She stopped in one of the small towns that peppered the road from Orsino to the University and bought fresh produce and a bottle of decent wine. She had time to prepare a light meal while she waited for Vy.
The elevator creaked its usual complaint as it rose to their floor. Alice set the groceries on the small antique table by the door. She arranged her jacket neatly on the coat hanger, smoothed Vy's wrinkled coat and went into their kitchenette to put away the shopping.
Half an hour later, she sat on the living room couch with a glass of red wine. She didn't usually enjoy young wine, but Vy had no palate anyway, and that was the best she could find to go with the light dinner she prepared. On the coffee table in front of her, the thick, dogeared books looked at her reproachfully.
"Fine. I can do something useful while I wait."
She took a notepad and a pencil, curled her feet under herself and started reading. When the light from the window turned reddish, Alice reached for the reading lamp. The book engrossed her to the point that she didn't realize how late it was until she went to the kitchen to get another glass of wine.
The grandfather clock in the hallway told her it was eight o'clock. Vy should have been home hours ago. No missed calls or messages on her phone. On any other day, Alice would have texted her friend.
It was probably too late. Most likely TC had gotten to her. She poured the wine in the sink, washed her glass and turned off the light in the kitchen. She gathered her books and went to her room. There was no point in waiting up. Vy wasn't the type to keep secrets. She would hear from her in the morning.
She was glad that Vy had agreed to share an apartment in this creaky old building although it was far from the Law School where she had most of her classes. With her salary from Sing on top of the generous allowance from her parents and the occasional extravagant gifts from her full set of grandparents, she could afford to live there on her own. After tonight... she might have to.
She bent over the Greek text, hunting for the occasional word in the massive dictionary, while in the back of her mind, she wondered why had Isabella done it. Why would she tell TC about her?
Alice had no illusions about Isabella's loyalty. Isabella's first and only concern was her own welfare. She had been a resource to Isabella. A tool to be used to get what she wanted. And the only reason to discard a tool was when it was no longer useful. But why? Had she got what she wanted from TC and she no longer needed advice? Or her latest advices had proven so useless that Isabella decided she shouldn't listen to her anymore?
A few hours later, Vy's voice accompanied by the quiet knocking startled her.
"Alice, are you up?"
She hurried to open the door for her friend.
"What happened?" Alice asked.
"Are you busy?" Vy said, not entering her room. "Do you have a test in the morning?"
Even if she had a test in the morning, seeing Vy so distressed would be enough to give up sleep or studying.
"No. Come in. Why do you ask?"
Vy started to pace up and down Alice's study.
"Just wanted to chat," Vy said. "If you have time."
Alice looked at her curiously.
"You? Wanted to chat?"
A crease appeared on Vy's forehead. She stuck her hands in her pockets and resumed pacing.
"I feel this may require a glass of wine," Alice said and went into the kitchen.
Vy followed her in silence. Alice could sense her friend's trepidation even if she hadn't already guessed the reason for it.
She poured her a glass of wine and Vy took a long sip. Vy with a glass in her hand was a rare sight.
Alice sat on her side of the couch and looked up as her friend walked the length of the living room, going back and forth between the book case and the window. Her unruly blonde curls flowed down her shoulders. She looked like a caged lion who had been rattled by some pesky, lesser predator.
The young wine tasted fruity on her tongue, but she didn't feel appropriate to suggest eating. Food was last thing on her friend's mind.
"How was your day?" Vy asked suddenly.
Her friend had little skill in setting traps. Alice wondered if she was trying to invite her to tell her side of the story first, or she was too uneasy to go into what bothered her. Working around Vy's sensibilities was second nature to Alice. One of the ground rules of their relationship was that she would always be a safe sounding board for Vy's doubts and insecurities. That included lying to her when it was imperative. It wasn't imperative. But avoidance was safer.
"Come on, Vy. You can tell me anything. What's going on?"
Vy stopped and kept her eyes on the floor. Alice didn't like it when her friend had trouble starting. It had to be something big and unfortunately she could guess what big thing could be distressing Vy.
"I don't know if you noticed, but since you started working at Sing, I stopped talking to you about Carter."
She nodded, carefully keeping her face neutral. Of course she noticed. Vy could be so naive sometimes. She was so innocent, so oblivious about anything that wasn't overt hostility, that she talked herself into believing the rest of the world was like her. This innocence was one of the many reasons Alice loved her.
"I need to talk to someone and someone has always been you. It bothers me to keep things from you, but I owe him so much."
Guilt rose like acid reflux. How would Vy feel if she knew how many things her best friend had kept from her over the years? For her own good, to protect her confidence or to clear up some of the consequences of Vy's unthinking acts of justice.
"I understand that. It shouldn't bother you."
"But now I want to tell you something and I don't want you to use it against him on Sing."
"I promise you I won't tell Andrew anything you tell me. I never told him anything you told me," she said.
Vy averted her eyes, her reaction transparent as always. Watching Vy's remote distance crush on Andrew King was far more painful than dealing with Isabella's go-getting attitude about TC.
