Page 127 of We Met Like This
“What was that?” Kari asked. “Are you okay?”
“I have a contract” was all I managed to get out. “Rob will sue me.”
She laughed for what felt like a full minute. “Margot, Rob can’t sue you. I came to you. And besides, Rob will get a percentage of the royalties on all my books he sold forever. Don’t worry about Rob. Do you not want me as a client? You don’t think you can sell my AI book?”
“I will sell the hell out of your AI book,” I said, even though I actually wasn’t sure I could. I loved it, though, and I could think of two editors off the top of my head who would love it too. “I might need to add a robot to my website.”
“In the messy bed behind Oliver,” Sloane whispered.
My eyes went wide. That little punk knew it was Oliver all along. Forgetting I was mad at Oliver for one moment, I mouthed,Don’t you dare tell him.
She zipped her lips with a smile.
“What do you think?” Kari said. “Will you draw up a contract and get to work? I’m going to have this book done by the end of the week.”
“Absolutely. Thank you.” I excitedly ran in place, crunching popcorn under my toes, but not caring. “I look forward to working with you.”
“We’ve been working together for years, Margot. This will be fun.” The phone went dead.
Sloane jumped up and crushed me into a hug. “Your first client is Kari freakin’ Cross!”
“I can’t believe it!” My high slowly teetered on the edge of a cliff as I thought about how complicated this was. “Kari must’ve said something to Rob. That’s why he was convinced. He’s going to kill me.”
“Thank goodness you slept with him. He’ll slink away quietly. He knows what he has to lose.”
I shook my head but smiled. “You’re right.”
“Of course I’m right. He has zero ethics and this is his own fault.”
“True.”
“How does Kari’s book end, anyway? As terribly as you imagined?”
“Yes. It’s definitely horror. Ana kills Alan per the AI’s instructions, but she’s very happy, just like the AI told her she would be. And there is no punishment since the town has vowed to live by the AI’s rules. It’s super creepy, and honestly, I kind of loved it.”
Sloane gave an ironic laugh. “I’m sorry Oliver broke you.”
“He didn’t. God, he’d be so excited about Kari becoming my first client.” My mood immediately dropped. I picked up the empty popcorn bowl and started scooping handfuls from the carpet back into it.
“You should tell him. He did take a weekend out of his life to help you with the videos.”
“He got plenty of payment for that,” I muttered.
“You’re really not going to forgive him?”
I plopped the popcorn bowl on the table and sat on the floor. “Even if I wanted to hear him out, Sloane, it’s complicated. Audrey and I may be fighting but I don’t want to hurt her.”
“Why would this hurt her so bad? I’m having a hard time understanding.”
“Because…” I tried to think of reasons to fill in after that word but was coming up blank. “I guess because he was hers at some point in the past.”
Her eyebrows popped up as if to sayexactly.
“For six months,” I said. “Eight years ago.”
“That was a tiny amount of time in the grand scheme of things.”
“And yet she still thinks she has some sort of claim on him.”
