Nope. Kay didn’t have the slightest. “Thanks for the tour. And for working double-time,” she added, with meaning. “Those orange fire azaleas are gorgeous, and they work with the new palette Guillermo provided. The hot pink definitely resets the tone. No granny vibes. Speaking of Guillermo, I’m thinking of sending him out on his own to complete the bathroom, once your order from the greenhouse arrives.”
Ordering and awaiting the arrival of the flowers seemed like an unnecessary extra step when Kay could pick them up during her visit to Capital Acres with Oliver. But Amos explained everything was logged and shipped to maintain an exact inventory. Flowers were harvested, packaged, and delivered in cooling trucks by the trained greenhouse employees, and no one else.
Amos bobbed his head. “Guillermo is good for it. He has a keen eye. Jasper, too. They both good, G and Jasper. Just can’t be in the same room together.”
She’d see about that. She couldn’t work around those two bickering constantly. She’d whip Jasper into shape or get rid of him. Kay waved good-bye to Amos as she left his lab and headed for the elevator. Back on the fourth floor, she waved again, this time at Guillermo as he passed her.
“You staying late? Not good for the skin, ya know t’at?” Guillermo’s dark eyes twinkled.
Kay gave him a wan smile. “Only for a little while. I met Ms. Hollis this afternoon, went to lunch, and then spent some time going over client files. Amos called me to the lab, wanted to show me what he’d worked on all day. I haven’t been back to my office. Oliver texted me about an important e-mail I got while I was out. I’ll take an extra wrinkle not to have to do deal with it first thing in the morning.”
She didn’t give a fig about the e-mail.
Amos was going to provide her with a smorgasbord of offerings for the spa that was their upcoming project, everything from flowers to vines, ferns and probably a bunch of other shit she’d never heard of—like the Hawaiian skeleton flower she’d dumbly asked about before realizing it was something she ought to know. If she chose one plant over another, she’d need a reason beyond color. Because the bloom didn’t open at the right time, because it survived better in dry climes, and would die in a humid spa environment, because the leaves didn’t lend themselves to the stylistic flow.
Normally, one might pawn research off onto their assistant, but the last thing Kay needed was for Oliver to realize she was up to her neck and one misstep from drowning.
She left Guillermo and walked resolutely to her office. She rather liked it in the quiet hours. The drafting table was still scattered with the renderings of the bathroom project. Affixed lamps burned bright over the lacquered white surface. Despite flailing like a puppy trying to swim for the first time, she was enjoying herself. She might be a little lost with Amos’s homemade fauna and rare samples, but she had the drive to learn. The research was interesting, and she could get caught up in hours of study. Pinpricks of the old excitement that used to rule her world were blossoming. Her mind was re-opening, her heart expanding, and the weight of the guilt she had strapped to her back lightened marginally every day. She was coming back to herself, in bits and pieces.
At the same time, she was having a hard time letting go of the parts of herself Neve had inspired. She’d established herself as someone who wouldn’t be tread on. Her team seemed to respect her. She’d even stood up to Merit. If she quit trying so hard to do things Neve’s way, would everything all fall apart? Or could she return to herself and still maintain the current status quo?
Talk about an identity crisis. She went over to the small personal desk where she kept her laptop, her calendar perpetually open. Oliver filled it in with every company event, and made special notations on what required Kay’s attendance or that of her team’s.
Pattie Michaels, the manager of Capital Acres, had sent over an e-mail. Oliver had printed it out and set it on the laptop’s keyboard. Merit had informed Pattie of Kay and Oliver’s impending trip, and she’d sent along instructions on which entrance to use and where to locate her office so she could give them a proper tour.
Kay set the page aside. Beneath it was a cutout newspaper article. She almost tossed the scrap aside, but the byline caught her attention.
Strange new hallucinogen hits the streets. Fayetteville PD at a loss.
She wrinkled her nose and sat down. The clipping was exact, precisely hemming in the story. Kay flipped it over. Only an ad on the backside, bisected and incomplete, so the story was obviously the important thing. She settled back and read, frowning at the age of the paper, as well as the location. What was Fayetteville to a Little Rock girl?
