Hoverfly Girl

by Parker Wren

  Well, I guess that meant I couldn’t update Monika on how today went. I would have to lie. I had a feeling that this would potentially be the first of many lies I would be telling if I chose to take this job. Knowing that made me sad, but it also thrilled a part of me. This is the excitement you’ve been looking for, Ariel, a small voice inside of me said. Shut up! the rational side of me replied.

  Without thinking about it too much, once I had finished reading the contract, I signed the last page and slid a copy of the contract into my bag. I figured it couldn’t hurt to agree to the non-disclosure agreement. I wasn’t committing to anything but keeping my mouth shut, and God knows I had been quite good at that for many years.

  “Okay,” I slid the contract back over to Manuel. “Let’s hear it.”

  Manuel smiled. I could tell he was pleased.

  He leaned over and put his finger on a button. I hadn’t even see the hidden speaker phone; it blended so well with the table.

  “Scarlett,” Manuel said into the phone, “can you get Dominic and bring him in?”

  “Sure thing, Mr. Gonzalez,” Scarlett replied in her overly sweet tone.

  “Thanks.” Manuel took his finger off the button.

  He smiled at me again. “Dominic will be here in just a minute. It will make more sense if I describe the job to you while he’s here, and he can offer his input.”

  I was expecting another businessman like Manuel, but the exact opposite entered the room.

  CHAPTER 5

  Dominic was dressed in jeans and a polo shirt. His hair was messy with sandy blonde wisps sticking out from under a backwards baseball cap.

  “Hey.” He reached his hand out. “You must be Ariel. I’m Dominic. But my friends call me Dom,” he said with a wink.

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I knew I shouldn’t stereotype him within seconds of meeting him, but the term “frat boy” ran through my mind. He was a couple of inches taller than me, but with my heels, our eyes were about even. He was very good-looking but in a cookie-cutter way that I didn’t find particularly appealing. Between his hair, the way he dressed, and his slightly cocky demeanor, I pegged him as someone I probably would not normally socialize with.

  I shook Dom’s hand in return. “Nice to meet you,” I said, a smile on my face. Despite any first impressions, I believed in always being polite to people. Even if my recent behavior with Manuel wasn’t quite indicative of that.

  “Have a seat, Dominic.” Manuel gestured to the chair beside me.

  “Sure,” Dom said. He seemed friendly, like everyone else in this office. I was already feeling a bit guilty for pre-judging him.

  “I was just telling Ariel about the job we’d like her to do,” Manuel said to Dom. “I will go ahead and explain things to her, but feel free to jump in whenever you’d like.”

  “Sure,” Dom repeated. “Works for me.”

  “Okay. Let’s get started then.”

  Manuel cleared his throat. “I won’t be giving you any names yet. Even though you signed the NDA, I would feel more comfortable giving you the specific details if and when you agree to take the job.”

  “Fair enough,” I replied.

  “Here is the mission, in a quick summary. Dominic over here”—Manuel gestured to Dom—“is already working on this project. Unfortunately, we haven’t made quite the progress we would have liked to, so we want to bring some fresh eyes to the situation.”

  “Hey,” Dom said, playful in his accusatory tone, “are you saying I’m not doing my job?”

  Manuel shook his head. “Now, Dominic, you know that’s not true. We’ve talked about this. This mission will be a lot easier with two people on the inside.”

  I had a feeling that that wasn’t the whole story, but I didn’t say anything.

  “Okay, just wanted to make sure new girl over here knew that,” Dom grinned.

  Manuel turned to look back at me. “The situation involves financial fraud. A very powerful player in Wall Street is being investigated by the SEC concerning a potential Ponzi scheme. We have evidence that he is funneling money to other accounts—that he is planning in advance and trying to hide money before he gets arrested, which at this point is pretty much inevitable.”

  Manuel continued. “This man is being watched very carefully and wouldn’t be able to channel the money on his own. He needs someone very close to him—someone he trusts—to do this work for him. We have ruled out most of the people that he is close to, but one person continues to come up as our top suspect: his son.”

