A Better Kind of Trouble

Kim, a thirty-year-old caterer, began supplying food for the performances and quickly discovered that Kai forgot to eat while making jokes about hunger. She brought him a plate after rehearsal, sat on a table in a fitted green dress, and waited until he noticed she had stopped discussing work. "You can ask me something that does not involve portions," she suggested. He did. Their first evening ended with a kiss outside her door, and the second lasted until the morning rain. Kim wanted warmth, ambition and eventually a steady home. Kai liked her directness, although he had not yet learned how much courage it took to give an equally direct answer.

Dee, a thirty-three-year-old hairdresser, prepared the wigs that made his grand-entrance character look magnificently ridiculous. At her salon she draped a cape over him, leaned close to his ear and asked whether he was always this quiet around women holding scissors. He said his survival instincts were excellent. Dee invited him out after closing and proved considerably harder to make laugh than a paying audience. When he finally succeeded, she kissed him beside her car. They kept their flirtation brief and cheerful. Dee later chose somebody less likely to turn an unfortunate haircut into a rehearsal note, and charged Kai properly for every wig thereafter.

Shan, a twenty-seven-year-old sound technician, could hear a failing cable before Kai had decided which pocket contained his phone. She liked his insistence on paying the crew before rewarding himself. After a long evening she shared a taxi with him, rested against his shoulder, and asked if he wanted to stop talking about work. They went to dinner another night and found the attraction real but their habits incompatible: Shan wanted an orderly private life, Kai kept mentally rewriting breakfast. She told him so without anger. He kept hiring her for her skill, and she continued pointing out that a famous man should still know where his own microphone was.

Lia, a twenty-nine-year-old hotel receptionist, came to a show on her evening off and challenged Kai to make her laugh without using a microphone. On their walk afterward he attempted an impression of a man pretending not to be lost. She stopped him by kissing him beneath a light outside a closed shop. Lia wanted to study hospitality management and leave her current job. Kai encouraged the plan rather than offering to become one. When she later moved for training, their dates ended kindly. She sent him a photograph in her new work uniform and asked whether his supposedly wealthy character had finally learned how to book a room.

Maya, a thirty-two-year-old illustrator, designed posters and an animated version of his pompous comic character. She was calm until somebody called her work "a little drawing." At her exhibition she slipped an arm through Kai's, asked whether he could behave like a guest rather than a host, and kept him close for the evening. Their brief romance ended when she wanted a more settled relationship than he could honestly offer. Maya retained her own art rights, licensed particular work to the company and grew a studio of her own. When her first major commission arrived, Kai brought flowers and managed, with effort, not to make a speech.

Rose, a thirty-one-year-old teacher, had known him casually before his return and distrusted the new version's improved listening skills. She tested them over coffee, telling him about her own plans without letting him redirect the conversation towards a show. He passed badly once, apologised, and did better. Rose wore a red dress on their next date, took his hand across the table and said he did not have to perform every time somebody looked at him. He kissed her in her quiet sitting room and understood the attraction of a life with an ordinary evening at its centre. He also knew she wanted exclusivity. He could not give it by merely wanting to be the sort of man who could.

Nia and Jade had become important in different ways. Nia could turn his rush of ideas into an evening that happened on time; Jade could make him forget time existed. He was open with both that he was seeing other people, and neither treated that as a promise of permanent freedom from difficult feelings. One night Jade found him leaving Nia's place and made a joke too sharp to be harmless. The next day Nia asked whether he had told Kim the same truth. He had, but heard the excuse in his own voice. Honesty at the beginning did not remove the need to ask whether people still wanted the arrangement.

By the end of 2017 the company had made JMD4.2 million after company tax, following JMD1.4 million in 2016. Kai could replace his borrowed shirt, buy his mother a good refrigerator and refuse jobs that paid in promises. Nia invested JMD2 million for ten per cent, and Jade invested JMD1 million plus her agreed original choreography and creative work for another ten per cent. Kai kept eighty per cent. The women chose ownership for their own reasons, without turning it into a romantic prize. On the evening they celebrated, Jade stole his new jacket, Nia stole the last slice of cake, and Kai complained that success had made him remarkably easy to rob.

Zara, a twenty-four-year-old radio host, interviewed him and later asked him out away from the station. Her on-air confidence became a shy smile over dinner. She kissed him afterward, then admitted she disliked sharing a partner even when everybody was honest about it. They left it there, with a warmth neither needed to pretend was love. Kai recorded a new clip the following morning and watched strangers share it beyond Jamaica. He was beginning to earn real money from his own characters. He was also beginning to discover that being desired by several people was simpler than deserving the trust of even one.