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“Why? As in—why is he so obsessed with you?”
I hung my head. “I don’t know. Maybe he wants me out of Queen Pearl because I’m cursed.”
She laughed. “Cursed? Are you serious?”
“I know it sounds silly, but… uh… yeah.” I scratched my head, looking out at where the wind moved the bushes just past our table. “I have a thing with bad luck. But it only affects the people around me. All three of the other companies I’ve worked for after college have collapsed spectacularly.”
“Startups?”
“Not even. EWO Operations, Castleton Office Suites, and Pillar.”
She went wide-eyed. “That’s… quite the resume.”
“Yup. And there’s some things going on at Queen Pearl right now that feel a bit risky, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Miguel thinks my curse is carrying on…”
She laughed drily. “Those firms are all in the same market. Statistically, you probably aren’t even the only person who’s worked at all three.”
“Well—it’s more than just that.” I scratched my wrist. “It’s everything around me. You saw that woman drop her keys in the trash when we came in. And the hostess dropped the menus…”
“Those kinds of things happen all the time.”
“They do, but they happen too often. It’s always around me. I swear I’m not superstitious, or anything, but…” I shrugged wildly. “You can only have so many people get their cars broken into, hit their heads on things, get charged twice, trip down the stairs, technology blows out on them… and always right when you enter the room… before you start to think something’s up. You’re taking quite a risk, spending time with me.”
She laughed. “Nothing’s happened to me. I think I’m fine. Besides, I’d be willing to take the risk.”
I paused, frowning. She raised her eyebrows.
“What?”
“Nothing’s happened? No strange sort of… things breaking when I come around, dropping things, anything like that?”
“On the contrary, I’ve gotten very lucky.”
Now that she mentioned it—there really hadn’t been anything. She’d said it was bad luck that the woman she’d hit on in the bar had been her real estate agent, but I think she’d, uh… changed her mind on that. And aside from that?
“London?” she laughed, her brow furrowed in concern. “Are you all right?”
“I’m—yeah. Sorry.”
“Is it that surprising that I haven’t fallen down any stairs?”
“Well—” I felt my face burn. “Honestly? Yes.”
She studied me a while longer, before the smile faded from her face, and she seemed to think it over as she took a bite from her food. Finally, she spoke softly. “I imagine it’s… alienating to feel like you just bring bad luck to other people.”
“I don’t think so. Just…” I felt adrift all of a sudden.
“Don’t you? Haven’t you been putting it on?”
“Putting—what on?” I bristled inwardly, and I didn’t even know why—why my heart was racing, why I felt backed into a corner.
She smiled lightly. “Being so good, London. You do all the right things, say all the right words at all the right times. You know how to be the right person. That’s what someone does when they haven’t gotten a chance to be the person they are.”
My chest hurt. It was a distant realization, this feeling like I was looking on and seeing from far away that this woman, London Sinclair, sitting at a restaurant with her fancy arepas and her nice cappuccino, was aching. And she didn’t know why. I didn’t know why. “I think it’s just… my job.”
“Well,” she said, sitting back and picking up her coffee, taking a long sip before casting her gaze out to the water. “You are excellent at your job.”
My heart was pounding so hard, and I felt so destabilized, that it was all I could fall back on. “Was I right?” I said. “With what I said at that first property—that you are actually looking to buy.”
