Smoke

by Meili Cady

“Of course,” I said, grinning. I couldn’t help it. This was fun.

  As we sat waiting for takeoff, Lisette leaned over the aisle that separated us and whispered to me. “So, Angel, what do you think?”

  I leaned in to her and said, “Um. Yes. I think this will have to do . . . Holy shit.” We both laughed. “Do you want to say hi to the pilots?” she asked.

  “Yeah, sure,” I said.

  Lisette walked me up to the front and knocked on the folding door that separated the cockpit from the main cabin. A pilot opened it with a friendly smile. “Well, hello!” he said.

  “Hi,” Lisette said. “This is my assistant, Meili. Would you mind if she sits in the jump seat for takeoff? This is her first time in a G5.” I looked at her, surprised.

  “Sure,” the pilot said.

  “Go ahead, sweetie,” Lisette said. She seemed genuinely delighted to see me so excited. A few feet behind the pilots, she pulled down a small seat from the wall. “Sit down.”

  I sat down against the wall and she helped buckle me in. She looked at me with an almost motherly affection and said, “Have fun.” I was touched by her kindness as she returned to her seat in the main cabin.

  “All right!” the chief pilot said. “You ready?” He looked back and smiled at me from behind athletic sunglasses. I had butterflies in my stomach as the jet moved down the runway, gaining speed, preparing to fly. I was so close to the front of the plane that it felt like I was helping them fly it, though in reality I was hanging from the wall like a useless sack of potatoes. The wheels lifted off the concrete, and I had an instant euphoric rush of adrenaline. As I stared out at the vast sky ahead of me I felt alive, like I was lucky to be experiencing this. All the confusion since I’d started working for Lisette suddenly faded away and everything seemed worth it. She was right; in ways this was a dream job. I’d just been too hung up on the details to see it before now. Once we were stable in the air, I sensed that it was time to thank the pilots and rejoin the team in the cabin.

  “Well?” Lisette said as I closed the cockpit door behind me.

  “That was amazing,” I said. “Thank you so much for doing that.”

  She smirked. “I thought you’d like that. It would have been wasted on me since I’ve done it so many times.”

  As promised, Lisette popped open the bottle of champagne and handed out crystal flutes to the team, with the exception of Frankie. “No drinking on the job,” she told him. “You know my parents would murder you if they knew my bodyguard was drinking when he’s supposed to be protecting me.”

  Frankie nodded and said, “Yeah, I know.” We raised a toast to “having the best boss in the world,” then broke into the catering. I passed out plates and utensils and then came around with the catering trays.

  After a little while, I came back around to offer seconds to everyone. “Want some more?” I asked Lisette.

  She handed me her plate and waved away the offer. “I’m good, sweetie,” she said. “I eat to live, I don’t live to eat.”

  We touched down at Lane Aviation in Columbus. As we taxied in, we could clearly see a mammoth-sized stretch SUV limousine waiting for us. It was the kind of obnoxious, neon-lit limousine that was rarely seen outside of the Vegas strip or en route to a school dance. Lisette pulled her coat on and looked out the window of the plane. “Oh God,” she said. “Tell me that’s not our limo.” I stifled laughter because I knew that the thought of being seen in this car was nothing short of horrifying to her. “How the hell was I supposed to know they’d send a goddamn tour bus to get us?” she barked. We both laughed a little, despite ourselves. If we had to ride in it, at least we’d be doing it together.

  The giant limo pulled into the parking lot of the Hilton in Columbus. Yes. Finally, a hotel that doesn’t look dreary or haunted. I pulled my decrepit, off-brand suitcase toward me, eager to get out and explore the amenities.

  Lisette opened the door nearest to her and stepped out. I followed her out the limo door, struggling in an effort to yank my suitcase out. “No, no,” she said. “Sweetie. We aren’t staying here. David and Ko are. Come with me. Henry, wait here until we text you to bring the bags in,” she said.

  I frowned and hustled to follow her as she turned away from me to go into the hotel. “How come they get to stay here?” I asked. We stepped in line for the reception desk.

  Lisette turned to me. “I don’t know why David feels he needs to stay at the goddamn Hilton when we’re working,” she said. “We’re staying a few blocks away. Don’t worry.”

