I nodded, forgetting she couldn't see me. "Sometimes boring is better."
"The plot is great though."
"What's it about?"
"It's about a young woman who has a mental health crisis and she moves from the city to the small mountain town where she meets a recently widowed local business owner."
"What exactly is boring about it?"
"Well, it takes them several chapters to meet. They also don't share a lot of pages together in the first half of the book. Things pick up around midpoint though."
"I see."
"Sounds a little bit like us," she added quieter, perhaps not sure if it needed to be said.
"Depends on the ending of the book," I countered.
"In what way?"
"Well, if they get married and have a kid in the epilogue, that's definitely not like us."Why did I say that?
She was smart not to respond.
We let that hang. I studied the pattern on the hallway carpet, small triangles interlocked like the teeth of a zipper.
After a while, I asked, "How did you get mixed up with those men?"
The question floated through the closed door, heavier than either of us wanted.
"Your targets?" she asked, voice a notch quieter.
"Yes."
"Party. It was some influencer's product launch event. One of thoseinvite-only things at a penthouse the size of this entire floor. A friend asked me to come with. I didn't really want to go, but she begged, said she needed a wingwoman. Besides, meeting new people, especially with money and connections, benefited me at my previous place of employment."
"Evernight Events?"
"Yep. I think the drinks were spiked. I lost time. Next thing I knew, I was in a bedroom, alone with them… And I couldn't move."
Her words were flat, like she was trying very hard not to be emotional, but they pressed against my skin and rattled inside my skull. "You reported it," I said. "But nothing happened."
"Nothing ever does when you try to bring down people who have the police and the judges in their pockets." She gave a sound that was almost a snort. "My attorney was shit, my case was thrown out before it even became a case. Someone hacked my website next. Then my boss let me go. Gave me some bullshit excuse about downsizing. Every single event planning company I tried after wouldn't even interview me as soon as they saw my name on the resume.
"I went from making great money to being unemployed. Geneva was the only one who dared to hire me. But she wasn't a threat to them. Now that I think about it, I wonder if their goal was to remove my name and my face from the social circles altogether because it would continue to raise questions…you know…with Valmont wanting to go into politics." She was quiet for a moment. "I guess that's why I looked for…you. Your agency. I want my life back. I worked really hard to get where I was at that point of my life…when I ended up at that party. Now I can't even start from scratch."
"You'll get justice, Kimmy," I said. "I promise."
There was a long pause. "I regret it, sometimes," she said.
That caught me off guard. "Hiring the Bureau?"
"Yeah. I thought it'd make me feel better, but all I feel is…" She stopped.
"What?" I asked.
"I take it back. I don't regret them getting punished. But I don't like that you got hurt because of me."
"That's my job. It happens."
