Page 59 of Close Your Eyes and Count to 10

What’s going on? I’m worried.

Call me. Please let me know you’re ok.

I’m calling Angeline.

Alex??? Where are you??? Please.

Angeline could feel Lucia’s despair, her worry. She didn’t like Lucia especially, but she knew what it was like to be on the worried end of a text chain. How many times had she waited by the phone when Mav was off on one of hisquests, as he liked to call them.

“How do you live like this?” Lucia had asked Angeline one night at an Extreme dinner where they’d both had too much to drink. The boys were loud, swapping stories about Mav—Mav wiping out in Hawaii, Mav getting arrested in Mexico, Mav disappearing in Shanghai for a full day.

Lucia was a small woman, with big soulful eyes, a mane of dark hair. She and Alex had met in Brazil, and like any nerd who fell in love for the first time, Alex fell hard. Within a year, they were married, and Lucia was pregnant.

“Live like what?” Angeline had asked, surprised. They hadn’t talked much. None of the guys liked her and thought that she waschanging Alex.

But Lucia had just looked at her with something like pity. “Never mind,” she said. “Not my business.”

Angeline was about to press when Lucia rose, whispered something to Alex. A moment later they both got up, calling out their goodbyes, as the boys all jeered and tried to convince them to stay.

Then they left, Lucia giving them a wave and victorious smile as they went arm in arm.

“Bitch,” said Mav. “She hates us. She’s stealing Alex.”

Through the restaurant window, she saw them on the street. Lucia peered up at Alex, brushing hair out of his eyes. He had a protective arm snaked around her back, smiled down at her. She was just starting to show. Angeline was surprised by a lash of envy.

“Don’t use that word,” she said.

He lifted his palms. “She is. She’s stealing him.”

At first, they’d all suspected that Lucia was looking for a green card, a big bank account, and a man she could control. Which was probably racist and sexist as fuck. Anyway, it had quickly become clear that she was as smitten with Alex as he was with her. They were inseparable, and then the baby came. And that’s when Alex really started to pull away from the group. The truth was that they all viewed Lucia as a nuisance, an interloper, someone who made Alex less interested in them, in Extreme. Earlier that afternoon, Angeline had seen Lucia’s call come in and ignored it. Lucia had made overtures of friendship over the years, which Angeline had rebuffed.

“Talk to me,” Tavo said now.

She hesitated, then handed over the phone. She paced as he read, grappling with the words, trying to rearrange them into something that made sense. Anything that made adifferentkind of sense. Her own phone starting pinging. Mav.

What’s taking you guys so long? Make Alex come talk to me. I see his Pop right next to you, so I know he didn’t leave.

Angeline felt a chill move through her body, an unpleasant tingling of nerves.

Mav, she knew, was a cool and competent liar. A thinker.

“What is this about?” asked Tavo; he looked at her confused. “First, what offer?”

She released a long breath. The offer. The thing Mav and Alex had been fighting about for months. Mav would kill her for telling Tavo, but… “BoxOfficePlus made an offer to buy Extreme, turning it into a multiseason series and a video game. It was—is—huge, life-changing money. But Mav turned the initial offer down flat. They came back with even more money. It’s still on the table.”

Tavo stared down at the ground a moment. “Was he going to tell us?”

She shrugged, shook her head. “Mav has fifty-one percent of the shares. His vote rules. That’s how you guys set up the company.”

Alex had twenty-five, Tavo twenty, and Hector held the smallest at four percent. Those negotiations were before Angeline’s time. She had no idea why the guys ceded so much power to Mav, or how they’d decided who got what, but the truth was that Extreme was Mav and Mav was Extreme. So maybe it was only fair. They all pulled hefty salaries; they each had their role in the group. It never really seemed equitable to Angeline that Hector had the smallest share but arguably did the most work. Even so, if the sale went through, they’d all be filthy rich, not to mention BoxOfficePlus wanted them all to be part of the show, so they’d continue doing the things they loved and still get paid for it.

As far as Alex was concerned, it was a no-brainer, especially since the last couple of years had not been great financially, and they were embattled on all sides. Mav just didn’t want to cede control, to answer to anyone.

As far as a sale went, Angeline had no skin in the game, except the golden parachute promised as part of her employment contract,which Alex had helped draft. She hadn’t asked for shares as part of her contract. Hadn’t really known to ask for that at that time. Her mind didn’t work that way.

Tavo was still quiet. Then, “Is this true? Was Mav stealing money from the company?”

“No,” she said, the protest coming up from a deep place inside of her. “No way.”

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