Then emit a sigh.
The thing is, I have no idea how I can help Bess with her current situation, which makes me feel utterly powerless when I desperately want to be magnificent with usefulness.
I glance at Mistral over my shoulder, then away again.
Perhaps this is all I have.
Fuck it.
"You know, ah, she needs more of it to happen? Selling her art."
Mistral pulls her head back into her neck in an "obviously" gesture. "Well of course she does. It validates her artistic message."
"No. I mean sheneedsit, as in if it doesn't sell more, she risks losing her business."
She stops typing and turns to face me. "What do you mean? She's never sold any of her art before and it hasn't been a problem."
"Right. Well, it's about to be." I scratch my ear. "The co-owner of the building is threatening to raise the rent to market rates in a month, which will affect everyone who sells art there, works there, or lives there, as the rate will be too high for anyone to afford."
Mistral's mouth drops open. "You're kidding."
"As humble as I am, I reckon my quality of joke-making tends to be a little higher on the laugh scale than the hilarities of economic ruin."
Sensibly ignoring my sarcasm, she says, "But. That gallery is her life. She's using it to help this community, not just for her own benefit."
"I know."
"So, why is he being a bully about it?"
I shrug my shoulders even though I can give her an answer. "Desperate measures. He now needs to make money off an investment he'd set up charitably. When you come from big, and risk big, you lose big."
Mistral purses her lips and peers through the front doors at the gallery and café across the road. When she finally speaks, her voice is distant, thoughtful. "I guess we'll just have to play big, too."
I mean.
It's what needs to happen. But Theodore Pinkerton is not the only one gambling here.
I've thrown my dice onto the table when I actually have no idea what Mistral is capable of. All I can hope is that I've put my money on the right horse.
I attempt to take control of the reins. “What would a hard dox look like?”
Chapter twelve
Ed
IttakesMistralonetrolley of reshelving, two assists at the self-checkout machine, three information queries, four reserve pickups and two cups of tea to come up with the master plan.
It takes me approximately three quarters of a second to reject it.
"It's foolproof," she says with the conviction of someone who doesn't actually understand the literal meaning of the word.
"How on earth is me forging more wartime love letters 'foolproof'?"
"Did you see how phenomenally viral the video of her reading the first love letter was? It was fully bigger than any of her BookToks."
"So?"
"So, if we hard dox her and completely out her as the artist responsible for the feminist artandkeep up the momentum of the letter TikTok, she's guaranteed of selling her art, because her reach and her fanbase will be so much wider. She can even hike up the prices, because she'll have limited supply to meet demand."
