ALICE Ch 353

The photographs have the nudity blurred out. Alice knows that’s for the best, but she’s a little disappointed about not getting to see. She’s more disappointed about what today is going to be like with Glynda after this.

She sits on the edge of the bed, scrolling Instagram. Yes, this is going to dominate socials for their time in Singapore.

Faye comes out of the bathroom and instantly sees the look on Alice’s face, and that she’s not getting dressed yet.

“What’s wrong?”

“Umm…” Alice tries to find the right words to summarize. “You know that actress that’s been hanging around?”

Faye plops on the bed beside her. “Vivian Corbin? She’s grand. There’s a film where she’s the older woman and there’s this pretty girl at the jewelry counter and it’s old-timey and they have an affair. That was… pretty important to eleven-year-old me.”

“Well, last night she had Aki and Julieta blindfolded and on leashes naked on her balcony.” Alice shows Faye the phone.

Faye’s eyes widen, and her cheeks turn pink. “Janey.”

“And it says here that she slept with Meri and Colby and Annette and Coach Riley and Coach Adella.”

Pink turns to red. Faye looks down, embarrassed. “Oh dear.”

“Yeah, there’s uh, nobody left for her to bang. Except us. And Lora. Anyway, it’s not like Glynda ever has a good day, but today… and we have that presser this afternoon. And I have to go model tonight.”

“You look so good in those clothes,” Faye says, leaning against her.

“They’re gay white collar aunt from California clothes.”

Faye makes a little growling noise and gives her a look. Alice snorts. “OK. OK. I’m taking a shower. We’re doing this. I am functioning. I am an adult. I am getting up and not sitting here and scrolling all morning.”

Faye raises a fist. “Yes! I believe in you!”

FF1

“What do you mean she’s gone?” Annette demands.

“She’s gone. Checked out this morning,” Lora reports.

Annette ends the call with a scowl. It’s just like Viv to do this and take off. Annoyed, she calls Bea.

“Ruiz.”

“Bea? Was this what you wanted? Viv just torpedoed my team’s whole week.”

“It’s perfect. It’s just what I needed. And your drivers can still drive.”

“This scandal touches the pit crew. The pit crew matters.”

“If they mattered that much, you’d have real ones and not your crushes from back when,” Bea replies. “Listen, it’s worse than I thought. I’ve connected Orlova to a lot of people. Way more than I expected. She’s a front, Annette.”

“Oh god. What are we talking about?” Annette rubs her face as she paces her room in her pajamas. “The Russian mob?”

“No. At least, not just them. Her record is clean, and her money drives so much economic activity that she’s basically a laundromat.”

“Then what’s she doing here? Looking the part?”

“No, she’s using F1 because it travels. I think she’s trying to get her hooks into as many people as she can so that she use Formula One’s infrastructure for something. I don’t know what she wants to move. I guess it could be something as simple as ****. But all that F1 shit gets packed up and crisscrosses the globe all year, every year with minimal scrutiny because it’s all super-rich people. She made her first investment with FUTA, but she’s making moves with all the teams.”

“How’s that translate to her fucking with Alice’s car? If that’s in fact what’s going on.”

“I don’t know. We can’t rule out spite because she seems to be a bit of a character, and if I understand correctly, Alice did sort of reject her—there’s a lot of overlap with billionaires and narcissism, and that type of person doesn’t let rejection go lightly. But there might be something even worse. You know how sports betting is becoming legal in more parts of the states?”

“Yes,” Annette says, her heart sinking. Of course she knows; sports betting is a massive part of FUTA’s revenue stream at this point. Morons doing sports betting bought her third house.

“Well, I told you she’s connected to a lot of people. Those people include some of the lobbyists who were behind that legalization push.”

“No. No. No. You are not telling me that you think Irina Orlova is trying to fix Formula One races. It’s ridiculous.”

“Is it? How much money are those points worth? How much money could you earn if you took the long odds on a grand prix? But that’s just one part of it. She’s not the one doing these criminal enterprises. She’s connecting the blue collar criminals, your Russian mob or whatever, to your white collar criminals—your team owners. And I’m guessing they’re finding ways to help each other. You know those backroom poker games that you hear about sometimes? She doesn’t play, Annette. She’s the hostess. There’s someone out there who can do anything, Annette. The power is in knowing who that is and how to work with them.”

Annette has no words. She jerks the mini fridge open and grabs a canned Bloody Mary.

“We should’ve stuck to soccer,” she mutters.