“Because he was drunk and mean and maybe crazy. I don’t know. It was the first and the last I’d seen of him. And since it was almost ten years ago, it’s not relevant to any of this.”

“Jesus, Loren, let it go.” Teesha gave him a solid poke with her elbow. “Didn’t your uncle do time for insider trading?”

“Well yeah, but that’s a white-collar crime, not—”

“Said by the whitest white boy in white boy history,” Teesha tossed back. “Loren’s family’s the WASPiest of the WASPs. Three generations of high-class, high-priced lawyers.”

“So he likes to argue,” Adrian said.

“You got that. You say up, Loren’s going to say down and go off about it for an hour.”

“Up depends on where you’re standing.”

Teesha poked him again. “Don’t get him started.”

“Well, we’re standing down here, so we’re going in, then up. Hi, George.”

The doorman gave Adrian a big smile as he opened the door. “How was school today?”

“Same as always. This is Hector. And Teesha and Loren. They’ll be visiting now and again.”

“All right. You all have a real nice day.”

As they crossed the fragrant lobby with its small, exclusive shops, Adrian took out her key swipe. She passed the banks of elevators to one marked PRIVATE. PENTHOUSE A.

“If you decide to come Saturday, I’ll give your names to security and the desk. The desk will call up, and I can release the elevator to bring you up.”

“How high up are you?” Loren asked as they got on.

“Forty-eighth floor. That’s the rooftop level.”

“Uh-oh,” Teesha murmured as Loren blanched. “He’s got a thing about heights.”

Since that hadn’t come out in her research on him, she turned to him now with genuine sympathy.

“Sorry. You don’t have to come out to the terrace.”

“It’s no big.” He stuck his hands in his pockets. “No big. I’m cool on it. I’m cool.”

The opposite thereof, Adrian thought, as he already had a little bead of sweat sliding down his right temple.

But she let it go. Nobody liked being embarrassed.

“Well, anyway, you’d take the other elevator on Saturday, and that would bring you to the main level, front door. You need a swipe for this way, then the alarm code.”

Teesha wiggled her eyebrows. “Swank.”

And Adrian shrugged. “My mother likes swank.”

The elevator opened into Lina’s home gym. A rack of free weights ran along a mirrored wall, and racks and shelves—stability balls, yoga mats and blocks, exercise bands, jump ropes, medicine balls, and kettlebells—flanked it.

A huge flat screen dominated the wall over a long, narrow gas fireplace. In the small, open kitchen area, energy drinks filled a wine fridge. A glass-front cabinet held Yoga Baby water bottles.

A wall of glass doors opened to the expansive terrace, and the city beyond.

“No machines?” Teesha wandered the space.

“Your body’s the machine, in my mother’s world.”

“Well, organic complexities are different from mechanical complexities.”

“The Terminator had both organic and mechanical complexities,” Loren pointed out.

“We’re years from Skynet,” Teesha pointed out. “Anyway, I get she means you use your body, your body weight, keep it in tune and all that.”

Adrian waited a beat. “Right. There’s a bathroom around the left of the kitchen if anybody needs it.” Adrian unlocked and pulled open the glass doors. “I want to do the videos out here.”

“Awesome.” Hector stepped out. “Awesome. We’ll want to move the furniture, have a clear space.” He glanced over to the hot tub humming under its cover on a platform. “And turn that off. You get some city noises, even way up here, but that’ll just add to it. Shoot this way, you get the river in the background.”

“And the sunrise,” Adrian added. “For the sunset shoots, we go the other way. You could see the Chrysler Building, the Empire State. I’m not sure what’s best for late morning or afternoon. I just want different angles.”

“Yeah, yeah. I can maybe hit my dad up for some equipment, bounce the light. Maybe he’d let me use his good camera.”

“Hector’s dad’s a cinematographer.” Loren spoke from just inside the doorway, where he’d stopped. And stayed. “He’s on Blue Line—the cop show. So, is there like anything to drink besides that health stuff? Like, you know, sodas?”

“Banned in this house—but I’ll get some for Saturday. There’s juice down in the main kitchen.”

“I’ll live without it.”

“Okay, so …” Hector did another walk around, studying angles. “Can we do like a rehearsal, one segment, get a solid feel?”

“Oh, sure. I need to change. I can’t work out in this.”

“How about you do that?” Teesha said. “Me and Hector can move some of the furniture. Loren can go out and maybe buy some Cokes.”

“There’s a shop right off the lobby downstairs if you want.” Adrian walked back, dug into her backpack, and took out ten dollars. “On me.”

“Cool.”

By the time Adrian had changed into yoga pants and a tank, Hector and Teesha had muscled two tables, two sofas, and a chair to the far side of the terrace.

She brought out a yoga mat, angled it so she faced southeast.

“I tested this out the other day, and you should be able to get me, the river, the sunrise.”

“I’m gonna video with my camera, just to test it. I mean, the light’ll be different and all that jazz, but we can check the timing, the angles, and I can plan better.”

“Great.” She glanced back as the elevator opened. Loren put her swipe on top of her backpack, then set the bag on the counter in the kitchen.

“Got Cokes, got some chips and stuff.”

Adrian thought of her mother, and had to laugh. “That would be the first time either of those came into this place since we moved in.”

“Man, what do you eat?”

“You mean for snacks?” Adrian smiled at Loren as he passed out Cokes. “Fruit, raw veggies, hummus, almonds, baked sweet potato fries are sometimes acceptable. It’s not so bad. I’m used to it.”

“Your mom’s way strict.”

“Fitness and nutrition? That’s her religion. She practices what she preaches, so it’s hard to bitch too much. Anyway.” She stepped to the front of her mat. “I want to do this, like I said, without the vocals, then voice-over after.”

“Fifteen, right?” Teesha pulled out her phone. “I’ll time it.”

She’d practiced the routine countless times, tweaked it until she felt it met her goals. A gentle and, well, pretty morning salute to the sun.

She let her mind go.

Since she was used to camera and crew when she did videos with her mother, Hector and the others didn’t distract her. When she ended with Savasana, she added the vocals.

“I’m going to talk this part out now, so you don’t think I’ve just fallen asleep. The voice-over’s going to instruct how to breathe, how to empty the mind, allow the body to fully let go. Relaxing from the toes, to the ankles, the shins, and up the body, how to visualize soft colors or light on inhales, expel dark and stress on the exhales.”