Chapter 7

Rebecca

She awoke alone, which wasn't the strange thing. Becca had gone to bed early after two nights in a row of bad dreams that kept her up half the night. This time, she wasn't awakened because of a strange, convoluted dream that gave her anxiety. Instead, it was her bladder punishing her for drinking boba tea right before bed.

It wasn't until she saw that it was well after one in the morning that she found it strange to be alone. Weren't Jane and Caitlyn supposed to be back by eleven at the latest?

They're around here somewhere. Either that or Becca's life had taken a dark turn she didn't want to think about until she had exhausted every other edge of Occam's razor.

And Occam told her to wander out into the flat, bathrobe tied tight around her as she rubbed her eyes and pushed her frizzy hair out of her face. Everything but the nightlights and the tiny power lights on the appliances in the kitchen were off. Yet Becca's astutely awakened eyesight saw Caitlyn's purse that she had carried that day hanging up in the foyer, right next to Cecelia's Betsy Johnson backpack. If there's one consistent thing about that girl, it's that she likes a certain type of designer.

So, Caitlyn had returned, at least. So where was Jane, the woman whose bed Becca had been relegated to until they found a place to move?

Well, Caitlyn's bedroom door was closed, and everyone had taken to keeping their doors locked at night ever since Cecelia moved in. Becca tried the handle anyway, pleasantly surprised to find it unlocked.

I should have known.

Caitlyn was curled up beneath her covers, hugging her pillow as she lightly snored to the beat of her white noise machine on the nightstand. Next to her, still dressed in her shirt and trousers, was Jane.

They looked like they had been deep in conversation when they drifted off to sleep. How Jane stayed asleep in her day clothes, Becca had no idea.

She could have woken Jane up and brought her properly to bed, but this was above Becca's pay grade. If Jane wanted to sleep in her wife's bed that night, so be it, but Becca was going back to the other bed now that the mystery was solved.

As soon as she closed the door, she saw a shadow moving in the living room.

"Ah!" Cecelia squeaked, a spoon in one hand and instant oatmeal in the other. "Sorry. You startled me."

"You got me too." Becca held her arms close to her torso as she got over the surprise of seeing Cecelia up and out of bed. "You okay? You've got school in the morning." God, she sounded like someone's mother. When did that happen?

"I woke up hungry."

Something seemed off about that. "You're not even in your pajamas."

Sighing, Cecelia moved across the room. "Fine. I haven't gone to bed yet.'

"Why not? Homework?"

"I'm chatting with friends back home."

Becca quickly did the math. Sure enough, it was well into tomorrow evening back in Hong Kong. "I'm not the one in charge around here, so we'll pretend we never had this conversation. Carry on."

Cecelia grinned widely enough that her teeth reflected the nightlight emanating from the hallway. "Thanks!"

We'll also ignore that it was my oatmeal you're eating. Becca made a mental note to buy extra if Cecelia was helping herself to it too.

When she returned to the bedroom, she expected to be alone, but Jane was right behind her. Hopefully, she had missed her niece being up in the middle of the night.

"Ugh, sorry, love." Jane ripped her blouse off and tossed it into her hamper. Becca crawled back into bed after shedding her bathrobe. "Fell asleep over at Cait's. Our discussion wasn't over when we got back…" She paused to yawn. "And like a knob, I passed out as soon as I laid down."

Becca tucked herself in and opened a mobile game on her phone. "I know. I saw you."

"Did you? Hope I didn't worry you."

"Only for a few seconds until I remembered you guys are so boring that there was no way you had run off to gamble all your money in Vegas. Or had been kidnapped."

"Kidnapped? Oh, my." Jane hung her bra up on the back of her door. She was in her sleep shirt before she turned around. "Make sure you're scooted over. I am coming in."

Becca held her hand up in Jane's face when she got into bed. "Did you brush your teeth?"

"No, Mum, I didn't. I will do it in the morning."

"Better not think you're kissing me, then."

"Who are you? Cait? That is the kind of thing she would say. Yaa, speaking of Cait, apparently I was the last to know that she was thinking about participating in a beauty pageant. She told me tonight. You already knew?"

"She said something about talking to you about it soon. Guess it was tonight."

"Guess so! Why did she wait so long to tell me?" Jane was beneath the covers with Becca, although the sheets and duvet were nestled tightly between their bodies. "Doesn't sound like she would be busy for more than a couple of months. She doesn't even care about winning. Ah, she has been rather rough on herself lately, huh?" Jane's hands folded behind her head, her elbow brushing against Becca's temple. Before Becca could respond, Jane continued, "She has been talking about taking you with her to the contest in New York. Did you know you have been signed up for that?"

"Apparently." Becca yawned. Thanks, Jane. Didn't she know those things were contagious? "I'm more worried about you being left here alone with your niece."

"Cece? She can take care of herself. That's how it goes in Hong Kong."

"This isn't Hong Kong, Jane. You know that. People take things like minors being by themselves way more seriously."

"She's turning sixteen!"

