Page 11 of Love Hollow at Last
“So much for music festivals being a great way to get rich, huh?”
Grace shook her head.“I don’t know why you thought that.I really don’t.Nobody would have made the mistake of saying something like that to you.”
Noah pulled over his computer, wondering how he was supposed to draft the kind of document he had never even attempted to write.“Well, it may not make me rich.But that was never the point anyway.”
He started writing.
10
Aya
Aya got the document from Noah as an email attachment.It felt strange to think that Noah Kato was just out there, writing emails.Then again, it had probably come from one of his minions.He’d seemed very surprised earlier that he might even consider doing some work himself.Apparently, after you make your millions in the music industry, you never work again.
Aya had read the celebrity gossip, though she pretended not to.Noah had been prolific at first, releasing at least one album every year as he climbed the charts.But the last few years had been full of slowdowns, and there were rumors that his label might drop him.He was a star, but that label specialized in megastars, and apparently, there was no room for error.
She rolled her eyes as she skimmed his stupid document.The proposal was not nearly good enough.It seemed they weren’t going to move the festival at all, although they could shift the main entrance to the site they were going to use as a secondary entrance.During the ceremonial part of the Zion Creek Pilgrimage, the second evening, the festival could try to do a longer break between sets, but that wouldn’t really keep people quiet.Worst of all, they were keeping the main stage exactly where it was, right at the edge of the museum’s land.The landscape was going to look ridiculous.Plus, there wouldn’t be a single reference to Zion Creek and its sad history.
“What an idiot,” she murmured, reading through it.“He really thinks he’s doing something.”
“Is this Noah?”asked Emi.She’d been on her knees, sorting through boxes of shirts to try to make sure they had enough extra-small long-sleeved ones for the elders.“What does he think he’s doing?”
Aya chose to ignore her tone.“He thinks he’s making improvements, but he’s just shifting around deck chairs on theTitanic.”
That made Emi laugh.“Oh, so his festival is going to sink, is it?Seems unsinkable to me.”
“The Pilgrimage is unsinkable,” muttered Aya.“Or it should be.”
Emi was rubbing one of the shirts, but she had stopped sorting.She didn’t respond.
“Emi?”
Rubbing her face, Emi said, “I’m sorry.I just got tired all of a sudden.”
Aya grabbed the box.“It’s fine.”
It wasn’t fine, in fact.If Emi could tolerate the grueling schedule of medical school and residency, she should be able to sort a few T-shirts.She had once cared a lot about the Pilgrimage, too, though she hadn’t been back very often since high school.Aya and Emi had both sworn they would never live in Love Hollow again, but Emi was the only one who had actually stayed away.
“So,” said Emi.“That thing Mama Chang said about my wedding.”
She looked so miserable that Aya shoved the box aside.
“She shouldn’t have said that, okay?She still thinks of us as her twins’ surrogate big sisters.But it’s just noise.You really don’t have to listen.”
“That’s kind of disrespectful,” said Emi, frowning.“And the thing is?—”
“No,” said Aya.“You don’t get to do this.Seriously, you have no idea what it’s like, facing Mama Chang and everyone else.”
Emi shook her head.“That’s not what I?—”
Aya didn’t usually interrupt, but she felt absolutely crushed under the mountain of tasks she had to complete.It was only the third Pilgrimage she had managed, but she’d made the questionable decision to expand registration in order to bring in revenue, and she was quickly understanding why previous events had been capped at three hundred.This year’s crowd was unmanageable, but she had to succeed.So she found herself talking over Emi, and once she had started speaking, her speech ran away with her.
“I have been dealing with meddlesome, supposedly well-meaning people gossiping about my unmarried state for years, okay?I’m sure they did it when I was gone, but living here is a million times worse.And I love Mama Chang, but she’s one of the worst offenders.Yes, I’m sure I would hear something if I were married, but just someone talking about how I should have had more bridesmaids?It would be completely different.”
“Sorry,” said Emi, but Aya could tell she had more to say.
And Aya barreled over her.
“You’ve done the thing that society wants you to do, okay?You aced med school, you were chief resident, you found a man who is both intelligent and hot, and you had a super-quick wedding with essentially zero drama.Do you know how it feels to have literally none of that?Do you have any idea?”
