The Wangs vs. the World(71)

“Saina?”

“Yes? Sorry, it’s just a lot to take in.”

“I know. It, well, it gets a little worse.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your investment account is tied up with your trust, so all of those assets are frozen as well. But look, we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that everything that you brought in is treated separately.”



By the time she finished the conversation, Leo and Graham were looking up at her, quiet. She put the phone back in her pocket as Leo stood and gripped her arms.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

Sometimes Saina wished that she had more friends with trust funds. It would just make things easier. Life wouldn’t be as hard to explain. She could complain about losing millions of dollars she’d never earned in the first place without feeling like she didn’t deserve to be upset about it.

“Nothing, it’s okay, let’s go.”

He held on to her. “Hey. Tell me.”

“You’re going to think it’s crazy.”

“I’m okay with crazy.”

“It wasn’t Grayson or anything.”

“I know that. I’m not worried about that.”

And she saw that he wasn’t. She was wrong. He had more faith in her sureness than she did. He was just worried because she was worried. It was a novel thing. A nice thing. A good thing.

“It was my accountant.” She glanced over at Graham.

“Is this a private couple talk?”

“No. It’s just, stuff . . . that I don’t know if I want to be unprivate about.” She had seen people change around her when they found out the selling price of her work or the contents of her bank account. She had seen Grayson change, and in her starry-eyed lust she had just decided that it was him, falling more in love with her. It felt like that sometimes—people would get brighter, louder, quicker to laugh, and more eager—as if the very existence of those dollars were an electric conduit.

Saina shrugged. What did it matter? The money was all gone anyway. She was sure of it. She should be devastated, but instead she just felt numb.

She looked at Leo. “You know how my dad’s going through the bankruptcy?” He nodded. She turned to Graham. “Did Leo tell you?”

Graham swatted the air in front of him. “No way. You think this guy would ever tell me about anything that you might want to keep to yourself? Unh-unh. He’s like a vault.”

“Well, basically, it turns out that my accounts are still completely tied up with my dad’s company, so everything’s frozen right now. And I might lose it all.” Saying it out loud made her heart bottom out a bit.

“So, give us a little context here,” said Graham. “Just how shitty is this? If my accounts were frozen, it would probably be a good thing because then they’d have to stop charging me for dropping under two thousand dollars.”

“It’s a little more than that.”

They waited.

“More like a few million.”

Graham fell off the seat. Leo let go of her arms.

“You ate here when you were a millionaire and you never demanded my best bottle? Not once? What’s the point of rich friends if they don’t buy out your wine list?”

Underneath Graham’s antic tirade, Leo said, “You never told me that.”

“I sort of told you.”

Leo shook his head.

“I told you about my dad, and how the business went under, and how he was losing the house.”

“But you didn’t tell me about you.”

“I guess I just thought that you assumed.”

“That you had a trust fund?”

“Well, yeah.”

“What did you mean by accounts, plural?”

“I had a career, Leo. Have. I have a career. I did well.”

“I knew that. I guess I just didn’t think about the money part—”

“How did you think I bought the house?”

“It’s upstate New York. I just figured that a down payment out here was like rent in New York.”

“I don’t have a mortgage.”

“Whoa.” That was Graham again. “Okay, that’s probably like the most baller thing you can say as an adult. From now on, my goal in life is going to be to say that someday. Mortgage? I don’t got no f*cking mortgage!”

Saina laughed and turned back to Leo. “Are you mad?”

His hands returned finally, one spanning her waist, the other back on her arm. She felt instantly warmed and leaned against him. This was what she’d missed, what had made her seek out Leo as soon as Grayson had packed up his pile of T-shirts: Their shared physical shorthand, the way they responded perfectly to each other’s bodily cues so that they knew when to entwine and when to separate without a word of discussion.

“No, Saina. No.” He kissed her, inhaling slowly as his lips pressed against her cheek. “I’m just surprised. And I like us to tell each other things.”

Saina turned to face him, pressing her body against his. “I know, but this was a hard thing to tell. I guess, in a way, it’s easier to say it to you now that the money’s all gone.” Gone. The word echoed in her head and she repeated it. “Gone.” It echoed again, making her feel hollow inside, her brain tumbling down her throat and pounding against her heart, as if the money were the only thing that had filled her up and kept everything in its proper place.