"I'm just saying. If neither Caitlyn nor I are here, you can't go running off without taking her with you."

"Bollocks."

"Bollocks, indeed."

Becca hated that Jane fell asleep within the next few minutes. Not that she was inclined to keep that conversation going, but it would have been nice to have some company as she forced herself back to sleep. Best I can do is ads in my mobile game. She almost forgot to turn down the sound before someone from Cameo woke Jane back up again.

"…The fourth bedroom overlooks the tree line out here." Chara Harke, the high-end real estate agent Caitlyn had hired to find the family a new, bigger place to live, opened the blinds to reveal a sun-swept yard bumping up against a grove of evergreens. "Walk-in closet, like the other bedrooms, but this one's smaller. Perfect room to use as a crafty wonderland or storage."

Becca was the only one paying attention since Caitlyn was busy texting her coach Izzy about the pageant. It was either that or being outside talking to her on the phone, and Becca shot that down before Caitlyn finished saying the idea. "This could be a good guest room," Becca said as Caitlyn glanced up from her phone. "Or Cece's room, I guess." It was too small to use as the home office, and the lack of outlets spoke to how old the home was. "What do you think?"

"Huh?" Caitlyn held her phone to her chest so it didn't look like she was reading the messages that continued to buzz in. "Oh, yes, it's nice. Bit small, though. And you know Jane will hate these floors."

Rebecca pressed her flat shoe against the original hardwood floors. "Why?"

"They're old, and they bounce. She hates bouncy floors."

Chara was still all smiles as she pointed out the original crown molding and the updated insulation to the windows. But she must have known that this house was already a dud. Not only was the style all wrong for their family, but it was high up in the Hills, where much of the city's oldest, richest money lived. While Caitlyn liked the privacy, Becca knew Jane needed more energy around her abode, and it was too far to casually swing by the downtown office for anything they needed. This is where you live if you at least partially work from home. Or had firm boundaries between work and family, which Jane and Caitlyn were still working on.

As for Becca? She was fine with anywhere, as long as she had her own room again.

When they roundtabled at the huge kitchen island counter, Becca said as much. It was only her, though. Caitlyn had gone outside to keep chatting on the phone. Thanks, Cait. Becca wasn't the one sinking money into a move, outside of any furniture she bought herself. Yet she was often the one left with Chara, who peppered her with questions as if Becca knew anything about hard budget limits or what her partners' biggest dealbreakers were outside of the obvious. It didn't help that Jane seldom came to tour homes. She was worse than Becca!

"You have to forgive Caitlyn," Becca said when she was stumped by another of the agent's questions. "She's distracted right now."

Chara finished filling out some paperwork before tucking her work tablet back into her giant tote bag. "I say this with the utmost professionalism, but you three are… tiring!"

Becca laughed at such candidness. "I'm sure we are. It doesn't help that this is spurred by a teenager now living with us for however long she'll be going to school here."

"Right. But we don't have to worry about school districts, correct? Caitlyn told me your niece is going to Winchester Academy."

"Yes. I'm sure it's a popular place to send your kids around here."

"Winchester, Douglas, and St. Ignatius are the three I see the most among my clients. In this area, the public high school is Riverside."

"The new one built a few years ago?"

"The same. Built with the generous tax funding of the people who live in its district."

"What was the high school before Riverside?"

"It's the same district, but it used to be Montgomery High. They built Riverside to accommodate overcrowding."

Uh-huh… Rebecca didn't say it, but she had a feeling that everything about the new Riverside High was carefully prepared to appeal to the wealthy families that might send their children there. And the only old-money families that sent their teens to public school had exhausted all other schools that didn't require boarding. Becca had been surprised to find out that Winchester had a healthy expulsion policy if violence or hard drugs were involved.

Not that any of this helped narrow down where to live in the city. Technically, the Hills were unincorporated county land, and Becca knew that wasn't by accident, either. Easier to keep the sheriff's office in your pockets than the city police. Most of the residents here used private services. They didn't care about the quality of the public schools or even most of the utilities. Things that continued to surprise Becca, whose only "wealthy" dating experience before Jane and Caitlyn was a woman who very much relied on local public services to get by. Just with a bigger rainy day fund and retirement ahead of her.

But now wasn't the time to think about her, the biggest piece of shit Rebecca ever had the displeasure of being entangled with. It was the time to think about the future, of a house big enough for three women who enjoyed their separate living spaces while also needing to accommodate sleepovers once or twice a week.

And now a teenager. Because why not?

"What a waste of time, huh?" Caitlyn said in the car as she simultaneously texted and put on her seatbelt. "I'm starting to think we'll never find a place before next year. Chara says that a lot of homeowners are unmotivated to sell with the current interest rates, but if we're paying cash, who cares? We'll give them plenty to buy somewhere else. Most people moving out of these houses are downsizing, anyway."

She continued to text furiously without turning the ignition. "Do you want me to drive?" Becca drolly asked from the passenger seat.

