Page 19 of Brooklynaire
“Thank you, Bingley,” I say, biting back a smile. I can’t imagine where Nate finds the time to dream this shit up. But talking to Bingley in Nate’s mansion is more fun than I’ve had in awhile.
“So.” Nate rubs his hands together. “Bingley controls the security system. Tonight, when Mrs. Gray leaves, all you have to do is ask him to lock the place up. He’ll take care of everything. And if you leave the house, he’ll let you back in. Bingley—take Rebecca’s fingerprint,please.”
The screen lights up. “Miss Rebecca, deign to place your fair finger on the screen.” There’s a glowing circle in the middle of the screen to guide me. I put my index finger there, and Bingley makes a noise of approval. “Please choose a four-digit number,miss.”
“7854,” I tellhim.
Bingley repeats it back to me, and Nate smiles. “Something to know—the keypad on the front door uses both your fingerprint and the number code. The fingerprint is sufficient, but if anyone is watching you enter the code, he won’t know that the fingerprintmatters.”
“We can’t have highwaymen snatching you off the street for your fingerprint,” Bingley says with more glee than a computer should be able tomanage.
“That’s disturbing.” Nate flinches. “Quiet,Bingley.”
“Nate, we don’t have to do this,” I argue. “I can just go homeand…”
“Hey!” he holds up a hand to stop me. “Let’s just try it. You need the rest. Don’t argue or I’ll upload Bingley to your phone and get him to nag your family into giving you morepeace.”
Knowing Nate, he’d actually follow through. “But I don’t have my thingshere…”
“It’ll be taken care of.” He heads toward the door. “I’ve got to run or Lauren will flay me alive for fucking up the afternoon schedule. Mrs. Gray will make you dinner before she leaves.Later!”
“Goodbye, Nate,” Bingley calls. “You’re a prince among men! You’re smarter than BillGates!”
I choke out a goodbye as well, but I’m not sure Nate can hear it through mylaughter.
After he leaves, I kick off my sneakers and sit down on the big L-shaped sofa to try to think. Staying with Nate isn’t a viable option. I don’t want toimpose.
The sofa is super comfortable, though. It’s upholstered in a deep red velvet, and the seat is so generous that my feet don’t touch thefloor.
I tuck my legs up under me and consider my options. This takes about thirty seconds, since I don’t have many options. 1. Stay, and do everything Nate says, so at least he knows I’m nottryingto be such a helpless dope. 2. Go home and recommence trying to pretend that my whole world isn’t crumbling right to theground.
I’m not used to feeling so scattered. Yet there’s no need to stay at Nate’s. I’m not Jane Bennet inPride and Prejudice, swooning at Netherfield for days and days because of catching acold.
Usually I’m the sort of girl who handles whatever life throws at her. When my father died suddenly, I dropped out of college and took a job at Nate’s fledgling company. I helped my mother cope with her sudden widowhood. And just when she started doing better, my sister had some issues. I’d helped her pay for the college education that I never got to finish. And then, when she had a baby and lost her apartment, I stepped inagain.
That’s how I’m supposed to be. The kind of person who just handles things. But I’m not handling this. It’s not going well. I don’t know what to do, and the constant worry has gotten me nowhere sofar.
The old Rebecca wouldn’t be sitting here curled up on the sofa, my head growing heavier with exhaustion. I’ll just close my eyes for a moment. The house is so quiet. Nate was right aboutthat.
Somewhere downstairs Mrs. Gray is whistling to herself. It’s the last thing I hear before sleep takesme.
5
Six Years Earlier
Kattenberger Technologies is a peaceable kingdom.Mostly.
Fair Rebecca quickly becomes the de facto ruler of the castle, while our prince is busy reinventing the mobile web for the twenty-firstcentury.
Rebecca’s job is to provision the fiefdom, which now spans an entire renovated floor of the midtown office building. It is she who orders the ergonomic office chairs for each new employee. (And there are many of these.) She makes the travel arrangements and keeps the espresso machine stocked with high-quality coffeeproducts.
She’s hung a sign on the wall over the machine, too: LIVED ON DECAF, FACED NO DEVIL. It is a palindrome, of course. Nate beams when he notices it. “You are priceless,” he says, and she glows, because not many people impressNate.
Sure, any asshole can do a web search for palindromes and memorize:Not a banana baton!The real style points are earned from sneaking them intoconversation.
In addition to organizing their fiefdom, Rebecca is also Nate’s sentry at the gate. Everybody wants a piece of the boy wonder—financial gurus, corporate titans, Nobel Prize-winning innovators. She guards his calendar and his sanity. Only then can our prince have the peace he needs to reign over the digitalworld.
Our Rebecca is not a ruthless taskmaster. She knows when to use swordsmanship and when to be the court jester. One Friday afternoon in March, Rebecca patrols the borderlands, making sure all is well in the kingdom before the weekend officiallybegins.
