Jack:I can send you the code for the gate.
Esme:Right, but I can’t just walk through the front door. She’ll think I’m an intruder.
Good point.
Esme:But I don’t want to do the surprise over the intercom.
Jack:What time are you arriving, roughly?
Esme:My plane lands at four thirty, so I’ll probably get there around six.
Jack:Can you sneak around the main house to where I am in the pool house? There’s a gate on the driveway toget onto the property, then a second gate on the side of the house that you walk through to get to the pool. I’ll send you the codes for both. Once you’re here, you can enter the main house through the back. I have a fob for the back door.
Esme:But isn’t she going to panic if someone comes in her back door just as much as she would have the front?
Damn it, he was going to have to cop to the TV machinations.
Jack:Your mom and I have a TV date for Wednesday night, so she’ll be home and expecting me through that door. So she won’t be alarmed when that door opens.
Esme:You and my mom have a date?
She sent a bunch of emojis he didn’t bother trying to parse.
Jack:Not that kind of date.
She sent several dozen more emojis, most of which seemed to be variations on a sad face. Did shewanther divorced mother to be dating him? These Kellermoon women were confusing.
Jack had been too quick to designate himself a superspy. He was writing on Wednesday afternoon when Blair derailed his hard-won plans.
Blair:I’m really sorry to do this, but I am going to have to take a rain check on TV tonight, or else be late. Like maybe as late as 8 or 9.
No. He had one job!
Jack:Really?
No, you idiot, she’s lying.
Blair:Yeah, I’m getting ready for year-end. I’m buried in financial spreadsheets. But I’m actually on a roll, so I’m just going to power through.
Damn it.
Blair:You can watch the next episode without me if you don’t want to wait.
Jack:I’m not watching it without you.
She sent him an emoji that was a little happy face with tiny hearts floating around its head. Dear God.
He needed something big, something bold, to get her home.
Jack:I was hoping you’d read the first two chapters of my book.
She didn’t answer for a long time.
Once again: damn it.
Blair:Can you send them to me and I’ll take a quick break and read them right now?
Jack:No email. I can print them out for you, but you have to read them here. Sorry, I know that soundsself-impressed and paranoiac, but I’m done sending around my works in progress.
