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“Ooh, I’m excited to see it.” I liked his work. He was a metal worker and sculptor who had a couple of pieces in prominent spots around the valley, thanks to Carly getting his talent in front of the right people. His art was always unique and breathtaking. “Any hints about what it is?”
Brooke shook her head. “I didn’t ask. I wanted to be surprised. There were a couple of vintage bike rims in the mix, and three rusted watering tins. The rest was scrap metal.”
“She said, glossing over the fact that there was at least one wooden dildo in there.” Daria tossed the comment out as if it were the most casual reply she could make.
“I don’t think I want to consider the infection implications of wood…” I pointed a look between my legs, “… down there. Besides, aren’t there splinters?”
Brooke’s blush was back. “I assure you, they’re highly polished.”
“Highly polished andverywell worn.” Daria’s tone was playful.
This was both entertaining and embarrassing. A year ago, I never would’ve had this conversation with other people, or even considered the topic. Especially in public. Especially with a woman who worked for me.
But one drunken night, I’d told Carly I wished I had friends. What a silly thing to say, but it was true. I’d spent so much time working, doing what wasproperthat I’d never really gotten close to anyone. In any way, not just romantic.
Carly made sure I wasone of the girlsafter that.
Had I been changing longer than I wanted to admit? This was a good thing, wasn’t it?
“So, are we going to talk about the elephant in the room?” Daria’s tone shifted in a blink.
This was about Joystick. I wasn’t sure why I was so certain, but I was. “Is there an elephant?”
“I got a call from a tile contractor today, someone Carly put Joystick in touch with, and the guy is severing ties,” Daria said. “When I went into the system to mark his name, I found at least three more contacts deactivated today.”
“Yeah. I don’t know what’s going on.” But I did. The moment the words left my mouth the pieces clicked. “Unless it was… Fuck.”
“Your name in that smear piece that went viral this weekend.” Daria’s voice was kind rather than accusatory. “Probably not my place to say, but fuck those guys. Why do they care whether or not we’re associated with some random former child star, when so many start-ups out there are run by megalomaniacal assholes?”
“She’s got a point,” Brooke said.
Daria did have a point, but the entire situation sank in and weighed on my mind. If this was really related to the news about Joystick, to my connection to him…
I didn’t put any of the blame on him, but if our agency was suffering because I’d hooked up with him…
There were so many bits of my job that I loved, but one of the things I could leave behind forever was that sometimes people who didn’t do anything wrong got hurt. Sometimes assholes got their way, and unpleasant steps had to be taken to fix things, even if those steps weren’t fair.
I didn’t want to think about what anot fairsolution would be in this case, but a little whisper was in my head anyway, chanting about how I was losing Joystick.
25
joystick
This weekend was incredible.I wanted a billion more like it.
Maybe notjustlike it—it would be great when I could walk again. Kandace and Eli and I could do so much more. More exploring. More playing. More living.
I hated that the bad press was stressing them both out. There wasn’t really a good way to tell someoneit’ll pass, and people will forget in a few daysuntil they’d lived the experience at least once or twice themselves.
But itwouldpass, and we’d all still be here. I needed to make sure Eli and Kandace stuck around. I needed them to know I needed them.
My brain had run out of words, apparently.
Because I was bored out of my mind sitting around this house all day with nothing to do but think. I couldn’t make much more headway on my restaurant from here, and I could only do so much massive grand gesture planning from the couch.
That was my next important task—figure out how to tell Eli I loved him. How to make sure Kandace knew she had to be a part of our lives.
And I wanted to let each of them know in such a way that no movie or TV show confession would ever hold a candle to when I told them how much they meant to me.
