There was another pause.
“See what I can do,” he told me curtly, and hung up.
I lay back on the bed.
“Okay, now do that with Jonas,” Tami told me, bright-eyed.
I cracked a lid at her. “I thought you didn’t want me to call him.”
“Yeah, but that was good. Call him and do that.”
Sure. Like it was that easy.
“Jonas isn’t Augustine,” I told her. “I don’t have that kind of leverage with him.”
“But you’re Pythia—”
“And he’s the head of the Circle. I piss Augustine off, and there’s other designers. I piss Jonas off, and I’ve damaged a relationship with a close ally.” And that would not be a great idea right now.
“And you don’t think you pissed him off the other night?” Tami demanded. Apparently, news traveled fast.
“Probably. But he was seriously out of line then. I didn’t have a choice.”
“He’s out of line now. Tell her.” Tami looked at Rhea.
“She knows,” Rhea said, watching me.
“I’m giving him a chance to cool off,” I told Tami. “I’m not trying to show him up or make an enemy. This can’t turn into some kind of . . . of pissing contest.”
“It’s already a pissing contest—”
“Not to me. And I’m going to give him some time, see if he comes around.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
I closed my eyes. “Let’s hope he does.”
“You’re more of a . . . diplomat . . . than me,” Tami said.
I wondered if that was some diplomacy on her part, to avoid saying “pushover.” If it was, I couldn’t blame her. I’d been acting like one, not intentionally, but in a we’re-all-in-this-together kind of way, because we were. And because I had enough to worry about with my enemies; I didn’t need problems with my allies, too.
But maybe they hadn’t taken it that way.
Maybe they’d taken it Tami’s way.
I sighed.
“What about housing?” I asked, keeping my eyes closed because it felt really good. “Do I need to call Casanova, too?”
“Good luck,” she said dryly.
I opened my eyes. “What does that mean?”
“It means that at least Augustine answers his phone. Casanova has gone AWOL.”
“AWOL?”
She nodded. “Like last month, when the damn electricity went haywire in my room. Looked like a horror movie in there—blink, blink, blink, about drove me nuts. But you think I could g