In the corner of my eye, I could see the flight attendant hovering behind the curtain that separated the staff area from my area. Eavesdropping, or waiting to see if she needed to bring tissues and a chocolate croissant (sourced from my bakery, of course)? Either way, she was being unprofessional. She should have been out of sight. When I told Captain Ted about this, she’d be fired.
No. She didn’t deserve to be fired for making one mistake. I’d make sure to tell him to have her be more careful in the future. That was what New Pom did. Old Pom wouldn’t have cared, but New Pom had a heart for all the little people.
Gabe cleared his throat in response. “I don’t know, Pom. Sometimes I hear you talking about things and it’s like a foreign language to me. Like I’ve never even considered the things you’re talking about, and not in a good way. It’s like you’re fluent in Swahili and I’m trying to muddle along in English. I feel like everybody’s laughing at me behind my back all the time because I don’t know all these secret rules that you apparently learned in prep school while I was in algebra figuring out whatxwas.”
I didn’t think I’d ever figured out whatxwas. An eternal mystery. “You’ll learn,” I assured him. “Just look at Kevin Miller. He’s one of us now. And Jessica, she’s getting there. It’s been a really long time since she told anyone she bought whatever she was wearing on sale like it’s some kind of achievement. It takes some time, sure, but you’re with me, and I’m a master.”
Gabe was quiet for a moment. “But what if I don’twantto be one of you?”
It was my turn to blink, uncomprehending. “Why wouldn’t you want to be one of us? Gabe, we’re flying in a private jet rightnow, returning from a private island. Why would you want to be anything else?”
Checkmate. But he shook his head. “You just said it before. How you’d make up a rumor about baby animals because nobody in this world cares if someone did something terrible to human beings. It’s like wealth at this level… warps you.”
“I don’t think that’s unique to us,” I told him, a little offended, honestly. “I think there are people all throughout society who care more about bad things happening to baby animals than people.”
“Still,” said Gabe. “I became a teacher because I cared about these kids—regular, public schoolkids—and what they’re going through. They’re in a different stratosphere from this… society.” He was quiet for a moment. “I don’t want to stop caring about them.”
“Oh, Gabe. I don’t think that’s a money thing. I think that’s a you thing.”
“I don’t know.” He cast his eyes at me, and I couldn’t help but wonder what he saw. Did he think I was “warped” by my money and my position? I probably would have agreed with him before everything that went down last year, but I’d changed, hadn’t I?
The curtain at the back of the plane fluttered. The flight attendant appeared, her feet quiet on the soft plane carpet. “We’re about to start our descent. Would you like anything to eat or drink before we land?”
Ihadchanged. I didn’t need Gabe to validate that for me. Old Pom would’ve gotten the flight attendant fired without ever thinking about it again. New Pom just said softly, “No thank you.”
CHAPTER
Fourteen
As soon as we landed, Nicholas texted me that I was grounded. I would’ve been tempted to respond with something like,You’re not my dad, except that I knew he meant it literally, as in, I was stuck on the ground because I was no longer allowed to use the jet. That didn’t mean I was trapped, though—I could still fly commercial if I really wanted to go somewhere. I announced that to Gabe as we disembarked, feeling proud of myself for stooping to that level. Surely that was proof I hadn’t been warped by money.
He did not look overly impressed.
My parents had texted me too. My mom:What were you doing on Kevin’s island?I was surprised the two of them hadn’t been there, honestly. I mean, it would have been the most unpleasant surprise, to be working on an interrogation and see my mom’s face pop up over Cora’s shoulder like the world’s worst jack-in-the-box. But they were fairly tight with Kevin and Jack and all of their crowd (which, yes, was hypocritical given my mom’s attitude toward Jessica and Gabe the money-grubbers, but my mom loved an opportunity to be a hypocrite), so it was strange they didn’t show for his big birthday bash.
I texted back,Had a party! The best time! Too bad you weren’t there.
The second thing I did—well, third, after booking a spa sesh for the next morning, because, after the stress of this plane ride, I really needed a Himalayan pink salt soak and one of those face masks made out of eel slime—was call Vienna. “I’m back,” I said as soon as she picked up in lieu of a hello. Time was too precious to allow for hellos. “Let’s talk.”
“When are you free?” she said, voice flat. My instincts had been correct; I couldn’t rely on getting real answers out of her with just a face-to-face conversation. I had to show her I still valued her. Get her distracted by doing some kind of work.
“Can you meet me at the Chelsea building tomorrow after lunch?” I asked. “I want to keep working on it. My kids shouldn’t have to wait until this investigation is done for their refuge.” I hadn’t heard back from Bibi about whether my foundation could still use the building, which was hopefully a good sign. Surely if she was going to take it from me, she would’ve made that clear already. In the meantime, maybe continuing to work on it would show her how important it was to me.
“Sure,” Vienna said. She sounded tired. A little depressed. Not that surprising, I supposed. “What will we be doing?”
“I don’t know, exactly,” I said. Whatever Lina had left for me. “Appraising the site. Some interior design. Cleaning out some files.”
“You’re going to clean?”
“Of course,” I said, trying to sound breezy. “I’ve cleaned up trash plenty of times before.” If you counted the hours it was court-mandated (I’d actually looked great in orange).
“And the building still belongs to you? Even after—”
“Of course,” I chirped, even though I had no idea. “See you then!”
I hung up before she could interrogate me further. “Okay,” I told Gabe. “We’re on for tomorrow. You ready?”
He gave me a funny look. “No, Pom. I’m not ready. Tomorrow’s Monday. I have to work.”
