“My cousin Lillian was my only friend, but that worked because I was always moving around and she was a ballerina. She didn’t have time for a social life, and I didn’t have a place for a social life. We understood each other. It wasn’t weird that we were always in different time zones. She’s in Paris now though. With her girlfriend. I’m not jealous.” She was jealous. “I thought maybe they’d move back to Portland, and we’d all… I don’t know. Live together. That’s dumb. They’re so in love. They don’t want a third wheel, and I love living in a fifth wheel.” Kia made the thumbs-up gesture she’d offer her fans, but she didn’t feel it in her heart. “So I guess when this is all done…”
“Will you move out of the house?”
Kia felt Sullivan’s hip shift uneasily.
“Of course,” Kia said quickly. “I’m going to move as soon as we get rid of this Mega Eats thing.”
“Oh.” Sullivan almost looked hurt. “So, like, you’ll leavetomorrow?” Did Sullivan want Kia to stay? Was she offended that Kia had spoken so quickly?
“I mean your house is beautiful. I’d love to stay forever.” She gestured to the waterfall. “But I’m used to being on the road.”
“It’d make sense to live closer to your food truck.” Sullivan sounded like a business adviser, helpful and disinterested. Sullivan tucked her balled-up sandwich wrapper into a pocket in her backpack. With that, the clouds above them closed. Sullivan handed Kia a napkin from her pack. Kia couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d said the wrong thing, but she wasn’t sure if it wasI’m going to move as soon as we get rid of this Mega Eats thingorI’d love to stay forever.
chapter 15
“Go! You haveto pick up Kia and get to court.” Opal made a shooing gesture, indicating Sullivan needed to leave the Mirepoix kitchen. They’d been making mini quiches for a Portland Night High School fundraiser. “Do you not understand that I could do this blindfolded without you?” Opal added.
Sullivan understood. And she was nowhere near being late to court. It would just be nicer to whip eggs with Opal than to put on a suit and drive Kia down to the courthouse. The judge would dismiss the Mega Eats case, which would be great, but then Kia would start work on Taste the Love. There was no way it wouldn’t devastate the land and Sullivan’s heart. She had promised her grandfather she would preserve this land in aeternum. Forever. Now bulldozers would plow under the wood sorrel and the trillium. Loggers would take down tree after tree. They’d drag the logs to the edge of the Bois, leaving meter-deep gashes in the land. Kia would be smart to recoup some of her costs by selling the lumber. Sullivan had a flight to Palm Springs saved in Expedia for when they started logging, and the site kept asking her if she wanted to book it, but she couldn’t escape the development forever.
“I’m going.” She took off her chef’s coat and hung it by the back door. She kept her eyes on the ground as she walked through the Bois back to her house.
In the house, Kia was sitting in the kitchen, her purse in onehand, a sparkling green coat laid over her lap, as though she’d been waiting all morning and they were late. Which they weren’t. Kia just couldn’t wait to move out. That added a layer of sadness on top of everything else, like a bitter coffee glaze on a burnt cake. Sullivan didn’t know what she wanted. She couldn’t possibly want Kia to stay and plan her destruction of the Bois on Sullivan’s kitchen island, but when Sullivan turned off the part of her brain that remembered what was happening outside her house, it was nice to have Kia around. She felt like they picked up right where they left off, gently giving each other shit and smack talking without hurting each other’s feelings. They knew when to throw shade and when to tread carefully. Usually. She felt bad about dragging Kia into the wetland. Part of her had hoped Kia would see its beauty and feel crushed by guilt for what she was about to do. Realistically, she’d suspected Kia would hate it, and had taken Kia out there for that reason. Neither inclination had been noble, but once she got outside with Kia, she really did want her to see nature’s beauty. She didn’t want Kia to be frightened. She could still feel Kia’s body in her arms, warm and solid and smelling of honey-spice perfume. And just like you couldn’t imagine someone throwing a softball and not imagine its trajectory, she couldn’t think about that moment without feeling like it should have ended in a kiss. Had Kia felt it too? Did Kia have to be so forceful about her desire to move out? Couldn’t she have been a little wistful?
Sullivan shook her head. What the fuck was she thinking?
“Let’s get out of here,” she said.
Kia nodded and stood up.
“You’re not going to change?”
Sullivan shrugged. She’d meant to change, but why bother?
“Mega Eats can hate me in jeans.”
Nina was seated on a wooden bench outside of courtroom 3A when Kia and Sullivan arrived. She looked like the act of sitting on a bench offended her. Her iridescent navy suit found it too public. But when Nina looked up, she smiled, upbeat as though they were meeting for drinks.
“How’s it going?” Kia asked.
Nina motioned to the bench, almost patting it, but lifting her hand away as though reluctant to touch it.
“Splendid as a ray of sunshine. Ready to get this over with?” Nina said a little too loudly.
Kia and Sullivan had barely sat down when the courtroom door opened and they were ushered into a spacious, wood-paneled room. They sat in the first row of seats.
“Do not worry,” Nina said quietly. “Their case is a ridiculous bluff to intimidate you, and the judge will see that immediately. Put your order in at the Makers Bar. We’ll be out of here before it’s ready.”
In a commotion of noise and bluster, the Mega Eats contingent burst through the courtroom door, causing it to bang against a rail. The lead attorney—guessing by the fact that he burst in first—wore a boxy, 1990s suit and a wide tie that screamedMiami Vice. He was accompanied by a phalanx of corporate lawyer types similarly attired like cartoon versions of the Mafia. Their presence still made Sullivan feel like a rock had sunk to the bottom of her stomach. These weren’t cartoon lawyers. Even if Nina said they’d be out in five minutes, these were men hired by one of the biggest corporations in the world to crush her.
“That guy—” Nina nodded to the first attorney, who was making a show of talking on his phone even though a sign on all four walls readSILENCE YOUR PHONES. “That’s Armand Mulroney and his first-year associates. He’ll mistreat them so badly they’llbe gone by the end of the year.”
Mega Eats’ lead attorney and Nina exchanged a quick nod of recognition before turning their attention to the bench, where Judge Edward Harper’s chamber door squeaked open.
“All rise,” the bailiff said. “The Honorable Edward Harper presiding.”
The older man had a calm, fatherly presence until he spoke.
“Mega Eats versus Jackson-Sullivan on the respondent’s motion for summary judgment. Let’s get this over with,” he said curtly.
