Page 57 of The Game

I hand him my phone.

“Goddammit, I hope she’s okay.”

“I sent her a message. She’s a tough cookie. Seems to think it goes with the territory.”

Janus nods at this. “Yeah, you can’t raise your profile and benefit from that in terms of business or sponsorship or whatever the fuck it is, and then expect them to back off when there’s some more juicy stories around. That’s why Carly is so invaluable: She manages to spin it to your advantage most of the time.”

“She’s been a godsend. Even in such a short time, I don’t know what I’d do without her. I can’t thank you enough for insisting I use her. Are you sure that …”

“Adam, I don’t know what you think happened with my business, but I didn’t make it on my own. I had investors and loads of advice and help. Success is a team effort.”

I nod at this. I don’t think I’m bad at being a team player exactly; I just know my role and it’s not being a leader. I’m more the one who keeps everything on track.

About an hour later, my phone buzzes with a message:

Bit of a nightmare day.

Then:

My dog walker picked up Pepper from the practice facility at 7 a.m. this morning and the press gave her a bunch of hassle. One of them even tried to grab Pepper. The walker was freaked and ran, then bailed into a cab. She took Pepper to her mother’s house in Queens.

Crap.I tap in a reply:

Can I do anything? Come and pick you up from somewhere?

I’ve got Pepper back now, but the media are still outside my apartment building according to the doorman. Making a real nuisance of themselves. Where are you?

Still at Janus’s. Come here. We can have dinner here and chill.

“Is it okay if Anna comes here again?” I say to Janus. I turn my phone around and show him the texts.

“Goddamn it,” he growls. “Tell her to come and stay. Why don’t both of you crash here for a few days? It’ll take them a while to work out where you are, and you could do with a break from all this hassle, yeah? Tell her to bring Pepper. The cats will survive having a dog here. It’ll be good for them to have some more excitement in their lives. Plus, it’s Thanksgiving on Thursday, and I’d be on my own otherwise, so let’s do a proper dinner, the whole works.”

Janus says to come and stay for a couple of days. By then, hopefully things will have died down a bit. He said to bring Pepper, and that having a dog would be good for the cats. Hahaha.

Sounds amazing. Is he sure? He must have lost his mind.

He never had any sense to begin with. But his place is as cavernous as yours. We can put Pepper at one end and the cats at the other. He says we can do a Thanksgiving dinner together on Thursday.

I add a winky-eyed emoji. Then I type:

We can sort something with Pepper if it’s a problem.

Thanksgiving! I always forget that.

I guess we’ve both been a little distracted.

Let me organize some stuff. Give Janus a big hug from me.

You can give it to him yourself when you get here. And me!

I’m an equal opportunitieshugger.

When Anna arrives an hour later, she has Pepper on a leash and is still wearing what I presume to be her practice gear. I take in her tight shorts and top and drag my eyes away, stepping forward and pulling her into my own hug.So warm and solid.

“You found some workout clothes,” I mumble.

“Yeah, I keep some stuff in my locker. It’s surprising when it comes in useful, and, despite everything, I had a decent practice. Mainly fueled by anger at all this bullshit.”

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