"No need." Caitlyn tossed her phone into her bag beside her and put on her sunglasses. "So! Apparently, I need to live in Iowa for the month before the pageant begins to be on the safe side of residency. And since I own that vacation property on the lake, I can't simply crash at my parents' place in Des Moines." Caitlyn finally started the car. "Feeling like an excursion to the Midwest, Becca?"

Was she allowed to say no?

"Ah, so the mask on this finally comes off," Jane said at dinner that night. She was the only one not touching Caitlyn's pork chops, which she had cooked specifically because it was one of her wife's favorite American meals. I'm on to you, Cait. Buttering up Jane to prepare her for a month-long separation? Becca saw it from a mile away. "You are ‘blowing this pop stand,' as you two like to say, so you can participate in your pageant."

"It's not like I still can't work, Lin," Caitlyn said, reciting her laundry list of rebuttals Becca had helped her come up with while they cooked dinner. "The lake house has fiber internet and perfect cell reception these days. It better, because I paid for it."

Jane sighed onto her forkful of pork chops and potato salad, two things she would push around her plate until Becca inevitably put them away in leftover containers. "And I have to stay here, of course. Without my beautiful, charming wife." She glanced at her niece, quietly eating beside her while also scrolling through her phone. "Just lonely ol' Jane, the single mum."

"Invite Lilian to come visit. Ooh, or Willow!"

Jane dropped her fork; Cecelia spat out her water.

"Are you trying to bloody kill us at the dinner table?" Jane exclaimed. "No!"

Rebecca hid her laugher behind her glass of water. "I'll be here too," she reminded Jane. "I told Caitlyn I'd come over to Iowa when it's closer to time to go to New York, but it's not like I'm chopped liver here." She nudged Caitlyn beside her. "Besides, I get to sleep in Cait's bed so I can have my privacy again." They had already worked it out, and Rebecca was excited. Cait's big bath and bed… all to myself… Until Jane started whining for attention, anyway. She'll want to do it in Caitlyn's bed. Over and over. With photographic evidence to send over the excellent cellular reception, no less.

"Are you going to be in Iowa all by yourself until then?" Jane asked.

Before Caitlyn could respond, Cecelia asked, "Where the heck is Iowa?"

"Where did you learn ‘heck'?" Jane asked.

"You want me to say ‘hell' instead? Believe it or not, I'm curtailing my cursing, Auntie."

"Do not call me Auntie. Diu! How old do you think I am?"

"You can't say diu at the dinner table!"

Even Becca knew what that swear meant, but she was staying out of this – as usual.

"I can say whatever I want at my own dinner table." Jane poked her niece in the side. "You are supposed to be on my side. My wife is threatening to regale us with a visit from your mother. Do you want that?"

"Wah! No!"

"You hear that?" Jane gestured to Caitlyn. "You made her exclaim something in Cantonese. She's supposed to be practicing her English. And her French, I guess."

"Jane," Caitlyn said while Rebecca distracted herself with her camera roll, "I'm trying to have a serious conversation about this. If it's going to be that big of a problem, I still have time to pull out of the pageant and let them find someone else. But if I'm doing it, I have to go make arrangements now. Besides…" She picked up her utensils, cutting into her porkchop. "I won't be alone those first couple of weeks. Izzy will be there as we go straight into training, and I bet my mom would love to come out if she's not too busy."

"I'm not worried about your safety, love," Jane said. "I was more worried about you being lonely."

"I won't be lonely. I'll be losing my mind from dieting, exercising, and practicing my walk for a whole month."

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

So, here I go. This was where Becca had to put down her phone and cut in, otherwise, these two would go on for an hour. "It's happening," she firmly said to both. "Cait, you're going to Iowa in October and training to be in the pageant in early November. Jane, you're staying here to look over the office and to be here for your niece, whom you promised your entire family you would take care of while she's here. I will be here for the first couple of weeks of Cait's absence, so like, I don't wanna hear it, okay? Then I'll meet up with Caitlyn in Iowa and we'll all go over to New York together. It's on Sunday, right?"

Caitlyn didn't realize that Rebecca was speaking to her at first. "I believe so. I should be able to get four tickets for friends and family to attend in the live audience."

"Perfect. The three of us and your mom."

"You remember that my mom always came to my pageants?"

"Duh."

"Ah, look, ji sang neoi," Jane said, elongating Cecelia's title in the family. "You can visit New York in November! Isn't that exciting? We'll take you out of school for a couple of days so you can be a tourist."

Cecelia shuddered. "A tourist?"

"Excuse me. Just like a local is what I mean."

"Is it okay to take her out of school for that?" Becca asked.

"I guarantee everyone else is doing it," Caitlyn answered in Jane's stead. "Cece, how many of your classmates have missed half of the school days already?"

"The ones I know by name already, or in total?"

"Oh, the ones you're friendly with."

"It's hard to be friendly with people who are never there, Aunt Cait."

"See?" Caitlyn said to Becca. "It will be fine."

She would believe it when she saw it.