Talia laughs with a hint of disbelief behind it. “And how’s that working out?”
“Everything that we’re doing is for the benefit of our careers, so it’s great,” I say, swallowing down a bite. “We have our trip to Florida and Texas at the end of the month. I’m hopeful that an idea will come to me in time for the first installation. I don’t want to continue having to re-create things I’ve done in the past. That is not what NASA is paying me for.”
“I have an auction update, but when I say this, don’t freak out,” she starts.
I break out in a full body sweat. “Never start sentences like that! What is it?”
“The auction is being moved up by two months. It’s now happening on January twenty-third,” Talia says, glancing up at me to gauge my reaction.
My spoon pierces through the puff pastry, sending crumbs all over the velvet. It’s looking more like a real pastry by the second. I try to wipe the flakes off, but they bounce in place. “No! That’s theday of my first showcase! We needed to use that exposure to drive sales of portraits. Hopefully get some more shows in local galleries and museums. Maybe even some private commissions on a larger scale.” I roll the ball of yarn for Sprinkles’s sweater back and forth across the width of the couch. “Now what?”
“Will NASA be posting behind-the-scenes photos on social media of your suit-ups?” Talia asks. “Without your face in them, obviously. Maybe that will remind people that the idea of you exists. That art is on the way.”
I pull up their Instagram feed and scroll through recent posts. “There are a few pictures here and there, though that’s clearly not helping much. Do you know the range of what the auction house thinks it’ll sell for yet?”
“I spoke to someone, and they’re estimating that it could be double or triple what it sold for last,” Talia says, doing an admirable job of remaining calm. “There’s a resurgence in video art interest.”
I balk. “They think it could be twenty to thirty thousand dollars? I won’t have that in three months. NASA gave me half of my payment up front, but that plus my savings won’t cover it. I have fourteen thousand right now.”
“I’ve doubled the price of your commission pieces now that you have NASA to your name. That’s been a draw when I tell people. I’m featuring your work in our next newsletter. Can you create more pieces to have ready for when your showcase happens?” Talia asks. She lifts the half-formed sleeve of Sprinkles’s sweater. “Think there’s a market for hand-knitted animal clothing?”
A small laugh escapes my lips. “Don’t tempt me,” I say, a capsule collection of pet knitwear already forming in my mind. The joke helps relieve some tension, but the stress returns when I attempt to do mental math. “My prices weren’t very high to begin with, but raising prices could still help. I need more collaborations and showswith other museums, if possible. Maybe more pressure is what I need to jump-start my inspiration. In the meantime, more string cats and dogs.”
“Once the first showcase happens, you’re going to explode.” Talia gestures with her hands for effect. “People need to see what you’re about first.”
“Right now I’m all about my past work,” I mumble. “I’m not going to be able to buy this piece back, am I?”
Talia pats my knee. “It’s going to be great. It’ll work out. We got this. Don’t lose hope. Ideas are going to overflow on the trip, and you’ll come back to LA reenergized and reinspired. Especially since you’re going with Jack,” she says, wiggling her eyebrows. She’s trying to comfort me by using Jack’s name and it’s kind of working, even with her insinuations.
“Talia! Jack is, well, I don’t know what Jack is. My liaison. Some might even call him a colleague. A coworker.” I move the spoon back and forth in the dish. Eating is the last thing I want to do right now. I need to get back to work.
Talia throws her head back. “Oh, please! He’s hardly either of those things. Your situation is different than if he was someone you met at the office. You knew him in a different way before working together ever came into the picture.”
“Maybe us meeting in New York was so that we would ultimately come together now. Maybe it was never meant to be romantic,” I say, not fully believing my own words. “Our belief systems about love are different, too. It’s not that I was expecting my stringmate to believe in the Red Thread of Fate, too, but maybe being open to the idea that there’s something bigger at play would be nice? At least some common ground there?”
“You believe it. Isn’t that what matters?” she says, setting her empty pie dish on the glass coffee table in front of us. “But also, as afellow Red Threader, I completely get it. That pull, that feeling, the signs, that can matter, too.”
I nod, feeling seen in her validation.
Talia makes a face and pokes at her pie. I can tell she has more thoughts.
“It’s too weird, right? Jack and I finding each other again,” I say. “Ever since that night, I feel like I can’t get a good read on any of the signs. What do you think it means that Jack and I were lost to each other?”
Talia considers this. She opens her mouth and then closes it. Then she shakes her head and says, “You know what? Forget being neutral. Your fated night in New York? The party? And let’s not forget how he kissed you…”
“I know!” I bury my face in my hands. “Believe me, I’ve thought about that night every which way. Broke it down, tried desperately to understand what it all meant. But it was six hours! That’s hardly any time to make big, important life decisions,” I justify. Who was the last man I spent that much time with? No one comes to mind. “It’s not like we didn’t want to stay in touch. He gave me his number, and who knows where we’d be right now if I had typed in his number correctly. It’s pointless to speculate because the fact remains that it didn’t work out.”
“But you like him,” Talia replies. I can’t tell if it’s a question or a comment.
“Of course I like Jack. Ever since New York I’ve liked him,” I admit. It’s the first time I’m saying this out loud. Thoughts can remain in my head without consequence, but now they exist in the world. Like with everything else in my life, it’s easier to stay in hiding and keep emotions like these concealed.
Talia reaches for Sprinkles’s sweater and gives it a little stretch. “You’re happy when you’re around him. Carefree in a way I’ve neverseen before, especially with your entire life hidden from the public and most people. I think you’re in too deep, but you don’t even know it.”
“Like how if you’re on the moon, you can’t see its phases,” I say, testing out another forest replacement idiom for Jack.
“Totally,” Talia says. “You’re too close to the situation. That’s probably why everything’s confusing.”
I groan. “Jack knows practically everything about me, and I’ve only known him for, collectively, eight weeks, five days, and one night. Less if you count the time we’ve actually spent together. There’s too much at stake for us both for me to follow a thread. Especially if it leads nowhere. And especially because we go back to New York in ten months.”
