“Yippers, this is the one.” She flashed a bright smile, then informed them, “I’m scrubbing and disinfecting every square inch of it. Pretty disgusting, right? But a fresh coat of paint is cheaper than just about every other place I looked at. And I really don’t want to live in Hoboken. I need to be in Manhattan. This city has such an amazing vibe to it—I totally love it here!”
Scarlet said, “All well and good, but seriously, Bay. I think I see something crawling along the wall behind you.”
“Oh, yeah. That.” Bayli shrugged. She was a gorgeous tawny-eyed brunette hoping to spark her flailing modeling career. She was a year younger than Jewel and Scarlet, but the three had been friends most of their lives. This was the first time the girls had truly been separated.
Bayli said, “If I could get the cockroaches sharing my space to pay rent, I’d let the little suckers live.” She reached for something out of the screenshot of her propped-up tablet and then moved back into place. Holding up a can of Raid, she added, “Give me a week and this place will be completely bug-free. I’m spraying everything! The inner and outer door frames, all the baseboards, the garbage chute down the main hall. I promise, I will prevail!”
Her enthusiasm couldn’t be contained.
Meanwhile, Jewel’s spirits plummeted. “I offered you a loan, Bay.”
“One I can’t pay back, Jewel.”
“Then don’t pay it back.” Jewel knew her friend was flat broke. The plane ticket to Newark, the shuttle ride into the city, the rent and deposit, and bare necessities were about all she could afford at this point.
Bayli had made it through two years of college before the expense of her mom’s heart surgeries and at-home care had depleted all of her savings and Bayli had had to get a job. Unfortunately, she wasn’t the type to settle on just one thing, so she’d worked a bunch of odd, part-time jobs rather than finding something full-time. Even though she had tried at first. But landing a position in San Francisco’s Financial District that would pay her the kind of salary she needed for medical and living expenses required the degree she’d never gotten. A vicious Catch-22 for her.
“Try not to worry about me,” Bayli said, ever the optimist. “Everyone in this business has to pay their dues. Once I meet some other models, I might be able to find one or two of them to room with and that’ll be a huge help. In the meantime, let’s talk about this little plot of yours, Jewel.”
“Bay’s right, Jewel,” said Scarlet, a fiery redhead who worked in River Cross as an independent insurance-fraud investigator. She had an inquisitive mind and a voracious appetite for solving mysteries, a trait that came from her famous crime-novelist grandmother. “One card gets out of whack and your house comes crumbling to the ground.”
“I have the agreements all drawn up,” Jewel told them. “Everything’s in place. I just need my itinerary from Cameron, which she’s finalizing as we speak. I leave tomorrow for the whirlwind trip to collect all the cards.” Her own enthusiasm was as strong as Bayli’s.
The girls had helped Jewel connect the dots, and by this time next week she ought to be at the Angelini estate with her legal team to execute the sale with Gian.
Scarlet said, “Let us know if there’s anything else we can do to help.”
“You’ve been fantastic. I owe you big-time.”
“Are you kidding?” Bayli gushed. “This is the high point of my day! I love researching all this stuff. And watching Scarlet hunt it all down.”
“You’re geniuses,” Jewel said. “Now, Bay, I’m really worried about—”
“Ah-ah-ah.” Her friend waggled a finger onscreen. “Do not stress about me in New York City. I am thrilled! I already landed fifteen hours a week at a public library, so you know that puts me in heaven right there. I also have ten hours on weekends at a gelato stand in Central Park—now doesn’t that sound fun for the summer? And, oh! I totally forgot to tell you that Christian Davila is opening up a steakhouse with the very brilliant celebrity chef Rory St. James along the subway line from where I live—just a hop, skip, and a jump away. One of Christian’s first restaurants was Bristol’s and it’s apparently very near and dear to his heart, so I thought that me being a River Cross ‘hometown girl,’ it’d be pretty easy to land a waitressing job there.”
“Yeahh,” Scarlet said, drawing out the word with notable skepticism. “Um. Let us not forget that the last time you tried serving was at Alioto’s on the Wharf, and you spilled a glass of red wine on the mayor’s wife. Who happened to be wearing all white that evening.”
“Oh, please,” Bayli scoffed. “Everyone spills at some point in their career. Yesterday, I was talking with a server at a place around the corner and she said she took home a tray and piled books on top of it and carried it around her apartment, figuring out the correct weight placement and getting used to hauling the load all with one hand. I can totally do this. And how great would it be to work at a premier restaurant with a celebrity chef while I’m trying to break out as a model? I’m sure to get discovered, right?”
Now she gnawed her bottom lip.
Jewel’s heart constricted at her friend’s hint of insecurity. “Bay, you are totally going to be discovered. You’re sensational. So, so beautiful. And the most photogenic person I’ve ever known. No offense, Scarlet, but there’s no camera angle under the sun that captures the two of us in a good light. We always look like we’ve just tasted a bad Bordeaux.”
“Or our eyes are closed,” Scarlet lamented. “I swear, when the three of us are in a photo together, it’s as though whoever’s taking the picture is focused solely on Bay and doesn’t give a rip how shitty we come out.”
Jewel laughed. “You’re so right!”
“Aw, you guys.” Bayli dabbed at the corner of her eye. Fanned her face with a hand. “You’re gonna make me cry.”
“No tears,” Jewel insisted. She was still on the verge of her own sobfest over Rogen and Vin. She couldn’t afford anything sparking it. “Just promise me that if you need anything—anything at all—”
“Like dental floss,” Scarlet quipped, stealing a line from one of their favorite movies, Pretty Woman.
“Yes,” Jewel agreed. “Like dental floss. Or rent. Call me instantly.” She pinned Bayli with a stern look. “I’m deathly serious here, Bay. Do not, under any circumstances, hesitate to call. And for the love of God, please don’t forsake a single meal. You are absolutely perfect, and missing dinner because you can’t afford it is not an option.”
Now fat drops tumbled down Bayli’s cheeks. “You know I can take care of myself, girls. This might not be a mansion in River Cross, Jewel, but it already feels like home. Like I found my place. So please, please trust that I can handle this and believe that someday soon I’m going to be squealing on one of our calls that I’ve landed the cover of Vanity Fair.”
“Oh, we’re counting on it,” Scarlet said. “And you’re immediately autographing two copies and sending them our way. Immediately.”