"What's that sound?"
Wendy closed her eyes and increased the mobile phone speaker volume. "I think that's her chili cheese rolls."
Alexander laughed softly. They were talking barely over a whisper, in the off chance that their voices carried over to the other end of the call. "It sounds crunchy. I want some."
"Ssh. Dinner later."
They had each taken an end of the backseat now, Wendy leaning against one door, phone in hand, and Alexander against the other. His knees touched her leg sometimes. Alexander's role in this was over, but he kept hanging around, offering to drive, volunteering various other services. She knew it was because of her, and how she carelessly let slip that she and the boyfriend were going through a rough patch lately. For three days she'd been kicking herself already. Do not open that door. Alexander was always there on the other side of it. Waiting. Watching.
She tried not to think about it.
They heard Jane, "Elizabeth," order chili cheese rolls. And wait for them. And then walk to what they assumed was Chrysalis' car. They heard Chrysalis tell the driver to take a walk, and then car doors slammed.
The reception for the call, being transmitted by the phone in Jane's clutch, became clearer.
"Oh my god," Chrysalis was saying. "This looks…oh my god. Which one is mine again?"
"The engraving is slightly different," Jane responded.
"What engraving?"
"You didn't know? There's an M & N 25 inside yours. There's more space between characters in the copy."
"Fuck, I didn't know. I mean, I'm sure someone mentioned it before, but I didn't really look. This looks...I can't tell the difference."
"My people are artists. I understand why you'd want a copy made though. I wouldn't feel safe wearing the actual thing anywhere."
"Yes, yes exactly. I'll feel much safer walking around with this. And it looks so real!"
Wendy rolled her eyes at Alexander. "She never told ‘Elizabeth' that this is the same ring she reported stolen earlier this year, right?"
"As far as I know."
"She's worse than me."
"What does that mean?"
Wendy lightly pushed his leg with her foot, eyes warning him to be quiet. But also because she could tell what he was going to start talking about, and it would distract her, and she was on the job right now.
"Fuck. Are you kidding me?" Chrysalis was saying.
"What did Jane say? I missed it." Wendy was this close to panicking.
Alexander put a hand to her knee. "Relax. Jane just told her how much. She overpriced it."
"Overpriced it? By how much?"
"A lot. Like a million over."
And then Wendy started panicking, for real. They had a script. She gave Jane everything in detail, three responses for each possible reaction. Overpricing the fake was not in the script.
"...but I could get an actual diamond rock with that!" Chrysalis was saying.
"You better not fuck this up," Wendy hissed, to Jane, to the phone, to the ear that wasn't going to hear it. Alexander was pumping his fist in support though, and she glared at him.
"Hey. Anything to make the ten percent bigger," he said.
"It's an actual beautiful piece of jewelry," Jane was saying. "That was made by an actual expert at this. It just so happened that the design isn't original. That's not cheap, Chrysalis. I thought you'd know that."
"I'm not having a fucking copy made so I can splurge, Elizabeth. That's not what I thought it would cost."
"I haven't paid Domingo," Wendy muttered, to Alexander this time. "Jane knows that. I don't have the money to pay him for this if Jane fucks this up."
He raised a finger to his lips to shut her up.
"...the inclusion?" Jane said.
"The what?" Chrysalis wailed.
"Your ring's stone. It has a tiny flaw inside. My guy noticed it. It's unique, shaped like an S almost, if you look at it a certain way. You didn't know this? Stephen didn't tell you?"
"He didn't. I'm sure he had no idea. So what if it's flawed? Your guy should have fixed it."
"Not if it means something. You said this ring was an heirloom in his family, right? Then it means something."
"I'm not paying that much for a cracked stone!"
"It's not cracked. What you're paying for is an expert copy of your priceless precious ring, down to the imperfection that will make it appear authentic even to the people who owned it. It's probably why it's called the Sandoval Diamond. If anyone bothers to have it authenticated, which they won't, because they know for a fact that you own it now. You won't get that level of detail from someone off the street. Do you want it or not?"
A silence fell on both vehicles. Wendy's heart was jumping like a rabbit in her chest.
First of all, she couldn't afford to not pay Domingo. Or go through any delay whatsoever. Not now, not again. She thought Jane knew that. Wendy did bother to sit her down and explain inclusions, and how Domingo—a genius—was able to very nearly recreate it in his work. In case it was ever asked.
She brought Jane to Domingo's studio, that one time, showed her his legit work and later clued her in on the real source of his income. He didn't want to do this on short notice, not after the botched job from three years ago, but Wendy begged and pleaded.
"I don't know if I can get all of that right now," Chrysalis said. Wendy wasn't sure if the whiny sound was her general tone, or if she was actually about to fold on this.
"Look, you rushed me to do this," Jane said. "If you don't want this, we take it back."
"What are you going to do with it? You can't sell it. People will know it's just a copy."
"My family makes jewelry," Jane replied, like it was nothing. "We'll take this apart and make something else."
"I'm going to have a fucking heart attack," Wendy said, because they could not just "take this apart and make something else." Jane knew that right? Domingo had to be paid for this, and they weren't just going to trip over that money on the street.
"Fine," Chrysalis said, after what seemed like forever.
"Can we go back out then?" Jane said, sounding like she was chewing. "I want something cold to drink."
"I'm going home."
"So early?"
"Spending so much money makes me sleepy. Give me the ring?"
"Here's yours. I'll keep the copy until you're ready."
"Fine."
Wendy closed her eyes but kept her mouth shut, waiting as "Elizabeth" and Chrysalis said inane goodbyes. A car door slammed, its engine roared to life, and then roared itself out of earshot.
And then she leaped out of the car.
She found Jane outside the club, still chewing on a chili cheese roll, taking her sweet time. Wendy motioned for her to head back out to the parking lot, toward her, between two SUVs.
"You're welcome," Jane said.
Wendy was ready to just let it go. A simple "next time stick to the script please." But seeing the nonchalance, the complete cluelessness, the lack of—
"You don't do that again, Princess," she snapped. "You don't go off-script like that."
"What are you talking about?" Jane said. "She said yes."
"It's not over until I have the money, and this is not over. You could have shut down the whole thing!"
"Your price was too low," she said.
"My price is what we all agreed it would be."
"You don't understand how she thinks. It's too low. You have to jack it up so she'll believe it."
"How were we going to pay my supplier if she didn't take the offer?"
Jane rolled her eyes. "She took it."
Yes she did. Or at least, Chrysalis said she would. Kind of. No money had changed hands yet. "Don't make calls like that again," Wendy said. "Not when it comes to my shit."
"I'm sorry," Jane said, not sounding sorry, "but it sounds like you're yelling at me when I actually did something right. So just get it out of your system now."
"Get what out of my system?"
"Whatever it is you hate me for. Please, let's have it."
The real problem with Wendy, and the reason why she would always just be a fixer, was that she was no good at moments like this. She could write the script but not deliver it, and Jane had already turned the conversation against her.
You're only here because I can't act rich.
But it was what Jane was daring her to say, and that made Wendy not want to say it.
"Don't congratulate yourself yet," Wendy said.