  “Okay,” I said, prompting Manuel to continue.

  “What we need is information. We don’t necessarily need to catch the son red-handed, but we want to know how the money is being funneled. Where it is going, what the accounts are, how he is doing it. And that, Ariel, is the main purpose of your mission.”

  “You make it sound so easy,” Dom said jovially.

  Manuel laughed. “I suppose so. But we know that’s not the case.”

  “So what do you need me for?” I interjected.

  “Well, Dominic has been good friends with the son in question. They attended Harvard Business School together,” Manuel said.

  I looked at Dom, who was grinning.

  “This summer,” Manuel explained, “The son is getting a beach house with his friends on Martha’s Vineyard. We believe it will be the perfect time to find out information. The son doesn’t officially work for his father, but he does business for him from time to time, and we know that he plans to work at the beach house. The constant proximity to him over the course of many months increases the likelihood that we can get what we need.”

  “The house is sweet,” Dom said. “Did I mention that Henry is load-ed!”

  Manuel gave a look at Dom, clearly not impressed that he slipped with the son’s name. Henry.

  “I figured”—I looked at Dom—“being that his dad has a Ponzi scheme and all.”

  I turned back to Manuel. “So what does this have to do with me? You want me to befriend Henry too? How would that work?”

  “Well, we know you are fairly familiar with Martha’s Vineyard and used to vacation there as a child.” I felt my body tense as Manuel casually exposed yet another piece of my life. “Right now, Henry has invited his girlfriend, his childhood friend, and Dominic to stay for the summer. And Dominic has told Henry that he’s bringing a guest.”

  “A girlfriend.” Dom’s grin was even bigger now, and he raised his eyebrows up and down as I looked at him.

  Suddenly, I understood what I was being asked to do. Go to Martha’s Vineyard for the summer, hang out with some rich kids, and find out if this guy Henry was secretly moving and hiding money for his father. And in the meantime, pose as Dom’s girlfriend. Or—

  “Wait”—it suddenly hit me—”I have to be his girlfriend? This is all for pretend, right? I don’t actually have to be his girlfriend?”

  I expected Manuel to answer, but instead Dom jumped in. “No, you are under no obligation. Just faking it.” He gave a sly smile in reaction to his innuendo. “No offense, but you’re not exactly my type,” he said with a wink.

  What an asshole, I thought. “The feeling is mutual, buddy,” I replied, my voice icy.

  A bit of a concerned look crossed Manuel’s face, but he hid it quickly. “Okay, you two. We’ve been trying to cast a girlfriend for Dom for a while now to help with the assignment. Ariel is the perfect fit. Please try to get along.” I could tell he was annoyed at Dom for potentially ruining my recruitment session.

  Yet surprisingly, Manuel then stood up.

  “Why don’t I leave you two to talk?” He stacked his folders and placed them back in his briefcase. “Dominic can tell you more about the case. He knows to be careful with what he says.” Manuel gave a sideways look at Dom, clearly sending him a message to stay in line.

  Manuel continued. “Ariel, when you’re done, I will come talk to you again. You don’t have to decide now if you want to do the job, but if you think you mi
ght be interested, we can discuss the next steps.”

  “Okay,” I said, not yet sure what to think.

  As soon as Manuel left, Dom became more serious.

  “I’m sorry.” He appeared genuinely remorseful. “You are a very beautiful girl. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “It’s okay,” I replied, taken aback by both his apology and compliment. “Besides, we only have to fake being a couple, right?”

  Dom’s smile returned to his face. “Yes. I hope you can put up with me.”

  “Well, I guess Manuel is giving me a chance to find out.”

  “Guess so.”

  Something related to this fake relationship popped into my mind. “How do you guys even know that I’m single and that I can pretend to be your girlfriend?”

  Dom shrugged. “They have their ways. I was told you weren’t known to be in a serious relationship.”

  I felt my face turn red. I guess these people at Select Recruits lucked out as I had just ended things with the economics cheater.

