Page 76 of The Sun and Her Star

We rented an apartment on the Upper West Side right on the edge of Harlem. Reena found it for us when she came for her interview, and we squealed like kids when she’d called me on FaceTime to show me around. I can’t believe we’re here.

We gather our bags and head into the building.

I drop the bags of books into the trash can outside the door.

No more Graham.

I miss him, but he’s clearly fine without me.

I’m going to do my best to be fine without him.

* * *

GRAHAM

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Nanette shouts at me as I walk down her pretty tree lined street toward the corner where my Uber is waiting. I wonder if her neighbors know that their pretty little piece of upper-class suburbia is home to one of Los Angeles’s biggest pimps.

“Home,” I say without turning around.

“I’ve been calling you since this morning. You’ve got a client today!” she yells, and despite my promise to myself that I wouldn’t, I turn around. She looks like she’s been working out. Her blonde hair is pulled back into a high ponytail, and she’s wearing the barely there workout clothes that all of the women at Talisman wear. I cross my arms and face her.

“Sorry, I can’t meet a client today.”

She narrows her eyes and twists her mouth into a scowl. “What the fuck do you think this is, Graham?” She leans toward me and grits her teeth.

“You don’t decide when you see a client. I do.”

I shrug.

“Not anymore. I’m done. I quit. You’re fired.”

Her blue eyes widen and then she bursts out laughing.

“You can’t fire me. What? So, you’ve been on a book cover, and your stupid YouTube channel has a lot of followers. None of that will pay you what I do. And what about your mother? She’s not getting better. She’s just going to need more care.”

I shake my head in disgust. She’s played this card for far too long, and I can’t wait to never see her face again.

“Yes, she is. And I’m going to give it to her. My stupid YouTube Channel? Well turns out when you have as many followers as I do,andyou’ve got arealagent, it does equal money. Lots of it. Enough that I don’t need your fucking job. So, I’m done.”

Her face goes slack.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, the check from the production company that didn’t think my YouTube channel was stupid cleared a couple of days ago. And it means that yesterday afternoon, I moved my mother and her nurse into the house I closed on yesterday morning. It means that I can get into that Uber and have it take me to a dealership and buy myself a car. It means I’m done being your whipping post. It means I get to live my fucking life.”

Nanette’s face contorts into a mask of rage. She leans toward me, her face red, her eyes wide and menacing. But I’m not scared. She’s done her worst already.

“You are sofuckingdisloyal,” she spits. “I made you.” She points at me. “Do you think you’d even have an agent if I hadn’t put you on the map? You owe me!” she growls.

I scoff in disgust, of course. She only cares about how she can benefit.

“You’ve gotten everything from me that I’ll ever give you. You’re lucky I haven’t turned your little prostitution ring into the police,” I tell her.

She pales, but her expression loses all of its expression. “You know what? You think you’re holding all the cards. Tell the police whatever you want. I’m just a matchmaker. I set up consenting adults. There’s nothing wrong with that. If you thought your sex was mandatory, Graham, I’m sorry. Did any of your clients have to force you to fuck them?” she asks, eyebrow arched.

“No, but you can’t pretend you didn’t know what you were setting us up for,” I tell her, shocked that she’s even attempting to.

“Of course, I can. And I will,” she says with an expression that is completely devoid of any emotion.

---