  Lisette reserved a room. “Text Henry the room number and tell him to bring the luggage up with Frankie” she said. We took the elevator to the third floor and waited for them. After they finished bringing all the suitcases up, we abandoned the room. On the way out, Lisette left the room key at the front desk in an envelope for David to pick up when he arrived.

  A few blocks away, we settled into rooms at a modest hotel. It was no Hilton, but it was no Drury Inn, either. It seemed odd to arrive in a chartered private plane and stay at two-star hotels. It wasn’t Lisette’s style. In L.A., I’d never known Lisette to stay at anything short of a luxury hotel. Her budget for the trips must have been tapped out by the jets. If she was interested in avoiding questions about suitcases full of money, flying private was definitely the way to go.

  Our hotel appeared to be in a prime location, right in the middle of a town center of sorts. Lisette had reserved two rooms: one for Frankie and Henry to share, and one for Lisette and me to share. From the window in our room I could see half a dozen restaurants and a Trader Joe’s.

  Lisette took the team to dinner at P.F. Chang’s. Henry and Frankie, in typical form, refrained from alcohol, while Lisette and I, also in typical form, ordered cocktails. We drank Chinese 88 gin martinis served in sugar-rimmed glasses and topped with sparkling wine. “I was thinking we could all go see a movie tomorrow, if there’s time,” Lisette said.

  “That would be fun,” Henry said.

  “Yeah, man, I’d be in for that,” Frankie added. It occurred to me that I wasn’t certain how long we would be staying in Columbus.

  “How many nights are we going to be here?” I asked Lisette.

  “Three nights, probably,” she said. “We have to wait for a few things to go through here before we can go home. Which reminds me, Meili; call Ko and see where the hell he and David are. It’s unacceptable that I haven’t gotten an update from them yet. David was scheduled to arrive an hour ago.”

  I got Ko on the phone. David was with him. “Yeah, sorry. We were going to call you soon,” Ko said.

  “Tell him to put David on the phone,” Lisette said, looking serious and holding her hand out to take my cell phone. She excused herself and walked outside the restaurant to speak to David privately. When she returned a few minutes later, she looked irritated. “Let’s get back to the rooms,” she said. “Frankie, I need you to drive me to a meeting early tomorrow morning. Meili and Henry get to sleep in.”

  When I woke up in the morning, I had a new text from Lisette.

  I’M GOING TO BE COMING BACK LATER THAN EXPECTED TODAY ANGEL. TAKE A ROOM KEY WITH YOU IF YOU WANT TO WALK AROUND OUTSIDE AND GET SOMETHING TO EAT. I’LL SEE YOU TONIGHT. LOVE YOU XOXO.

  I guessed that meant no movie.

  I grabbed a key and wandered aimlessly around the shopping center for a bit, then stopped by Trader Joe’s to buy some food. I came back to the hotel and watched TV while I waited to hear from Lisette. I never saw Henry, but I assumed that he was doing something similar.

  Lisette came back to the hotel room in the evening looking tired. She sent me downstairs with cash to buy “whatever snack food they have” at the front desk for dinner. “Text the boys to say we’re not going anywhere tonight,” she said as she changed into pink velour pajamas. We stayed in our room eating instant macaroni and cheese and watching a marathon of the true crime TV show Snapped.

  THE NEXT MORNING LISETTE WOKE me up. I moaned and turned over. I saw her standin
g over me, fully dressed. “We need to go to the bank,” she said. “Come on, I’ve been up for hours and already finished a meeting. When we’re done at the bank, you can come back and sleep the rest of the day. I’m going to have Frankie drop you off afterwards anyway because I’ll need him to drive me. This is the only thing you’ll have to do while you’re here.”

  I hurried to get dressed. “It doesn’t need to be fancy,” Lisette said. I slid on jeans and grabbed my scarf on my way out the door. Frankie was waiting for us in the parking lot next to a rented Escalade. He wore a long black wool coat. I could see his breath blowing a cloud of heat into the air when he said, “All right, let’s do this,” before climbing into the driver’s seat. It was surprisingly bright outside, given how cold it was. There were few clouds in the sky today, and the sun was melting some of the frost on the ground. Today Columbus had a charm that reminded me of Washington.

