Page 31 of Six Wishes

I start in the kitchen where I put all the dishes away, clean the counters and the floors. Next is the living room. I am halfway done with the boxes she had stacked in the corner when the cell phone in the pocket of my sweats starts vibrating. I take a look at the screen and sigh.

“What’s up, Chuck?” I know why he’s calling, but I don’t have an answer for him just yet.

“Have you talked to your girlfriend about Kalypsos?” He doesn’t seem to be in the mood for small talk today. And I don’t like the way he says the word girlfriend, now that I think about it. He makes it sound like an insult.

“I told you that I would call you as soon as I talked to her, Chuck. What’s the rush?”

“The rush,” Chuck enunciates in an exasperated tone, “is that these people want an answer fast. There are plenty of other athletes who would kill for this opportunity. And you were all for it until this woman turned your head,” his tone is positively snarky now. “And instead of thinking with your head, you’re thinking with your dick.”

“Hey now,” my voice goes deep, and I am fucking pissed. I’m not sure what I am missing all of a sudden when it comes to Chuck, but I am definitely missing something. “Don’t fucking talk about her in any way unless you got something nice to say, Chuck. You are replaceable. She is not.”

“You cannot be serious about this, Van,” Chuck snorts sarcastically, and I’d push him out of my way if he were standing in front of me right now. “If it weren’t for me, you would’ve never gotten half the contracts that you got. And I can make them go away just as fast,” the fucker threatens.

I’m thinking that it doesn’t bode well that we are already in the threatening phase of the program, and things with Chloe barely took off. What is his problem all of a sudden?

An idea starts forming in my head, and I do my best to keep calm and not give myself away. Chuck didn’t get where he is today without just about being able to read people’s minds. Treading carefully is a must here.

“Chuck,” I sigh, pretending to give in. I can just picture the smirk on his face at hearing it. “I’m sorry that I haven’t had a chance to talk to Chloe about this. We’ve been busy, and…”

“I can only guess what you’ve been busy doing,” Chuck feels powerful now and starts running his mouth. “You taking time to think comes out of my bottom line.”

Money. The root of all evil. It’ll ruin the best people.

“I get it,” I try to make my voice stay as calm as possible. “Give me a couple of days. Send me their contact info, and I’ll explain the delay to them.”

“You can’t talk directly to them, Van,” Chuck tells me like I’m stupid. “This is a huge contract.”

“I’ll make it right for everyone, Chuck. I promise you that.”

I hang up the phone and mull things over. There’s only one person in this world who I trust to get me out of this mess with Chuck.

Time to eat some crow.

Time to call Wyatt Knight.

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