Lex:
Just got home.
Eli:
Did you have a good flight?
Lex:
Sure. Nothing exciting, so that’s perfect for me. I’m going to go see Dad.
Eli:
Tell him hi from me, and I hope you get to rest. No practice tomorrow, right?
God, itdoesthings to me when he says shit like that, when I’m faced with irrefutable evidence of how much he cares about me.
And now I’m going to have to survive every day like this, since I made him a promise, and I’m not about to break it.
Lex:
No, I have all day to myself.
We sign off on a promise to catch up later tonight, since he has to go to the office, and I... can’t stand it anymore.
Yeah, I’m not going to have to see any of those assholes today or tomorrow, but what about after?
Am I really going to just keep taking it on the chin?
No.
I’m not.
With that in mind, I call Patrick, my agent, and get to work on that plan to get me the fuck away from the LA Empire.
Maybe I won’t go visit Dad today after all, because the last thing I need is to break yet another person’s heart.
6
Eli
Lex’s text letting me know they’re about to take off from Buffalo is the first thing I see when I wake up late Friday morning, the next is a text from Harrison.
I groan into my pillow. Just the thought of having to plummet back to the real world after the most surreal day of my life is annoying, and getting back to actually working might push me into pissed territory. But that’s not really Harrison’s problem, so I get up, move through my morning routine, and go to my kitchen to get some coffee before I park myself at my desk.
First thing I do is open the flight tracker app and find Lex’s flight so I can follow him as he makes his way across the country.
Next, I check in quickly with Kraken13, the hacker who works for the Dempsey family who is now apparently my mentee. I know from the couple of conversations we’ve had this past week that he won’t be awake yet, but this way he’s going to reach out as soon as he is.
After that, I quickly catch up with my main engineer at ECS and everything looks to be going great. I promise to make it to the office after noon, and then it’s time to face the music.
Lex is still at least two hours away from landing in LA, so there’s really no avoiding it.
He’s not completely out of touch with technology, but I know Harrison prefers a phone call, so I make sure it’s going to be secure and no one will be able to tap in, then I call him.
“Hey, Eli. Thanks for getting back to me.” I can tell he’s walking around and feel bad instantly.
“Sorry for not checking if this was a good time. I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
