Page 56 of Cleats and Pumps

Our only chance was to do a cease and desist against Elliottandmy former employer, and hope against hope he hadn’t already sold it.

40

Amos

“Josiah,calmdown…Yousaid Tommy is there?” I asked. Josiah was talking so fast I was having a hard time understanding him.

“Yeah, and we need to get your legal team activated right now.”

“Put me on speaker,” I said, knowing Tommy would be less dramatic, and I could figure out what this was all about.

“Hey, Amos, it’s Tommy. I’m so sorry…”

“Tell me, Tommy, what is this about?”

I heard the emotion in his voice and wanted to be there to console him. “I… well, I wrote a book. It was only meant for me. I just wanted to get all my emotions out on paper, you know, like journaling. I wasn’t going to publish it, Amos. I would never do that to you. I… I just needed to work through all the emotions around… around us.”

“Did someone take that?”

“Yeah, my house was broken into. I saw a surveillance video, and the jackass who robbed me had the laptop in his hands. He must have been intentionally looking for it.”

“But he was just some robber? I mean he’ll probably pawn it.”

“Amos, you aren’t letting me finish explaining. I worked with this guy. He’s a reporter. He knows we are connected with each other. He knows I was your roommate in college, and he’s the one who found the article I wrote about you in our college paper. He’s going to expose this story.”

I paused a moment, the impact finally hitting me. “Oh,” I said and didn’t know what else to reply, except, “What did you write?”

Tommy sucked in a breath. I could almost see him standing there, dejected. “I wrote it all down, Amos. All of what had happened up until I came to New Mexico.”

“Oh,” I said again. “So, Josiah, what can we do to stop him?”

“Like I said, you need to get in touch with your legal team, force a cease and desist on him. Maybe get the Houston police to issue an extradition order and have him arrested for breaking and entering.”

“And how likely is that to happen?”

“Not likely except that you are famous… Call your legal team, have them call me, and I’ll fill them in on all the particulars.”

“Okay, I’ll call them now,” I said, all but forgetting the reason I’d asked Josiah to call in the first place. Now wasn’t the time. I didn’t really know what I wanted right now, but I did know I didn’t want all my and Tommy’s personal shit out in the world… even if Tommy was the one who wrote it.

That’s something I’d have to deal with later. For now… I needed to contact my attorneys. See what they could do about it all.

41

Tommy

Ifeltlikeshit.Warmedover shit actually… I had really screwed up here. Stupid Elliott wouldn’t have had access to anything if I hadn’t written it down. Now, what the hell could I do to stop this? Josiah said he thought we could stop it… especially since we caught it early enough.

Elliott had only had access to the laptop for a little over forty-eight hours. Now that I was in my right mind, I knew, at most, he may have sent out inquires, but he couldn't have made a deal or sold the story yet. Maybe they’d caught it early enough. Maybe…

I went home and had a good cry, and then a long nap, then woke up and cried a little more. I’d left Amos after the last time with a promise that I’d see him again before now. We were supposed to be figuring out whether or not we were compatible enough to still date. Even though I hadn’t admitted it until now, I had come to terms with the fact that I would probably have to be his closeted lover… I didn’t really want that, but I would do it if it meant I could have him.

Now he was going to hate me. He’d see the book whether we stopped Elliott or not. He’d know, always know, I’d written hismost personal information down and let someone, a jackass, get access to it. That was on me 100 percent.

I got up, drove to a fast food joint and stuffed my face, more for something to do than anything else. I grabbed a burger and fries, then headed over to my grandma’s nursing home. She was having a bad day last time I’d shown up and didn’t recognize me, but she always recognized the distinctive burger wrapper.

I had no idea if she was having a good or bad day today, and really, it no longer mattered. I just loved her and needed to have my grandma around for a moment. Just someone who loved me, when she remembered she did, at least. Was I above bribing her with fast food? No… of course not.

She loved it and even when she was upset, that calmed her down. Screw the nurses who said she had to be on a diet. She was almost ninety years old. If they want someone to go on a diet, they could do it. Grandma could have whatever she wanted to eat especially if I was around to give it to her.

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