Magic mushrooms aren’t an uncommon drug in the university party circuit. College students often think mushrooms are more eco-friendly and cost-effective than other similar hallucinogens, such as LSD, and less dangerous than a few other alternatives.
Recently, however, local police enforcement have begun investigating what the press has dubbed ‘super shrooms,’ a growing epidemic of genetically modified magic mushrooms being grown and cultivated to increase their potency. With these new super mushrooms, episodes last longer, are more intense, and have new side effects, not unlike those seen in chemical substances like PCP, which is terrifying for anyone who’s read the news in the last decade. Lab-produced drugs, such as PCP, MDMA, better known as ecstasy, and the fabled ‘bath salts,’ often have unpredictable, and sometimes fatal, side effects.
In Fayetteville’s first reported case, two anonymous UA students admitted to taking the super shrooms after they ended up in the ER last Saturday night. One student regurgitated repeatedly, in an attempt to purge the drugs from his body over an incredible two-day period, resulting in dehydration. Both students claimed they suffered debilitating paranoia and panic attacks, as well as hyperrealistic hallucinations they could often not differentiate from reality, for days before they sought to call 911 and get help when they realized the side effects weren’t lessening. One student is quoted as saying, they were “familiar with magic mushrooms,” but that the high of these in particular was “more like an overdosing on ice [methamphetamines]... I thought we were going to die.”
They very well could have.
Studies done by local police labs have come back with astounding results, matching those of other cases reported in southern parts of the state, including Texarkana. Other municipalities infected include Fort Smith, Pine Bluff, and an incident in Jonesboro, which may be the most tragic and telling report so far. Three people died—
Kay stopped and scanned the rest of the article. Since it had been cut below the title, only the tagline showed. No date. She set the article down. The story made her feel icky. Something about it, maybe the context or a few of the words, clung to her like a thin film, but she couldn’t explain what bothered her, exactly. How in the hell had it ended up on her desk?
She picked it up again and stuffed it into her purse. She shut down her laptop, took a final glance at the e-mail Oliver had printed, and wondered if he didn’t know something about the strange gift.
* * * *
It wasn’t like she was cheating on Neve. That’d be absurd. A mentee couldn’t cheat, per se, on their mentor.
Okay, so it felt a little like cheating. Neve Harper had been Kay’s guiding light for a little over a year now. Her hero, her inspiration for becoming an interior designer, the woman who’d shaped Kay’s future after a happenstance introduction. Neve’s work had been what sent Kay to design school, steered her toward a new life. But Kay sought a different sort of guidance now.
Seraphina Fawkes’s tiny studio apartment was on the second floor of a mid-town building, not far from Neve’s place. Kay pasted a smile on her face as she knocked on the door. Her smile widened into something more genuine at the blank expression on Seraphina’s face.
Her old friend opened the door wide. Old was kind of pushing it. At twenty-three, Kay didn’t have much of anything that qualified as “old” just yet. Not even teaching assistants
from college, who’d been instrumental in helping Kay become top of her class.
Seraphina hadn’t changed a bit. Her hair was still pin-straight, and came to a full-stop at her chin. It’d be a drastic, sharp hairstyle for most. But Seraphina’s wide cheeks, pointed chin, long slender nose, and wide baby blue eyes beneath a canopy of fringe bangs softened the severe cut. Her hair was baby-fine, the soft shade of a brand-new penny; a glorious, shiny red-blond that Kay envied with all her heart.
Neve had a certain dangerous appeal that had little to do with her appearance, yet made her attractive all the same. Seraphina, by contrast, was a marble statue—beautiful, regal, solid, and elusively mysterious.
It was that façade that Kay had come for. “Been awhile, Sera. Sorry to drop by so suddenly. I was around, and I—”
“Forget it,” Seraphina said, busting into a rarely seen yet beatific smile. “I’m just glad to see you. Come inside.” She spoke the soft command with the same quiet authority Seraphina tended to say everything.
