The Arrangement

The knot in my stomach tightened. I thought about all my friends, my family members, even my ex boyfriends. Everyone I’d ever known, all seeing this one photo. The guilt flooded back again, as it had while I lay on my bed. But there was something else with it this time, too.

Something like a defiance.

“This changes everything,” said Nathan. “Money’s no longer an issue.”

“Nope,” Burke agreed.

“We’re in the clear.”

“Wanna hear the best part?”

Nathan’s mouth dropped open. “Better than this?”

Burke reached down and picked up a printed copy of their novel from the small stack on the table. “This is only book one,” he said, shaking it in his hand. “Just about everyone who reads this? They get hooked into books two and three.”

“And even more books after that,” I said. “As you write them.”

“Exactly.”

I was starting to get excited now. For one, the cat was out of the bag. All the pressure I’d felt at having to keep my relationship a secret had been lifted off me at once. All the conflict, the dread, the rehearsed conversations I knew I’d have to eventually have with my family… they were all gone now. Taken away rather rudely and abruptly, but taken away nonetheless.

After today, there would be no reason to lie. Nothing to hide from anyone, regardless of what they thought. What the four of us had together might be unorthodox, but it was still ours. And the relationship was much more important to me than someone else’s acceptance.

Nathan tilted his head back and suddenly laughed long and hard. It was almost maniacal, really. Burke and I shared the same worried look.

“What?”

“Jay Summers did all this to crush our book launch,” he laughed. “But all he succeeded in doing was sending us straight to the top.”

Burke couldn’t contain a smirk himself. “Yeah. That’s pretty fucking funny.”

The joy and excitement in the room was getting infectious. I found myself laughing right along with them.

“Asshole spends his whole life in marketing,” I giggled. “Doesn’t understand marketing.”

Nathan pounded the refresh again. The bar leapt even higher this time. It triggered even more hilarity. Soon we were holding each other, tears streaming down our cheeks.

None of us even noticed Chase had returned. He entered the kitchen and tossed a strange laptop on the table. He still looked deadly serious. Flushed with adrenaline.

“What the hell’s so funny?” he asked.

Fifty-Three

KAYLEEN

It took five minutes to show Chase what had happened while he was gone.

It took him another fifteen to believe it.

“Oh my God…”

He was even more excited about the surge in sales than the rest of us. Giddy to the point where I thought his face might freeze in a permanent smile. But mostly, and I could tell this from his body language, he was just plain relieved.

“So where the fuck did you disappear to?” asked Nathan. “We were about to go out looking for you, and… whoa. Is that—”

“Yeah.”

A fan of dark red droplets spattered Chase’s right forearm, all the way up his sleeve. There was some on his hand, too. There was no mistaking what it was.