CHAPTER 24
The next morning, I wake to twenty-two messages from Emmy and Max. Separately. And none of them are about me being nervous over eating dinner at Wallace’s house last night.
emmersmacks:Are you feeling okay??
emmersmacks:None of the pages went up
emmersmacks:E???
emmersmacks:Did you just forget or ... ??
Apocalypse_Cow:hey so i know you’re having fun with sweet cheeks mcdimples, but people are kinda getting antsy.
Apocalypse_Cow:no pages.
Apocalypse_Cow:you feeling okay?
They go on. I throw off my covers and fall over to the computer. Type my password wrong twice for the computer and once for the forums.
LadyConstellation has thirty new private messages from forum admins asking where the new pages are. And the forums themselves—the top post in almost every subforum is someone asking if there’s an issue with the website, or something wrong with LadyConstellation, or if the pages are late.
I skip over to the website itself, where the pages go up. The latest post is still the last page from last week.
But I scheduled the post to go up. I know I did. I check the settings and there it is—in the drafts. Unpublished. I click the post button so hard my mouse flies out from beneath my hand and hits the wall.
In three years, I have never posted late. Reliability is what I sell to my fans, and they are happy to buy it.
I bring up a new forum post.
LadyConstellation:
Hey everyone—sorry about the missing post last night. Something went wrong and it didn’t get scheduled. It’s up now!
Replies flood in.
Yay!
Only one page?
Whoo!! Finally!!
How much can go wrong with post scheduling?
Just glad you’re not dead.
Fuckin’ about time. Man, a lot of work to post one page, huh?
I close the browser and swivel away from the computer, curling up in my chair and holding my head in my hands. It’s fine. It was only a few hours. As long as I get the pages in on time from now on, everything is fine.
Don’t look at the comments. Never look at the comments.
“You feeling okay, Eggs?”
“Yeah, Dad, I’m fine.”
“You haven’t come out of your room yet this morning. Your mom and I were getting worried.”
“I was asleep.”
