Page 24 of Red Flag, Green Light

Am I, by far, her favorite author—which I’m one hundred percent sure isn’t just something she tells all her clients? Absolutely.

Does that mean I can say,lol, keep your schedule clear, idk when the flag this book will be ready?

…

I open up our message thread.

Rouge: lol, keep your schedule clear, idk when this book is coming out

Her response is near immediate.

Sara: I can’t do that.

Ha, yeah. I did figure. You miss all the shots you don’t take, though.

Sara: You’re normally the one sending me color-coded schedules with dates blocked off a year in advance. What’s going on? Is everything okay?

Rouge: Everything is fine.

It’s just my big brother, who normally blitzes through hiswork and writesMars, fix thiswhenever he hits a wall, has decided he’d much rather bang his head into it instead of just letting me use my wrecking ball.

Sara: Convincing.

Sara: I need to book my spring. So I can afford food. And other mildly important things of that nature.

Rouge: Like bail? For all the spring crimes you’re planning?

Sara: Precisely.

Sara: Soo…where’s my book?

If Jove wants to write and publish a Flag Day book, I will need a spot in spring. Our early readers will need their copies at least a week in advance. The best I can do is give Jove until the end of May. So, I type:

Rouge: How’s the end of May looking for you?

Sara: I have the week of the 20th available.

That will have to do then. But also…I don’t want her using the excuse of needing to work to cut the planning time for our Flag Day festival short.

Rouge: What’s the rest of your schedule looking like for spring?

Sara: I’m finishing up a [redacted] novel this week, then I have something else from [redacted] in April. Why? Have you been holding out on me and intend to give me a book every week through July?

Sara: This hiatus is because you’ve been stocking up!

Sara: Oh, Rouge, you do care about me and my insatiable desires.

Mm. Yeah. Deeply so, Ceres… Deeply so.

Smiling and shaking my head, I finish the last bite of Jove’scarrot cake and tear a page out of his book—specifically his finance book, which is titledGet This Money Away From Me.

Rouge: Can I book your entire spring, around that one other client, who I suspect is Tempest Rain, as she’s the only person I’d ever share slots with willingly?

Sara: If you have books for me throughout spring, yes. A million times yes.

Rouge: And if I don’t, but I still want to pay you for them?

Sara: Darling Rouge, that is not how life works.

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