Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 94300 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94300 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Me: Hey, at least you didn’t fuck my sister. Apology accepted.
Bjorn: LOL! Thanks for being cool about it.
The next one in line is from Ash. I hold my breath as I read over his words.
Ash: I’m stupid to think any of this could’ve been for me, aren’t I? Why him?
I can’t deal with that loaded question right now, so I shoot him a text and apologize for mentioning him at the press conference and tell him we can talk when everything dies down. I can see how he’d assume I did this for Lennon, but it’s not that at all.
Okay, maybe a part of me is excited that I get to have Lennon for real now, but if it weren’t for Soren, I would’ve taken the out today like Lennon asked.
My phone starts ringing in my hand as an unknown call comes through. “And so it begins.”
Instead of answering, I switch my phone off again. If Damon needs me, he can call one of his friends, and if someone from the Dragons needs me, they can call Damon, so there’s no real point torturing me with phone calls I don’t want to deal with.
When I look back up, Lennon’s gone. I didn’t see him slip away while I was distracted.
“Where’d Lennon go?” I ask.
“Drink?” Jet holds up another glass.
“Why are you avoiding answering my question?”
Jets eyes don’t hold their usual spark. “He asked to be left alone for a while and went upstairs.”
Something tells me to respect his wishes, but I go after him anyway.
I bound up the stairs but hesitate outside his room. He just lost his job. He probably wants to be alone to wrap his head around that.
Then why do I get the impression he came up here to get away from me and not everyone else? I don’t have any clue why I think that, but it’s like intuition or some shit.
“Are you okay?” I ask, slipping inside his bedroom and closing the door behind me.
He’s sitting on his bed using his laptop, and he doesn’t look up at me as he grunts his response.
“What are you doing?”
“What do you think I’m doing? I’m emailing everyone I know to see if they’ve got any jobs available.”
Okay, he’s freaking out. “Everything’s going to be okay. You’ll get another job easy.”
Lennon’s fingers stop tapping away, and he glares up at me. “Do you know how many jobs there are for sports journalists out there?”
“Probably about the same amount as there are on the NHL roster,” I point out. “I know about having an unstable job.”
“Then you should know that everything won’t be okay.”
“Weren’t you thinking of quitting anyway?” I ask and immediately know it’s a mistake.
Lennon grits his teeth. “If I quit, I’d have to give two weeks’ notice, and I’d have time to find something else. I would’ve finished out the playoffs and had an opportunity to wrap my head around it. Right now, I’m up shit creek without a paddle.”
“But you’re a great reporter. Any magazine or publication will be lucky to have you.”
“There are a lot of great reporters out there, and media as an industry is practically obsolete.”
“Lennon—”
“Fuck, do you really not understand this? Imagine if what you did tonight cost you your career. Hasn’t that been your fear all along? We’ve been so worried about what coming out will do to your career, we didn’t even think about mine.”
“Wait, now you’re blaming me for this? Are you saying if you knew you’d be fired, you would’ve said something to your editor sooner?” I don’t mean to raise my voice, but I think I’m subconsciously meeting his tone.
“No, but maybe … shit, I dunno, maybe I would’ve distanced myself? Not gotten involved in”—he waves his hand between us—“whatever delusion we’re under.”
“Delusion?”
“Even before I lost my job, this was never going to work. I was going to go back to Chicago, and—”
“Noah and Matt make the New York–Chicago thing work.”
“They can move around together. We don’t have that luxury.”
“Then maybe losing your job wasn’t a bad thing, because now you can stay here.” I would love it if that happened.
“And if my next job is in Atlanta? Or Seattle? Or—”
“New York,” I suggest. “Don’t write us off because you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Lennon shakes his head. “I can’t help thinking if this was you in my position that you would hold a little resentment over us, but you’re telling me to stay calm.”
“I think you’re prematurely freaking out. You’ve got time to find another job, and if money’s an issue, I could always—”
“No. I’m not taking money from you.”
“It’d be a loan or whatever. I’m just saying there’s no need to panic yet.”
Lennon sighs. “I need some time to wrap my head around this and put some feelers out there so I don’t feel completely helpless right now. Can you … can you just let me do my thing and we’ll talk later?”