Kay did as she was told, glad Seraphina was in the mood for company. But then, Seraphina’s mood was always a guess. She left the people around her to speculate and gauge, without giving them much to go on outwardly.
That was the kind of power Kay was after. If she couldn’t be a mallet, she’d be a drop of something more subtle but just as effective. Like an odorless poison.
The apartment was a treasure for any artistically minded individual. Seraphina had an exquisite touch, blending whimsical country charm with modern elements, like stainless steel and glass surfaces. A white-washed ladder rested against a wall near a bookshelf—no television in sight—the rungs providing shelving for an array of potted herbs and small flowering plants: ivy vines, and fat, squat vases of hydrangeas in varying colors, from pale blue to vibrant violet.
“So,” Kay began, seating herself at Seraphina’s beckoning on a periwinkle tweed love seat. Probably an original from the seventies given its design, refinished to appear modern. “I hear you left the university recently.”
Seraphina was only four steps away, but in another room. From a half-sized refrigerator, she pulled out two expensive bottles of water and a bowl of trail mix. The good kind, Kay noticed, with yogurt-covered stuff. She could almost convince herself it was candy.
Seraphina handed a bottle to Kay, joined her, and set the bowl on the glass-topped table. “It’s tap,” she said, giving her own water a shake. “I reuse the bottles.”
Kay waited, comfortable and at ease. Seraphina’s quiet disposition could be comforting or intimidating, probably depending on whatever subtle vibes she gave out.
“I’m with Gallagher Interiors,” Seraphina explained, arranging her long legs on the sofa as she sat. “Or, at least, I intend to be. I’ve been through a few rounds of interviewing. I’m confident I’ll get the job, but their hiring process is intense.”
“I imagine so. I mean, they end up with a lot of city contracts, right?” Everyone, at least in Kay’s world, knew Grant Gallagher. His reputation rivaled Neve’s, though it was said he kept to himself.
“The city council voted last year to build additional offices on the grounds of the Governor’s Mansion, and it’s no secret Gallagher Interiors will end up winning the bid. I intend to run that project.”
“Wow, you really think ahead.”
Seraphina’s mouth curved into a small smile. “Building a résumé. We can’t all be Neve Harper.”
Kay had no idea what to make of the comment. Seraphina didn’t sound jealous, impetuous, nor admiring. Just stating a fact, but Kay sensed something behind the innocuous statement. Before she could ask, Seraphina pinned her with an unnervingly keen stare. Her light blue eyes were the kind that seemed to penetrate one’s mind. Neve could throw daggers, make a person feel like they’d run smack into a concrete wall. But Seraphina seemed to see right through Kay.
“Enough about me. I hear things, too. How’re you finding Free Leaf Concepts?”
Kay unlatched the door to the dam inside her. She hadn’t come here to impress Seraphina, but ask for her help. “I’m a wreck. I’m on my toes every second, because the truth is I have no formal education in this particular field. At the same time, I’m like a life-sized doll, so I have this tremendous attitude. It’s so unlike me, but without some sass, I’m afraid I’ll lose the respect I’ve earned. I’m trying to do things like I’ve watched Neve do them the last year, but it’s impossible. Because she’s Neve Harper, and I’m not.”
“Small blessings,” Seraphina interjected, straight-faced. “This city doesn’t need two.”
Surprise drew Kay’s stare. “Do you think Neve’s terrible? Of course you do.” Everyone thought Neve was terrible. “She’s not that bad, really. She’s mean as a snake, but only when someone does something stupid. She’s actually surprisingly thoughtful, in terms of managing people, discovering what makes them tick and how to earn their respect. And that’s just the problem! I can emulate her attitude. I can slay my team with a few words, effortlessly. But what I can’t seem to do is give them a reason to like me. Me. Kay Bing. They respect my authority, all right, but do they really respect me?”
Seraphina’s face was impassive, but her gaze filled with pity. “You can’t really believe that, Kay.” She settled closer. “Do you know why Neve Harper is successful?”
