Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 126425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 421(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 421(@300wpm)
“Oh, she’s not going to win, Steve. Winning isn’t the point. Settling is. They sent a settlement deal.”
I grit my teeth. “What is it?”
“Twenty million.”
“What? Is she fucking insane? Rhetorical question. We all know she is. But that’s crazy, right? That’s half of my net worth!”
“It’s ludicrous. She’s completely bonkers. But…”
“But what? You’re not telling me to settle, are you?”
“No. Not exactly.”
“Then what are you telling me, Rod?”
“She said she would drop the lawsuit and call off her… troublemakers, whatever that means, if you just…”
“If I just… what?”
“Public apology. She wants a public apology.”
“Apology. For. What?”
He lets out a long sigh. “She’s got a list. Do you want to hear it? Or should I email it to you?”
“How many things are on this list?”
“Twenty-seven.”
“Twenty-seven! What the fuck?”
“I’ll email it. You think on it. You have until eight o’clock Eastern. She wants it to be prime time and online—your Tube account, or your Twit account, or something similar where it will be seen by at least a million people. And she wants it tonight or the deal’s off.”
I just blink and shake my head.
“Steve? Think about it. And if this is something you want to do, then do it.”
“Is that you telling me to do it?”
He doesn’t even hesitate. “Yes. Do it. This could all end, Steve. Overnight. Your life can go back to normal. Well, it’s not gonna be the same, but you can start rebuilding. Now… I gotta go. I’ll send you the list right now. Talk soon, friend.”
The call ends and my phone dings a text with Leslie’s list.
I walk out to Terry’s boat dock and take a seat on a bench under the gazebo, reading through the list.
I didn’t do any of this stuff.
Not one bit of it.
But… maybe Rod’s right. Maybe I should just give in and make it all go away?
Maybe nothing I have is worth fighting for anyway?
It is, after all, just a bunch of lies.
We’re playing Warrior Legends, an older game because I’m not on Snitch much so I don’t even know how to play the new games and they get tired of me dying.
On Snitch, I’m just Steve. A nobody with seventy-two followers. But Luke has a massive Snitch following. Terry and Shawn both do too. That’s kinda part of being them, right? World-famous science fiction writers get to immerse themselves in the culture they love and it’s called work.
I, on the other hand, live in Romancelandia and thus gaming is not something my fans care much about. Still, it’s a nice distraction even if I am rusty.
We’re doing a buddy stream. Terry and me at his house, each on our own desktops, and Shawn and Luke at their own homes.
“Everyone mute,” Luke says, his face kinda serious on screen as he does some fight move with a dragon, the sound of his fingers on the controller tapping away as we play. We all mute—this just means that Luke wants to have a private convo, one where the watchers can’t hear. “So,” he continues. “Are you gonna do it, Steve?”
He means am I going to make a public apology to Leslie. I told them all what Rod said. They just sighed and didn’t offer up any comments.
Which I appreciate, to be honest. But I could actually use some advice. “Do you guys think I should?”
“No,” Shawn says. “No. No. No. Not a fucking chance in hell, no.”
“Did Shawn just say ‘fuck?’” Terry asks. “Is Hell freezing over?”
Shawn does not swear. Which means he’s a serious no.
“I say no, too,” Luke adds. “Don’t do it, dude. You got famous and shit because you’re good at what you do. And that means you can just do it again.”
“So you think I need a pen name?”
“Nope,” Luke says. “I say make that bitch take you to court. Clear your name.”
“What do you think, Terry?”
“I’m a ‘no’ too, dude. I don’t think you should admit to things you didn’t do. It’s just wrong.”
“Even if it will make all this drama go away?”
“I wouldn’t.” And they all say this at the same time.
I sigh and sit back in my chair, letting them play without me.
They unmute themselves and keep going, pushing forward in the quest while I dwell on my drama.
That list. It was crazy. Leslie wants me to admit that I used her to slingshot my way up the charts. She wants me to admit that Essie and I took ideas from other books and repurposed them in our own. She wants me to admit that I invited her to the convention this year to ruin her reputation. She wants me to admit that I personally placed her table too close to the catering door, thus ensuring she would be injured. She wants me to admit that I told Essie to drum up rage for Raylen Star in the Sin With Us reader group.