Page 109 of The Ring
“Yes,” Cornelia offers her a friendly smile. “And you are?”
“Leila Jones,” she answers.
“Nice to meet you, Leila. I have a proposition for you.”
Leila looks intrigued—probably wondering what Cornelia wants or just thinking this is weird.
I wonder if she’s had strange propositions while bartending at events before or if this is her first. I know this isn’t the first time we’ve asked something strange from a bartender or a server at a party. We’ve asked for a bucket, shoes, brooms, pot, and once, West asked for condoms. And that’s to name a few.
“You see that man over there?” Cornelia points at my father, and Leila nods.
I’m almost sure now where this is going.
“I will give you a thousand pounds now,” she says, showing the cash, “and another thousand at the end of the night if, every time he orders a drink, you mess it up. And if you manage to spill a drink on him and make it look like an accident, I’ll give you another thousand.”
Just when I think I can’t love her more, she does something like this. She’s doing it to cheer me up. She knows I’m angry at my father, that I would like to fight him, but I’m not going to. This is a way to let out my frustration—a game.
We’ve done variations of this over the years. Cornelia often pulled a stunt like this when she saw someone at a party flirting with someone who wasn’t their partner or when she overheardsomeone saying something sexist. But it has been years since the last time.
It’s a childish revenge, but I don’t care. And I know she doesn’t either.
Leila thinks for a second. By the way she first looked when Cornelia explained, I was almost sure she would say no and call us crazy. But instead, she extends her hand to Cornelia and says, “Deal.”
I don’t know if she doesn’t think we’re crazy or if she doesn’t want to waste the opportunity to make two thousand pounds.
Cornelia shakes her hand, hands her the cash, and tells her she will come back to find her with the rest when the event wraps up.
Leila agrees and heads back to work.
Cornelia turns to me with a satisfied smile. “Now we just sit and wait.”
“You’re devious when you want to be,” I tell her jokingly.
Her smile grows.
God, that smile could light up the whole world. What am I saying? It could light up the whole galaxy.
“Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it,” she retorts, quoting Shakespeare—just as I did earlier. But this quote is fromMacbeth.
A very fitting quote. It reminds me of her. She sometimes likes it when people perceive her as an innocent flower, so when the serpent comes out to play, they don’t see it coming.
Chapter 66
TJ
We’ve been sitting at the table where Cornelia left her bag, watching it all unfold. Honestly, it hasn’t been as fun as I thought it would be—my father has only ordered one drink, and he just seemed mildly annoyed when they messed it up. In the end, he drank the wrong one, anyway. But if I’m with Cornelia, I’d be happy watching paint dry.
We watch Leila pass near my dad, but nothing happens.
Cornelia looks at me. We’ve been sitting in silence for most of the time, but it isn’t an awkward silence. She seems like she’s about to say something, then looks away. She’s been doing this for a while. After a moment, she looks at me again and says, “About your dad—he’s wrong. Not doing anything isn’t bad. It’s better than doing something you dislike.”
It stuns me. She has always been supportive, never making me feel bad about it. At least not until we started fighting and poking at each other, using what each of us does as ammunition. But she’s never said thatnot doing anythingis better than doing something you dislike, mostly because she knows what she’s doing—studying business and preparing to take over asCEO of a company she doesn’t care much about—is exactly that.
“He was right.” I want to choke on my own words, but it’s the truth. “His delivery was bad, but I wasn’t doing anything. Andmaybeit was better than doing something I didn’t like, but it’s not like I was actually looking for something I was passionate about. I was wandering through life, expecting it to fall from the sky.”
In a way, it did fall from the sky—or maybe, deep down, I always knew. I just hadn’t acknowledged it yet. Now that Ihave,it feels like the interest and passion were always there, waiting for me to see them.
Cornelia frowns. “Was? Past tense?”