  The drive was quick, as the bank was only a few blocks away. “Frankie, wait in the car,” Lisette said after we’d parked.

  “Is it cool if I go through a drive-through while you guys are in there?” Frankie asked. “I need some food.”

  “Oh God,” Lisette said. “Okay, go. Stuff your face if you must. As long as you’re back by the time we’re done.” As we crossed the parking lot to the bank, Lisette instructed me to let her do the talking.

  The bank building was relatively new, or at least remodeled, and the crowd inside appeared to be made up of predominantly middle-class customers. A well-dressed banker greeted us as we came in. “Welcome, ladies. What can we do for you today?”

  Lisette smiled at him and said, “Hi, yes, I need to do a wire transfer.” He pointed us in the direction of a stout middle-aged man sitting at a desk in the corner. The man behind the desk stood to give us a jolly greeting as we approached him.

  “Hello!” he said. “How can I help you today?”

  “We need to wire some money,” Lisette said. She looked down at his desk to see a nameplate that read BARRY. “Barry, is it?” she asked.

  “Sure is,” he said, sitting back down behind his desk. “Have a seat, ladies.”

  “I’m Lisette and this is my assistant, Meili,” Lisette told him. In a short span of minutes, Lisette explained to Barry that she was in town to visit some close friends who had recently moved out here. She told him that she was a pop singer with a successful career in Asia, and that she was considering buying a house in the area for vacation. “It really is a beautiful part of the country,” she said. “I hope to spend more time here.” Once Lisette had developed something of a rapport with Barry, she told him that she needed to wire a sizable amount of cash to the jet company that she was chartering planes from for her travels. Barry’s eyes widened when she told him how much cash she wanted to wire.

  “Well, now,” he said, “aha, boy that’s, uh, that’s quite a bit of cash there.” Lisette took out stacks of dollars from her purse and set them on his desk. After staring for a beat, Barry scooped the stacks of cash up in an awkward handful and stood up. “I’m just going to run this through a counting machine in the back real quick here. We’d be here all day if I started countin’ it on my desk.” He chuckled to himself as he waddled away with the money. After it had been counted, Barry wired more than thirty thousand dollars through my checking account to Jet-Setter Charter.

  When the transfer was complete, Barry stood to shake our hands. Lisette gave him a charming smile and said, “Barry, do you work here full-time?”

  “Yes, ma’am, I do,” he said.

  “That’s perfect,” she said. “We’ll make sure to ask for you next time.” Lisette accepted Barry’s business card before leaving the bank.

  ON THE THIRD DAY OF the trip I woke up to find that I was again alone in the hotel room. I spent a few hours watching more episodes of Snapped. It was one of the few shows that Lisette and I watched together. I’m sure neither of us could have fathomed that one day we’d be the subjects of multiple true crime series like this.

  I began to feel cooped up and walked around outside for some fresh air. I took the opportunity to call my dad. I would usually have talked with him every day, but I felt a little weird doing it when I was in Ohio. When Lisette was around, she didn’t like me to be on my phone. I couldn’t tell my parents where I was, and I was used to telling them everything. They’d been respectful of the fact that Lisette didn’t want me to share information about her business with other people—just one more thing that they didn’t understand about “people in L.A.”

  In the evening, the door to the hotel room swung open. Lisette walked in with Frankie and Henry close behind her. “We got the paperwork settled,” she said, dropping her purse on a queen bed like a comedian dropping a microphone onstage after a crowd-winning set. “That’s great!” I said, pretending to understand what that meant.

  I didn’t know it at the time, but “paperwork” referred to money, and it had likely been “settled” in exchange for what was in our suitcases.

  “Ko and David are going to drop it off with the bags in the morning before the limo comes to get us,” Lisette said. “And it won’t be a goddamn bus this time. I ripped the owner of the limousine company a new asshole for sending a parade float to welcome us at the airport. He’s got a real sick fucking sense of humor. It’s my dough, my show, and I’m not going to pay someone to make me look like an idiot.”