"Something's going on with Tim," Vy said.
Vy had three levels when it came to her mentor. Hate/resentment/hero worship - she called him TC. OK days, getting along days, equals and colleagues - he was Carter. And when she was emotionally involved, he was Tim.
"And I need your advice," Vy went on.
Alice appreciated the irony. Another of TC's girls asking her for advice. Vy's request came from her friendly nature and her genuine compassion/affection for her mentor, but it didn't make it any less ironic since Alice was one of the causes of his distress. If Vy asked for her advice it meant that she wasn't aware of her role in "Tim"'s said distress.
"Are you sure you want to get involved in this?" Alice asked.
"What do you mean? Of course I want to help him."
"Did he ask for your help?"
"You know he wouldn't."
Yes, she would know that. Alice was the TC-expert. And as such, she knew that TC was the kind of guy who didn't mind asking for help when he needed it. Pride didn't blind the man. Usually.
"He might not react well to any offers of help," she said.
She was trying to get out of the tight spot without revealing her shameful secret. If TC hadn't told her maybe, just maybe, she could hang on to Vy's good opinion of her for a little longer.
"I don't want him to know I'm helping him. I need some advice on how to take some of the pressure off him. He has to deal with some heavy stuff in his life and I want to do something to help him relax."
There she was again. Another friend asking her for help to manipulate TC. And if anyone could help TC at that moment, that was Vy. Vy's influence on him was deep enough that she would be in the perfect position to get him to relax. And no one needed to know that Vy had taken advice from someone else.
No.
TC would know.
Now that her relationship with Isabella was in the open, he'd suspect Vy might betray him the same way. It would destroy Vy's relationshi
p with him if it happened. It was going to destroy her own relationship with Vy, but not telling the truth would poison it anyway.
"Vy... There's something I need to tell you."
She must have sounded ominous enough because Vy came next to her on the couch. She even reached for her hand, but Alice pulled it back.
"I'm partly to blame for TC's current... issues."
Vy stared at her incredulous at first, then she relaxed.
"It's not about Sing. Whatever happened in the House, it's nothing you did."
"I'm not talking about Sing, either. I... I know Isabella Peters," she said.
"Oh, I didn't know that. How do you even know this is about Carter and Isabella?"
"Because he told me. We... talked this morning."
"I'm confused. What do you have to do with them splitting up?"
"They split up?" Alice asked, jumping to her feet.
Her heart pounded, and the room started spinning. That was bad. TC knowing was bad, but breaking up with the mother of his child because of what she did was horrible. Isabella and Stephen were left on their own at a time when she couldn't yet work. Isabella might have been a selfish bitch but she had no friends, no family to welcome her back, probably no substantial savings to help her deal with a small child and no income.
"You're scaring me. What did you think I was talking about? What the hell did you two talk about regarding Isabella if not this?"
Alice swallowed and tried to gather her scattered thoughts.
"He knows I helped Isabella... win him over. When they met. I told her things about him."
"How would you know things about him? He met Isabella last year. You hadn't even met TC then. Alice, I don't understand."
She took a deep breath. Truth time.
"When you prepared for the audition... I learned things about TC. I tried to see what would steer him to pick you. What would make him want you on his team, what would make him see you as his best chance to win Sing."
"What?"
"Don't worry. It didn't work with you. All my suggestions bounced off you. Starting with the song you chose for the audition to what you wore and how you acted around him."
Vy stared at her with the expression Alice had feared to see in her eyes for years. Vy's soul was so pure, her outlook on life so sunny... she abhorred manipulation.
"I'm sorry," she said.
She had to make her full confession. After that night, she might not get the chance to tell Vy anything.
"I thought she loved him. I thought it wouldn't do any harm if he got a chance to see her as more than just another woman who passed through his bed."
"How do you even know her?"
"Drama Club."
The silence stretched painfully and for the first time in their years of friendship, Alice didn't hold back. She allowed her guilt and panic to show in her voice. At that moment, Vy would have to be strong for both of them.
"I thought they'd be ok. I helped her make him see her as the woman of his dreams. I had no idea they'd break up. I thought that once they had a child, that was that. They'd make it work. She loves him and I thought he loved her, too. I.. I thought he was angry with me for the deceit. I had no idea they broke up. I didn't know that he wouldn't be able to handle it. That he would... I'm so sorry."
Vy kept staring in the middle distance, as if Alice wasn't in the room. She knew that Vy could not condone her actions. And she would see her months of silence on this subject as a betrayal of their friendship. Everything she knew about Vy told her that this revelation would be the end of their friendship.
"Say something," Alice said. "Please."
Vy's murky green eyes finally turned to her, crushing Alice with the weight of her pain.
"You lied to me, Alice. I don't know how to handle that."
Words rose in Alice's throat, choking her. She had excuses and justifications. She could argue her case and beg for forgiveness. Would it matter? Was she worthy of forgiveness?
