“Okay, one assistant writes a good flyer, and now they have permission to trample all over us?” Liza knew this was a lost cause, but she just had to be on record saying this was a bad idea. The battle against Netherfield Court was the only thing that was going right. It was the cause the community had finally rallied around her on, and with her recent eviction and looming job loss, she just wanted this one thing to go right.

Granny was already moving toward her overgrown jungle of a patio. “I suppose there are some things I can show these youngbloods . . .” Granny scratched the loose turban, shifting it comically to the side. “I guess I can go. But just to the gardening,” she said, plucking a wilted leaf from the money tree she spoke to every morning.

LeDeya and Bev huffed, but Bev was the only one to speak. “Ma, how can you deny these girls the chance to meet men looking their best? Don’t nobody wanna get all dirty gardening! Oh, my nerves!” Bev grabbed the worn fabric of the armchair. Her bracelets clinked and glittered. “You want these kids stuck in this apartment for the rest of their lives? Grown women and men sleeping two to a bedroom?” Her voice wavered. “You want them just like me. Trapped.”

“These girls gotta get out of here with their minds, child, not their bodies.” Granny huffed.

“When,” Bev howled, “has that ever worked?”

Later, Liza sat alone in a darkened corner with her phone, still a little wounded by Janae siding with Bev, her thumbs tapping at her phone. The blank cursor bounced on her Instagram screen: It’s #TFW Tuesday, hotties, you know what to do. I’ll start us off! #TFW You feel completely alone in a room full of people.

ADVERSITY

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Subject: Acting CEO duties

The board would like to remind you again that it is currently not within your powers as acting CEO to amend or augment any existing portions of the budget. Rest assured, we are committed to the World Children’s Organization as much as your mother was. But we will hold no further meetings about the budget.

You were absent from three groundbreaking ceremonies, and you also declined a golf invitation from a Virginia State senator very active in DC politics. The board would like to see you out in front for the company. You are a fresh face in development, and the board wants to capitalize on some of the excitement around you.

Best,

R.H.

Dorsey raised his arms to point at another graphic. When he looked down, he was horrified to see the deep half-moons of perspiration under his arms. It was fall in Philadelphia, so he couldn’t blame the weather for the cold sweat drenching his body.

“I’m sorry, young man, what you’re proposing is tantamount to theft,” an older man grumbled.