1
Luna
“Is it stalking if I’m paid to do it?” I blow a bubble almost as big as my head after I ask the question to my sister MJ through the phone. It pops when I jump at the sound of the knife coming down hard on a marble cutting board. Sometimes I think she became a chef so she could stab stuff. She is freaking good at it too. Maybe the best in the city.
“Who cares?” she throws back before the knife hits the cutting board again. “Your new gum habit is annoying,” she says before making another hard chop. It is a little bit gross too. My jaw aches from the big ball of now flavorless gum. I have to keep adding more to keep the flavor going. Now I’m out of gum and flavor. I grab the magazine lying in the seat next to me, rip a piece off and spit the remainder of my gum into it. I have to remember to throw that away before MJ gets back into her car since she’s letting me borrow it. She never uses the thing and I have the perfect parking spot so I haven’t moved it myself either. I use it for work, which means I just sit in it and watch people—at the moment only one person. I didn’t want to lose the spot so I took the subway home, leaving the car sitting outside the building I was stalking, I mean surveilling.
This has to be one of the most boring jobs I’ve ever had. That’s saying a lot because I’ve had way too many jobs at this point. Chewing gum is all there is to do in this car as I sit and wait. I have to keep my eyes trained on the door. I’ve made the mistake of playing with my phone twice now and losing my target. I’m not going to do it again. Why does there have to be a Pokémon Go stop right on this building? The temptation to play with my phone is too great. The only thing keeping me from doing it is I want to see him again and I really don’t want to fail at another profession.
“He is always working,” I sigh into the phone. I thought being a private investigator was going to be fun. I should have known better. The online classes I took were super boring. I chalked it up to all classes being boring, besides that time I went to clown school—that was fun. Even though I failed. My eyes flick to the rearview mirror. A tiny mark that most people don’t notice still lingers on my forehead. It’s a constant reminder of the first and last time I tried to juggle.
“So he’s not a cheating bastard? He’s only a workaholic?” MJ stops chopping as if she can’t believe it. MJ believes the worst of everyone. We did have some pretty shitty parents. She was my rock over the years. She is almost eight years older than me and more of a mom at times than a sister. She raised me. She made sure to take me with her when she moved out and I was only ten at the time. The only person she isn’t prickly to is me.
“I don’t know,” I admit. Maybe he is banging the secretary? It’s so cliché that it’s boring and since his assistant is a man, it would mean he’s gay. I don’t know what this woman wants me to find out about him. She didn’t give me much. I know he’s not married. That much I found out with a background check. My client, however, did wear a wedding ring. When I asked her she said she was the one asking the questions. She was super aggressive so I went with it. I need this job and to finally be successful at a profession. My sister always excels at everything she does and I want that for myself. I’m not jealous of her; I just want to be good at something, anything for that matter. I want to make her proud too. She doesn’t seem to mind my endless career changes. She always smiles and tells me I’ll find my passion soon. That not everything has to happen right now.
“Did you check his social media?” I hear MJ put down the knife. The soft clicking I hear alerts me to the fact that she’s already digging. She always keeps a small laptop on the counter with her when she cooks. Her vice has always been reality TV and she plays it while she works in the kitchen. She’s gotten me sucked into too many of the shows. I know she does it on purpose so she has someone to talk to about them.
She isn’t going to admit her secret vice to anyone else so I am the one always playing catch-up on reality TV. MJ would never admit it but she loves gossip. As long as it has nothing to do with her. She was more down with me doing this PI thing than I thought she was going to be but now I am understanding why. This is a reality show happening right in front of her and she is living it out through me. Too bad it is ending on another super boring night, except when you actually get a glimpse of Maddox Castile. The hottest man I’ve ever seen in a suit in my life. MJ would never agree on this. Our tastes differ on most things. I’d sit in this car for a week just to catch one glimpse, that’s the level of attractive Maddox is.