Vy left the room without a word. Alice heard the bedroom door closing, calmly, with the finality of a prison gate. She poured herself another glass of average wine, and tried to gather her thoughts. She should get in touch with Isabella. She couldn't resent her former friend for repaying her help with this betrayal. She should offer her support. Would it be welcome? She couldn't do much more than offer financial help. Emotionally, Alice was tapped out.
There were no missed calls on her cell phone. Isabella probably didn't expect anything from her. Maybe in a few days, when the breakup sunk in, the bitter, angry calls would start.
She picked up her half full glass of wine and Vy's empty glass. She washed them, dried them, placed them neatly in their place. She wiped the kitchen sink, pulled down the cover of the bread box, turned the condiment bottles in their rack until they all faced the same way, their labels clearly visible. Everything was in its place. The kitchen looked perfectly tidy and it had never felt more alien.
Back in her room, she reached for the phone. Maybe there was something she could fix. She dialed Isabella's number. Contrary to her habit of letting the phone ring at most twenty seconds, she didn't hang up until Isabella answered.
"What do you want?"
Isabella's cold voice sounded like nails dragged on the blackboard of Alice's soul.
"I heard," she said, stopping short of saying 'from Vy'. "Do you need anything?"
"From you? What could I possibly need from you now?"
"M-money," she said with a stutter.
The silence on the other end made her squirm even worse. Unlike the Cesaras with their frank attitude to money, Alice had not been brought up with the same nonchalance about discussing financial matters. She tried to explain herself, hoping she was doing the right thing.
"I thought you're not working and you might need-"
"Your charity?" Isabella cut her off. "No."
"If you ever need... Just call me, ok?"
The only answer was the sound of the call being disconnected. She sighed. She should get it into her head that doing good deeds was not her forte. She wasn't Vy.
She tried to feel less guilty about the whole situation. She tried to tell herself that Isabella and her child were not her responsibility.
Chapter Twenty
Alice
SHE FROZE and her heartbeat shot up the moment Tim walked in the dining room. His face was a bit more gaunt than usual, or maybe she was imagining it. His usually sparkling eyes were sunken in, like they'd been at the start of the season.
He didn't seem to register her presence. Could she hope that he decided to ignore her? Out of all the scenarios she ran in her mind, she hadn't even dared to hope that indifference would be his choice. Everything she knew about him warned her to expect anger and retaliation. Indifference would come, if she was lucky, years later, after he burned the hatred out of his heart.
She was focusing on chewing and swallowing as if she had forgot how to do it.
"I want you to be with me when I work on Jade's song today," King said.
She took a sip of tea and wished she could go out and have a cigarette.
"Alice?"
"Yes?"
"Did you hear me?"
"Sorry, no. Oh, about working with Jade? Yes."
King looked at her sternly. She waited for his rebuke, but he just pursed his lips. She jumped when TC placed his tray next to hers and sat next to her.
"Good morning, gang," he said, more cheerfully than she ever heard him.
"Morning," she said and took another long sip of tea.
Her sleepless night didn't leave her with any good strategies for dealing with the post-breakup version of TC. She needed more data about this new situation before she could prepare any tactics to neutralize his anger. At the same time, her self-preservation instinct screamed at her to get the hell out of there.
To her surprise, Carter addressed her directly.
"Your help with the paperwork last round was invaluable. Can you give me a hand wi
th this new load they gave us?"
She tried to smile over the cup of tea, but when her lips obeyed the command she was sure it was a grimace of terror, not a smile. Even her eyes betrayed the panic in her soul. She looked away from him and the look on King's face annoyed her. He seemed to say 'See? There was nothing to worry about.' He was completely taken in by Carter's acting.
"Umm, we haven't finished it for our team yet," she said.
She had to hope that Andrew caught the hint and he would help her refuse.
"Excellent!" TC said. "We can meet at lunch and work on it at the same time."
"I'm afraid I have to study for a test."
This was bordering on lying. She had planned her studying schedule around her duties in the House. She had to hope that King wasn't going to comment that he didn't know about this change in schedule.
"That's a pity," Carter said. "Oh, well, I'll just leave it not done, and blame it on one of the interns. They get fired all the time."
She looked at him shocked. How could he be so callous?
The malevolent glint in his eyes pierced her. He would take his anger with her and get some poor guy fired. For some stupid papers that wouldn't take more than half an hour to get them done. He held her gaze, with the calm of a hunter who set a trap and waited for a dumb animal to walk into it.
"Don't be an ass," Andrew said. "Ask them to give you someone from the staff to help you if you really need it."
"They get so pissy about that," Carter said. "Much more fun to blame it on an intern. I have a guy in mind already. You know him," he said looking at Alice. "The guy who let you into my music room that time."
That bastard! He remembered that Mike opened the door to Music Room 3 when he showed her around the House months earlier. He was more petty and vindictive than she imagined him. And to think that she used to worship him as a musician.
"Ok. I'll do them with you during lunch."
"You will? Thank you, Alice."
#
She walked quietly next to Andrew, raking her brain to remember what they had planned for Jade.
"We finished the papers, or am I dreaming?" Andrew asked.
Rockstar vs Heiress Page 11