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"Well?" Noah asked.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Noah
"I love you. I'm deeply, painfully, forever in love with you."
I nearly choked on my water from laughing, and Tyson grabbed a few tissues from my box and handed them to me.
"She's taken," Seline reminded him as she spun around in the otherwise-empty office space beside my desk. "By your best friend."
"Sorry to disappoint," I said sarcastically as I wiped the sides of my mouth.
"You didn't." He shook his head as he scrolled through his phone to show me what made him fall in love. "You never do."
"Eh." I tilted my head back and forth, thinking of a list. Seline seemed to be of the same mind, going a step further to vocalize some.
"She almost fucked up our season two pitch for Leisah. We nearly got shelved because she wanted to bring in more romance," Seline pointed out.
I held up my hands. "It was an honest mistake, okay? I read the room wrong." The room being a test audience who hated a good time. Not everyone had taste.
"She forgot her gift for Harry on Christmas," Seline continued.
"I didn't forget," I grumbled. "I left it on the bus. Sue me for trying to lessen my carbon footprint."
"Look." Tyson held out his phone for both of us to see the headline.
Leisah's resurrection is exactly what comic fans have been waiting for.
I grabbed the phone from him to continue reading the rest out loud. "Head artists Sage Montgomery and Noah Blue breathe new life into an outdated character. Leisah isn't a strong, two-dimensional superhero who always saves the day. She fails. She's weak at times. She asks for help when necessary. It's inspiring to see a strong Black woman not have to be strong on her own…"
I scanned through the rest. The article ended with sharing the news that there's a film in the works—something that had only been briefly considered in meetings. Nothing solid, but with the good reviews, it was feeling more like a possibility.
"Did you send this to Sage?" I asked.
"It was the first thing I did," Tyson nodded with a wide grin. "We killed it. This is one of hundreds of rave reviews. Don't even get me started on the audience feedback. Noah…"
He looked around the office before leaning into us. Seline and I leaned in too, literally on the edges of our seats.
"The first print run sold two times as much as Captain," he said. "And the digital copies, Noah. God, the digital copies. We are whooping his ass."
"Holy crap." I laughed with excitement—Tyson was practically glowing.
"Let's go," Seline cheered. A few people from the Captain and Six teams looked our way, their expressions full of disdain. Oh, it was on. Like us, I was sure they didn't take kindly to not being number one at Harpy, but they were going to have to get used to it. I didn't plan on moving out of the way anytime soon.
"We have work to do," he said, breathing unevenly from the pure joy we felt at a job well done. "A lot."
"We do," I agreed.
"There's the outline," Tyson said quickly. "We need to start on the storyboard. Do you think you can have something done by Monday? Not the whole thing, of course—just something to show us?"
"I can't," I said without hesitation.
Tyson's shoulders slumped. "Why?"
I pushed my chair back to point at my calendar. "Vacation time. I have two weeks, remember?"
The disappointment on Tyson's face was a simple flash, but its appearance didn’t make me feel guilty like it once would have. I remembered how much work I'd put into getting my hand well, how many therapy sessions I had to go through before admitting my people-pleasing problem was my responsibility to fix. Boundaries weren't just for others. I needed them for myself, too. I'd harmed myself in ways others couldn't. Mending would always be my job.
