“You’re the guy who’s been calling?” Echo said. She stepped back and threw up her hands, looking at Willow. “Alright, then. I’m not getting in the middle of this. It’s not my job to referee a ping-pong match of crazy,” she said, then turned her attention back to her actual job, which for the moment was supervising electricians rigging lights and waiting for the star of the opening to wake up and check in.
Willow just stood there, right inside the door, not moving. Her shades hung down on the end of her nose, and she stared at Ray over the tops of the cat eye-shaped frames.
“You know,” Ray said, “you did try to come and visit me at my place… I thought maybe you’d be happier to see me.”
Willow said nothing. After several seconds, she blinked once, slowly, then turned and started heading back towards the spiral staircase. It was recessed in a nook in one of the divider walls they’d set up to turn the open floor into a series of halls. She walked slowly, her amply cushioned hips swaying wide from side to side. She gave no indication that she wanted Ray to follow her… no indication that she cared if he did or not… but he’d made it inside the door. She hadn’t told him to leave or not to follow.
Ray followed at a distance, not making any effort to catch up. He kept his mouth shut until he made it to the top of the spiral staircase… at which point he found Willow to be nowhere in sight.
“Don’t tell me you turned into a cat again,” he said.
“I’m already a cat,” Willow said from behind a beaded curtain. “I’m always a cat.”
Ray didn’t follow Willow back into what he assumed was her bedroom. Instead, he took a few moments to look around her office… though with the big cushy fainting couch at the front, the thick carpeting, and the mobile sculptures dangling from the ceiling, it didn’t look much like an office. There was music playing quietly, too… something soothing and atmospheric. Not Ray’s kind of music at all, and not what he associated with the Hex Kittens.
“Raaaay,” Willow whined from the back. He ignored her, instead checking out the view out her office. The location was only borderline ritzy, but being a pop star clearly paid a lot better than juggling in the park.
“Ray?” Willow called, a little more plaintive sounding this time.
A few seconds later, she did it again. Ray continued to ignore her, sitting down on her couch as she poked her head out of her back room and slowly drew closer, scrutinizing him for some sign of interest.
“I don’t need you, you know,” she said when she was a few feet away. “I have a gallery.”
“So I noticed,” Ray said. “Listen, it wasn’t even my idea to come here… I promised Broker I’d try. He knows about you and your sisters, but he doesn’t really know about you.”
“Everybody knows about me,” she said. “I’m Pussywillow, and I’m awesome.”
“Uh, yeah,” Ray said. “See, this is why this isn’t going to work.”
“So you don’t want my help with the wraiths, then?”
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