Dawn audibly gasps and clutches at her heart, so obviously overcome by his generous gift. She then raises her right hand, most likely to speak to him in sign language for the first time since they reunited in early August.
But then, instead of using her hand to sign THANK YOU, she cracks it across his face.
Victor knows how to take a hit. But this one is so unexpected, it whips his head to the side.
“Why did you do that? Why would you do that?” she demands.
Before he has a chance to answer, she storms out of the building she now owns.
11
DAWN
You know how in movies, people are always spontaneously taking rideshares to crazy faraway places? Like, they just have to get away from someplace so bad they're willing to pay someone to drive them?
Turns out that’s not as easy as it looks on screen. Especially if you spent a good chunk of your scant disposable income on Hello Kitty Land souvenirs because you didn’t want to feel like you owed any money to your fake ex-husband.
It takes forever to download a rideshare app onto my janky burner phone. Then my heart nearly collapses from shock a second time that day when I see just how much it would cost me to get driven from Pittsburgh to New Jersey. And that estimated price tag comes with a warning that it will take a while to find a driver willing to go that far.
So, it looks like I'm going to have to get one from here to the closest Amtrak…nope, make that Greyhound. As it turns out, train rides are pretty expensive too.
A wave of depression washes over me as I switch back to the Uber app to try to find a ride to the closest bus station. In six months, I’m going to have to be an expert in adulting, but if I were graded on my progress so far, I’d definitely be receiving an F.
Plus, I feel like an idiot.
I can't believe I let myself get excited about Victor gifting me the job I thought I lost when I didn’t earn my MFA.
Of course, he didn't really just want to pay me back what I was owed, what I had earned. Of course, he bought the whole damn business in yet another bid to control me.
That way, if I accepted his latest “gift,” it would give him an excuse to keep on monitoring me. I’m no legal expert, but I’m pretty sure whatever contract he signs about not surveilling or coming within a mile of me will be declared null and void if he flat out owns the business I’m working for. He’d be my boss, and there would be no way I could hide the secret growing inside my belly.
So here I am back at square one. Even worse. Not only do I not have a job, but those few glorious moments where I thought maybe I’d be able to handle this adult stuff after Victor? That I might actually be able to support myself and a child? That burst of confidence is gone now, replaced with an even scarier confusion about my future.
I shake my head, disgusted with myself as I scroll through the app’s choices for which bus station I want to go to. Apparently, there's more than one. But which one would be the cheapest?
“So, I’m assuming you have no interest in running a company that's bleeding money?”
I look up from my phone when Lucy comes to stand beside me in front of the Yinz Entertainment building.
“It's not you,” I assure her. “It's my ex.”
Lucy raises both eyebrows, “That hot guy with the tattoos is your ex? And he bought you an animation company to run? Why would he do that?”
Great questions. But the answers are way too complicated to get into with the woman I thought would be my boss just five minutes ago. Not the other way around.
“Long story,” I reply instead. But then, it occurs to me to ask, “Wait, you're bleeding money? But you guys are one of the most prestigious animation houses on the East Coast.
Lucy snorts and throws me a frank look. “Yeah, do you know what kind of low bidding we have to do to get our outsider animation house those prestige deals? Greg—that was the old owner. He was so obsessed with looking like the best that we were only bringing in pennies. For our last Oscar nominee, we actually lost money, so we were basically paying them for the privilege of letting us work on it.”
Lucy shakes her head. “Greg started out as an anti-establishment Pittsburgh guy, but eventually, he only cared about how he looked, going to award shows, and hobnobbing with the power elite. His girlfriends got younger and dumber too—because apparently, he wasn’t too above it all to live out that cliché. Meanwhile, the rest of us toiled away like underpaid dwarves in his animation house, working crazy hours.”