. No doubt at all,’ Harper said. Valid words, but she put no feeling into them because she was still thinking about the pineapple.
