"Wow. He's made an impression on you!" Jules looked immaculate in mint green yoga pants and a matching vest, set off beautifully with a knitted sweater and a bottle of Napa sauvignon blanc.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, letting her sweep past me into the house.
Jules snuggled onto the living room sofa in a practiced motion while I sat flicking channels. "The beard, Zeph!"
I scratched absent-mindedly at the week's worth of stubble that was starting to annoy my jaw. I hadn't looked in a mirror for a few days, and voilà, I had gotten myself a beard.
"I kinda just...forgot to shave."
"I love it! It's so funny that you're wearing his clothes and now you have a beard too. Please don't let him talk to you about the merits of Chuck Taylors."
"Will hasn't noticed the beard," I replied. "But he's already bought me the Chuck Taylors, sorry Jules."
Jules giggled even more. "It really suits you, anyways. And tell him that his clothes look way better on you."
This woman.
"I didn't know I had enough hair to grow a beard," I said, sliding my hands down my jaw in imitation of Will when he was thinking. "Cal always wanted me clean-shaven. I wanna stay stubbly forever just for that reason."
Jules stiffened. "Was he your ex?" she asked, her eyes darting between me and the porch windows, like Cal was about to leap in through them.
"That's one way of describing him, I guess," I replied, impressed at how little time it had taken for this evening to become all about me and my shit.
"Well he sounds like a total fucking asshole." The casual fury with which she said it made me almost spit out my wine.
Jules was so unlike Will, it was astounding that they were friends at all. But I'd seen how careful she was with him. She obviously didn't think that she needed to be as careful with me.
"In full agreement there, sister." I held up my glass and Jules clinked hers against it. "What do you wanna watch? I was thinking about a costume drama."
"Sure. I love British accents," Jules said. "British people can insult you in the politest and most poetic way, and you feel grateful for it."
"I love that too," I chuckled into my sauvignon blanc. "I was obsessed with British guys in high school. I even applied to a microbiology summer school at Oxford University, since I was convinced that I wanted a British boyfriend. But my application was rejected so I applied to UC Maria's pre-med summer school instead." Jules stayed silent at that, aware that my time in Maria hadn't been the brief summer of romance and discovery that I'd expected it to be. "But at least my English is pretty good now that I've watched so many historical dramas," I said, trying to recover our good mood. Sigma's poisonous weeds always seemed to strangle my conversations.
Neither of us paid too much attention to the movie. "I love the costumes, but I prefer telenovelas really," said Jules, already on her second glass of wine. I needed to keep up. "My tastes are too low-brow for you and Will, though."
"I can be pretty low-brow!"
"Says the pianist," she replied, pointing a manicured finger at the black oblong in the darkened sunroom. "That's Will's from when he was a kid."
"I play piano a little, so Will dusted it off for me in case I get bored."
It was a hell of an understatement. With no Will around to pester, I'd just eaten breakfast and then launched unthinkingly into a grueling day of practice. As much as I hated to admit it, the only actual skill that I had was piano, so I'd been thinking of a way to pay Will back that involved the little keyboard. I had the nucleus of an idea condensing in the dustclouds in my mind, slowly gathering mass and momentum, but not quite stable yet.
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The Sigma Asset 🏳️🌈 (bxb)║AMBYS WINNER 2022
Mystery / Thriller**AMBYS 2022 WINNER** He'll never play piano again. That's what virtuoso pianist Zephyr has vowed to himself after escaping Sigma, the sprawling criminal organisation that once held him--and still holds his friends--captive in California's mega-city...