  “Okay,” I said. “So we pretend to be dating. How did we meet?”

  “Oh, we’ll have to create a backstory. Something that’s easy for us to remember. Something as close to real as we can make it.”

  “Do we use our real names?” I asked. I felt very clueless as to how this process would work.

  “Yes,” Dom said. “Things will be as real as possible. It makes the deception more believable. We tell our friends and family where we really are. That part kind of sucks, having to lie to them about something in your life. In your case, I’m your new boyfriend. But it’s important you stay consistent. Other than that, keep as close to the truth as you can. You do not want to get caught.”

  “What happens if you get caught?”

  “I don’t really know,” Dom replied, shaking his head. “It’s been implied to me that you’re kind of on your own. There is nothing that can link Select Recruits to you. You get paid through some other type of ghost company for ‘consulting’ work. We’re told very little about Select Recruits, but that’s on purpose. I think they will get a lawyer for you, but the advice is to leave immediately and stay quiet if you ever suspect things are going downhill. You continuously report to Manuel too, so it’s not like they aren’t following what’s going on.”

  I thought about the implications of this job and what it could mean.

  “Have you done this before?” I asked Dom.

  “Yes, once,” Dom replied. “I’m a pretty social guy, I guess, and growing up in the circles that I’m in, there are a lot of people who… have high-profile screw-ups. I didn’t really know Henry that well before Manuel approached me. It started off as just a test, to see if I could enter his social circle. Fortunately, we both liked to party, so it was pretty easy to make Henry a friend. And that’s when I started trying to find out information.”

  Dom continued. “They do a really thorough background check on all of us. Like, really thorough. I overhead Manuel talking about you—he was saying how your background was difficult. Missing holes or something.”

  I allowed myself a small smile. I was glad parts of my life were obscured from Manuel.

  However, their incomplete record of my history confused me further. Why would Manuel pursue me for the job, then? But I had too many other things on my mind at the moment to ponder that one.

  My attention went back to Dom. “We’re not committed to the company for a long-term basis, are we?”

  Dom shook his head. “No, not at all. I was super happy when they asked me to do another job though. The money is really good. I have a feeling that if you’re good at this job and consistently show your awesomeness, you get promoted to some higher-level shit and can make this a full-time thing.”

  I nodded.

  “So what would I have to do to prepare for this… job?” I asked.

  Dom smiled at me again. “Well, you and I will have to spend some time together. And we should probably sleep together just to get that out of the way. You know, in case we’re asked by your new friends, we have to have the same stories.”

  My jaw slackened. “What?”

  Dom laughed hard. “Ha! Gotcha.” He continued laughing. “That was good. Oh man, you should have seen your face.”

  I shook my head. “Would never happen anyway. They couldn’t have paid me enough.”

  “Burn!” Dom grinned.

  I rolled my eyes at him, wondering if I could put up with this buffoon—even worse, pretend I was dating him—for the whole summer.

  I pushed through my annoyance and continued to ask Dom questions about his experience at Select Recruits, working with Manuel, and the job itself. He followed Manuel’s orders and was vague about the other residents of Henry’s summer house, except to say that he thought I would get along well with them. Even though I didn’t come from an affluent background, neither did Henry’s childhood friend, and Henry’s friends would be impressed with my educational credentials. I found out that in all seriousness, Dom and I would have to spend some more time together before the summer started to straighten out our story and learn enough about each other to be a convincing couple. I reminded him again that I would not be sleeping with him in the name of research.

  “You don’t know what you’re missing, baby”—Dom shrugged—“but it’s cool. I respect it.”

  CHAPTER 6

  After my conversation with Dom ended, Manuel came back into the room. Dom left, and Manuel asked me questions about our conversation. I quickly recapped what Dom and I had covered. Manuel nodded.

  “So… do you think you would be interested?” he asked.

  The honest truth was that I was interested. I wasn’t going to tell Dom or Manuel this, but the idea of spending the summer in Martha’s Vineyard was the most enticing aspect of the job. Not for the vacation and beach aspect, which certainly would be nice, but just to be back there again. Some of the happiest summers of my life were spent there with my father.

