The Other Side of Greed by Lily Zante

Chapter Twenty-Nine

KYRA

Imade him blush.

My tattoos caught his attention. Brad looked at me in complete shock, as if he never expected little old me to have anything like that. I wish I could tell what shocked him the most, the tattoos or that I unexpectedly showed up. Or what I was wearing.

Who knows?

I can’t believe I spilled my guts about my ex. I don’t ever talk about him, but it didn’t feel so wrong telling Brad.

This isn’t me. But Brad makes me react like this. I fan my face as the air hits me. I can’t be like this. I’ve already wasted years on a cheating man, and my precious broken heart won’t suffer another setback. Brad is like the night sky, vast in its darkness and unknowingness. It would be better for me and my broken heart to stay away from him.

By the time I get to city hall, I’m not too late but I’m all knotted up inside like a ball of cotton wool that a litter of kittens got a hold of. I tell Simona and Fredrich about my run-in with Brad at the office, making himself at home in my chair.

Fredrich has his hand wrapped around a bottle of beer. “What was he doing there? He said he was too busy to come out with us tonight.”

“He’s still upset about his friend who was in the car accident,” I reply.

“Is she his girlfriend?” Fredrich asks.

“He doesn’t have a girlfriend,” Simona replies smoothly.

Fredrich takes a swig from his bottle. “I don’t understand why he’s so upset about it.” Simona and I stare at him, shocked.

“She’s a good friend,” I insist, but he wasn’t at the hospital. He was sitting in the office.

“A friend? Yeah, right.” Fredrich doesn’t look convinced. “She must be some friend for him to be so upset about it even now that he can’t come out to this event. Who would give up the chance to meet Elias Cardoza? The guy is a legend. Heavyweight champion of the world. How come Brad is so upset that he’s turned down this chance?”

“I’m sure he has his reasons.” Simona seems to be Brad’s biggest fan and won’t have a bad word said against him. But I wonder, all the same, especially since he was sitting at my desk and looking as if he was pretending to be the boss.

We spend the evening enjoying the fine hospitality at city hall. Soft music plays in the background and everyone is dressed up. It’s a rare night out for us and the other employees from work whom we eventually locate and hang around with for a while.

Fredrich is working the room. He’s good at this. He’s confident, and with his huge frame he stands shoulders above everyone. People seem to notice him, and he seems to bask in that sense of acknowledgment.

I’m by myself when a tall woman comes up to me. She’s dressed beautifully in a long stylish black and gold dress and a chunky gold necklace with it. Her legs seem to go on forever. It’s easy to tower over me, and even in my heels, I feel like a Hobbit standing next to her. “Are you Kyra Lewis?” she asks.

“I am. And you are?”

“Jessica Montrose. I own the Montrose Art Gallery in town. You might have heard of it?” She doesn’t offer her hand. I don’t offer mine.

“It doesn’t ring a bell.” I shake my head. I have never heard of the gallery, and I haven’t met her before.

“You’re the one who runs that …” She clicks her perfectly manicured fingers together. “That place where you make bags and jackets, and you employ people off the streets.”

“We give people a chance to get their lives back on track,” I clarify.

“You’re always in the papers,” she says, as if this annoys her.

“I try not to be.” I smile back but don’t know what to say. She seems friendly, but I can sense her judging me. It’s not her words, but her eyes that give it away.

“You’ve made such progress, given how young you are, and … and … what you do. It’s astounding.” She rakes her hand through her mane of glossy dark curls.

“Thank you.” I should ask her something about her gallery, but I know nothing about it, or her, and I can’t make polite conversation. I give her another smile, then look around and pray that Fredrich or Simona, or the others, will rescue me. When my gaze circles back, she’s still here. I catch her checking me out, her eyes slowly going over my outfit.

Something is off. Because when people approach me, it’s because they know about Redhill and they love what we do. They are interested in finding out more. “What was the name of your art gallery again?” I ask her, and when she tells me, it still doesn’t ring a bell. And yet I have the distinct impression that she seems to know of me.

