Queen of Love
Page 98
“That’s the magic of word of mouth, Sugiya-san. Lady Liu is really opening doors for our little company.”
“It hasn’t been that little for a long time.”
“Not with your help, it hasn’t been.”
Although she knew he was complimenting her, Aya was still surprised to hear it. “I don’t know what help that is. I… I mean, my personal life has nothing to do with it.”
“Didn’t say it did. I’m sure even if you weren’t dating the woman referring all these people to us, you’d still be selling places with your skills. That’s the kind of thing Takatani likes to see in the end. No wonder you’re up for a promotion, huh?”
Aya took the compliments with heartfelt thanks. When they boarded the train to take them back to Shibuya, she stole a look at her phone. The last message from Genevieve was about what she wanted as collateral from her girlfriend.
“You get away with it this time,” Genevieve had written, “but if I give you this money, I want it to pay for more than extortion. Once your ass is home, I want what I gave you in Paradise. Make it good.”
“That’s not how this works,” Aya wrote back. “You don’t give the orders. I do.”
She then checked the bank account she had set up for today. Sure enough, the $50,000 was pending. It came with a note, too.
“Here you are, Ms. Aya.”
With her supervisor to her left and a group of salarymen standing to her right, Aya closed everything out of her phone, folded her arms over her briefcase, and smugly sat the rest of the way back to Shibuya.