  “Perhaps,” I said, hedging things with Manuel.

  “This is what we’re prepared to offer you.” He slid a piece of paper with a very large number written behind a dollar sign.

  I tried not to let the shock register on my face. I wasn’t hurting for cash, but the amount meant I wouldn’t have to worry about money for a long time. And I thought about what I could do with the money concerning things I had failed with in the past.

  “Can I think about it?” I said, never willing to commit to something the moment I was offered it.

  “Yes,” Manuel said. “I’ll give you twenty-four hours. If you say yes, I will email you the contracts. We will need to talk again, quite a few times, and you will need to meet with Dominic before starting the job.”

  “I understand.”

  The rest of the day was a blur. I said goodbye to Manuel, Dom, and Scarlett. I didn’t run into anyone else as I left the office. Looking at my watch as I slid into my car, I saw that it was a little after four p. m. Great, I thought. Rush-hour traffic. I sighed and prepared myself for the long drive home.

  Dom and Manuel had given me a lot to think about. As I drove, I convinced myself quite a few times that I shouldn’t take the job. Something about it seemed like a bad idea. But then, inevitably, I went back to the decision that I had already made deep down. Eventually, as I was back on Route 29, my thoughts drifted to the summers I had spent in Martha’s Vineyard. I played through those memories, the detailed grooves worn down and likely distorted by the years that had passed, but the memories were always capable of making me happy and calm.

  CHAPTER 7

  When I returned to Charlottesville, I called Monika. I had updated her the previous evening about the meeting in D. C., but had stayed vague on the details.

  She answered on the second ring. “How did it go?”

  I took a deep breath and braced for my first lie. “Okay. But I don’t think I’m going to take the job.”

  “Oh? Why not?”

  “It just sounds really boring,
” I said, beginning the story I had planned in my mind on the way home. “They just wanted me to do research for the summer. The idea of being locked in some windowless office in the city all summer just does not sound appealing.”

  “I don’t blame you,” Monika said. “Do you have any ideas as to what you’ll do over the summer instead?”

  I inhaled another large breath. “Yeah. I’m still waiting to hear about some last-minute funding that my professor applied for. Then I could work on one of her projects this summer.” This part was true. But if we did receive the funding, I would have to tell my professor that I would be turning down the work—something she would not be happy to hear.

  I started the second lie. “And—well… there is this boy.” I winced as the words came out of my mouth.

  “Oh really?!” Monika sounded surprised. “Not Jason… right?”

  “No, no. I mean, I don’t know what’s going on exactly…” That much was true, and Dom and I hadn’t worked out our story yet. I decided to tell a third lie in order to change subjects. “Hey Mon, I have to run, but let’s get together soon.” Like after I straighten out my story with Dom, I thought.

  “Sounds good,” she replied. “Talk to you soon, Ariel!”

  “Bye bye, Mon.” I hung up the phone. I hated lying to one of my best friends, but I silently vowed to myself that I would be honest with her on every other aspect of my life.

  ------

  On Friday, I called Manuel and told him that I would accept the job. Over the weekend, I worked on a couple of papers and thought more about what the summer was going to be like. After talking to Manuel, he had emailed me the paperwork to sign. I printed them off and decided to take some time to read the contracts in detail. I considered hiring a lawyer but realized Manuel probably wouldn’t approve of me bringing another person into this. Besides, a lawyer would cost money, and I thought I could figure out these contracts myself.

  Manuel recommended that I meet up with Dom again once I had signed the paperwork to go over our backstory and have him tell me more details about the job. Manuel didn’t say it outright, but contrary to what he had told Dom, he didn’t sound that happy with Dom’s performance in getting information on Henry. Manuel made references to Dom’s “partying ways” and “lax attitude.” I was beginning to think I was being brought in to help with the situation. They couldn’t cut Dom out of the project because he had established a relationship with Henry, and he was a way in, but Manuel’s faith in Dom didn’t seem to be too high.