We went to inspect the target. Something was emerging from the wooden block—a face looking at a catastrophe.
“Wouldn’t it be easier to carve this yourself?”
“Always funniest when you aren’t trying.” She dipped into her pockets and placed another candy in my mouth—Korean characters on the wrapper, ginseng and mushrooms on my tongue.
“Best one so far,” I said. “Like those wines that taste like wet dirt.”
She nodded. “Earthworms sprouting after a long rain, looking for oxygen.”
“Helpless.” I held her from behind, inhaling the sculpture’s scent of fresh-cut wood. “Exposed.”
“Do you findwormssexy, Jessica Morton?”
“Worms, no. Candy, increasingly so.”
“Flirting,” Hiromi said, and didn’t pull away. Prey.
The breeze through the windows picked up, carrying the smell of the coffee roastery across the street. The afternoon light was perfect; the Martini had soothed my head.
A tiny trembling came from my thigh.
“Family phone?”
“Yes.” My arms dropped from her.
The text was from Grandmother Elizabeth:Push.
The cult’s party was only ten days away.
“Grandma says she mailed us some candies.”
“Iloveher.”
“She loves giving presents.” Time to push. “So…I did a bad thing. I told Garrett about your secret piece of art.”
We both glanced at the covered canvas leaning in the corner. It was ten feet across, the biggest piece in the room.
Hiromi shrugged. “Garrett only cares about my robots.”
“That’s what he said. But I feel bad about telling him.”
“Don’t stress, Jessica. That piece isn’t asecret; it’s just embarrassing. You didn’t look at it, did you?”
I shook my head.
“Good. It’s a guilty pleasure. But can I ask why you told him?”
I looked everywhere but at her. “This was a big deal for me, getting to work at Garrett’s gallery. But I’m barely there anymore.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“He doesn’t trust me to talk to clients.”
“Oh,” Hiromi said softly. This part was all too believable.
“I’ve been trying to bring him something useful. A new artist or a collector. It just slipped out—that I knew something he didn’t.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