  LISETTE PAID ME FIFTEEN HUNDRED dollars at the end of our trip. “We’ll be leaving again soon, Angel. Be ready,” she told me. She said that she wanted us to fly out about three times a month soon, so I knew that I would be making a lot more money. I decided to treat myself to some shopping and a new haircut for the first time in over a year. I had a new job, so it seemed fitting to revamp my appearance. Why the hell not? I could afford it, and I was ready to embrace more positive change. I felt different. Since catching up on my bills and starting work again, I’d gained confidence, no longer feeling like a dumpy nobody begging people to buy spa packages or begging a casting director to hire me. I didn’t need approval anymore. Not from those people anyway. Now, Lisette’s approval was all that mattered.

  I got my hair cut and dyed a deep mahogany brown. My bangs were trimmed and formed just above my eyebrows. “This will make the green in your eyes pop,” the stylist said. I went shopping for clothes and bought new boots and a black leather jacket.

  When I came back to the apartment, Brie was home. I did a little fashion show for her to show off my new stuff. “Wow, Miles,” she said, looking me up and down with her expert eye for fashion. “You look amazing. I barely recognized you when I walked in. You look like a badass.”

  The next day I went to the Grove, an upscale outdoor shopping center in L.A. I wore my new leather jacket, high boots, and skintight shiny black American Apparel leggings, which made me feel like Sandy in Grease after the Pink Ladies transformed her for the school carnival.

  When I passed by the movie theater at the Grove, I remembered that I’d forgotten to get my parking validated. I decided to try to run in and out quickly to get the ticket stamped. As I was weaving through the lines of people, I unintentionally slammed right through the middle of a young couple, separating them. They both stepped back, startled by my charge. I stopped and turned around to apologize for bumping into them. Before I could start, I heard my name spoken in a familiar French accent.

  “Meili?” I looked up and found myself staring into handsome brown eyes that I recognized immediately—they belonged to a Frenchman who’d taken me on two dates two years ago, and who then unceremoniously dumped me for a ballet dancer with a great ass. Before I allowed myself to get too lost in his brown eyes, I remembered that he was with a date, and that I’d just literally run between them and punted her out of the way. Perfect. “Meili,” he said, “wow, hello.” Oh no. No, no! It must have looked like I’d done this on purpose.

  “Uh,” I said, “hi!” I turned to acknowledge his date. “Hi! Sorry, that was an accident. I didn’t, I mean, ha! Who
ops!” His date looked horrified. And he looked . . . at me. He was staring at me and laughing along at my stupid jokes that didn’t make sense. He couldn’t keep his eyes off me. And his date was jealous! Ha! I win!

  “You look great,” he said. “Wow. I almost didn’t think it was you.”

  “Well, nice seeing you,” I said, and then I turned on the heel of my sexy new boots and walked away. Something told me that was a first date, and that it would probably be a last date now, too.

  He’d never looked at me like that when we were dating. I had secrets now and apparently it was attractive. The night air felt exhilarating as it breezed through my open jacket. As I walked through the outdoor mall, something dawned on me. Not only were people looking at me differently, I realized that I was looking at everyone else differently than I had before I’d started working for Lisette. I’d gone through the wardrobe. Only this wardrobe didn’t lead to Narnia, it led to Ohio. And instead of dwarfs and centaurs, there were private planes and suitcases full of money. I was now a part of a whole other world, and I couldn’t tell a single soul about it. I was living a double life. I didn’t feel as able to relate to other people as I used to, and in ways I was sad to feel so distant. But I embraced the feeling of being a part of something unique and daring. Most people would have never dived into a situation like the one that I was in without knowing what they were doing—most people weren’t best friends with someone like Lisette. Sometimes I felt like Ray Liotta’s wife in Goodfellas, when he handed her the gun to hide and she said that it turned her on. It was exciting to shed my inhibitions and be a part of Lisette’s world, to get to experience some of the action. I still didn’t know the details of her business, but at this point it was safe to assume that she wasn’t selling Girl Scout cookies.

  8

  LOVE IN THE TIME OF FELONIES

  As I transitioned from friend to employee, I had some tense moments with Lisette. When she told me that I was “underqualified” for this position, perhaps she’d been right in that I was unprepared to be exposed to a different side of her. I hadn’t enjoyed being reamed when I’d questioned her, but I was reassured to see that when she wasn’t stressed about running her new business, her claws retracted and I recognized my friend again. Spending time working with her meant a great deal to me, beyond just being able to keep a positive balance in my checking account.