“How is business?” she asks, but her eyes are dead and it seems as if she’s just going through the motions of being sociable.

“It’s … good. Business is good Why do you ask?” Someone like her would have no interest in someone like me, or in Redhill, and I know my donors. There are definitely no art gallery owners on that list as far as I can recall.

A sudden cheer bursts in the crowd and the sound of people clapping makes us both turn. Elias walks into the room, hand in hand with Harper. While everyone is staring at Elias, she catches my eye and waves at me. I wave back and silently pray for her to come and rescue me but, to my dismay, she and Elias walk to the front of the room.

There’s a short speech by someone, the party organizer, I think, and then the music starts up again and everyone starts talking again. In dismay, I see that the art gallery woman is still stuck to my side. Stuck for conversation I start to talk about the thunderstorms we had a few weeks ago. These are desperate measures, talking about the weather. I have nothing in common with her, not that commonality is the only vital ingredient in two people being able to connect. The woman gives off strange vibes and I feel on edge around her.

“Kyra!” Someone taps me on the shoulder. I’m shocked to find that it’s Elias and Harper. Shocked, because they’ve come directly to me.

Thank the lord.

“Hey,” I say, overwhelmed and relieved. “You did awesome!” I bump fists with Elias, because it seems less formal than a polite nod, and as much as I’m super excited, throwing my arms around him doesn’t seem to be appropriate either. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” he returns the compliment, his brown eyes twinkling. He must be on a high from all the adoration everyone in this room has for him.

I’m so proud of him. We, all the people in the city, are so proud of him and to have him be here, talking to me, when he has a room full of people who are so much more interesting and accomplished than me gets me giddy with excitement. I glance around for my Redhill people, for Fredrich and Simona to come over, but in my excitement, I don’t find them.

“We all watched the fight live. We were all rooting for you.”

“It was a tough fight, but it ended well.” His customary humbleness endears him to me more than ever. “Congrats on staging your event,” he says. “That was an amazing thing you guys put together.”

“You saw it?” I ask, wondering how I didn’t think to send him any photos from the event.

“It was all over social media,” Harper informs me.

I look around the room quickly and wishing that Simona and Fredrich would hurry up and get here so that they could take some of the credit. “It was one heck of a night. You winning made everyone’s day.”

“Expect to see another donation from me in the coming days.”

“Aww, thanks, Eli. We greatly appreciate anything and everything.”

His face turns serious quickly. “Glad to help. The work you guys do is important. Harper and I were saying that only someone like you could have put on an event like that with a huge movie screen.”

I laugh. “It was Fredrich’s idea, actually.” I turn to Harper. “How were you on the night?” I know she hates watching Eli fight.

“A complete wreck.” She puts her hands in front of her face as if she’s reliving the moment again. Her engagement ring sparkles under the lights and is hard to miss.

“Wow.” I take her hand and examine the rock.

“He proposed,” she says, all girlie and blushing. The two of them tell me about the proposal and we talk as if we are old friends.

The woman from the art gallery stands by silently. She remains tight-lipped, and it feels awkward having her here. She’s like an appendage my body doesn’t need. I feel duty bound to introduce her, which isn’t so great because I’ve already forgotten her name and what she does. “This is ... J...J….” My mind blanks out completely.

“Jessica Montrose.” She gives Eli a smile that has as much wattage as the necklace she’s wearing. Ignoring Harper completely, she offers Elias her hand, something she never offered me, and then she takes over the conversation, talking about the donations she has made to Eli’s various charities.

Harper and I exchange knowing looks. “You must be used to this,” I whisper so that only she can hear me.

She gives Jessica a sideways glance and rolls her eyes. “You have no idea. I should rescue him,” she mumbles. “He looks as if he’s in pain.”

“Let me make my getaway first,” I whisper back. And then I rush away.