“Because she’s mean as a snake. She really is. I’ve been lucky, because I work too hard for her to find any fault, even when I screw up—”
“Being mean doesn’t ensure a path to success, and it certainly doesn’t buy respect, as you’re finding out.” Her fine copper eyebrows turned up at the corners questioningly. “Kay, what’s happened? This isn’t like you, to try to be someone else to achieve your goals. You don’t need to be like Neve—or me,” she said, quietly. Beneath the fringe of her penny-colored bangs, her stare was knowing. “You need to be like Kay Bing. That girl may not have a huge grasp of flora and fauna, but she’s got spunk and drive. She’s a little badass—a surprise waiting for anyone who thinks she’s as small inside as she is outside. You’re big, Kay. You’ve always been big to me. Just be yourself.”
“I can’t right now,” Kay mumbled through her fingers.
“This isn’t about flowers.” Seraphina’s tone was decisive at she arrived at the conclusion.
Kay licked her lips and blinked back emotions she’d managed to bury the last several months. “Ever do something that makes you question who you are as a person? Something that challenges your beliefs about yourself?”
Seraphina’s smile was more of a smirk, and she glanced away briefly. “Everyone does. We don’t know our own limits until we test them. Making mistakes is how we learn who we are, what we’re willing to accept.” She quirked a brow. “And what we aren’t.”
“Maybe,” Kay begrudgingly admitted. She’d definitely learned something about herself. That much was true. “I’ve always liked who I am. But then I went and did something I would’ve sworn until that very moment I wasn’t capable of. I haven’t wanted to be me ever since. Worse, I feel like I’ve forgotten how.”
Seraphina’s gaze turned to concern. “Want to talk about it?”
Kay nodded, but she couldn’t look at Seraphina anymore. She stared at her hands in her lap, clasped around the water bottle, drifting aimlessly over words on the label that blurred and meant nothing. “I didn’t tell anyone, but after Finn and I bought the cabin, he proposed. I loved him. Or, I did enough to say yes, even though I had doubts. Twenty-two, that’s a bit young, right? I think I kept the engagement to myself because, somewhere inside, I knew I wouldn’t go through with it. At least, that’s my theory. It was all in the back of my mind, but the rest of me just went along for the ride. Caught up in the moment, I guess. It’s exciting, you know? Buying property together, getting engaged. But later, it became pretty clear I didn’t love Finn as much as I thought I did, or I’d have never done what I did. I don’t hurt people, Sera. It’s not who I am.” She
was surprised by the wetness on her cheeks. She rubbed her face.
“You had a nasty breakup?”
“Finn started working for Neve when I did. A few months after Finn’s proposal, Neve sent me out to spearhead my first solo project. A mother-in-law cottage in the back gardens of this mini-mansion. Neve had other obligations, ones that required Finn, but she didn’t want to turn down any work starting out. New company, even with her name, means building clientele. And I was primed for a chance to lead, raring to go. You know me. I jump in headfirst. I actually did a great job on the cottage. I took a few hints from the cabin we did for Gavin Chambers, woodsy stuff and elegant tweaks, like fine china dishes and the most amazing antique brass—”
“Kay.” Seraphina cut into her rambling with ease. Just her name, with no inflection, was as good as a shout.
Kay’s cheeks heated, and she cleared her throat. “Sorry. The meat of it comes down to the less-skilled carpenter we hired for the cottage. Charlie Bowles. I have a thing for guys who can handle wood, apparently. It’s a good thing I wasn’t around in Jesus’s day.” She snorted softly. “I would’ve ruined everything for that guy.” She caught a warning glance from Seraphina, and swallowed. “Charlie and I, uh... we had, um... there were...”
“Relations had?”
“I cheated on Finn.” Kay ground out the words like they were glass in her mouth. “It’s so unlike me, so uncharacteristic. Like I didn’t know I wanted to play fast and loose until the option was taken away. And I told Finn, of course. He had to know. I couldn’t go through with our engagement, hiding something like that. I’m an awful liar.”
She didn’t feel better after baring her soul. She felt wretched.
Love on the Vine Page 5
