by E. L. Todd
“I don’t know about that,” I said slowly. “I made you cheat on your girlfriend.”
“Even though it was wrong at the time, I think it’s the best thing that ever happened to me—and Elizabeth. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”
“Okay,” I said. “And thank you, Cortland.”
“For what, exactly?”
“For everything you have done for me,” I said. “I love you.”
I heard the smile in his voice. “I love you, too,” he said. “And can I say something else?”
I nodded.
“Sean is an idiot for not wanting you, Scar.”
“Why?” I laughed. “Is it because I’m amazing in bed?”
“Well, that’s one of the reasons.” He laughed. “But I can think of many more.”
22
Mark Robinson, the editor of the Seattle Gazette, emailed me later that afternoon and asked me to write about the tourist attraction of Pike’s Place. I thought it was ironic since I just went there with Cortland but at least I knew it well. I worked on the article for two days, predominantly at Mega-Shake, and I proofread it ten times before I finally hit the send button to Mark. This article wasn’t appearing in the New York Times, nor was it going to be something people blogged about, but I wanted it to be perfect anyway. I never produced something unless it was completely clean.
Mark emailed me a few hours later and thanked me for the descriptive article. He claimed that the narrative was so perfect in its use of syntax and descriptions that he felt like he was actually there. I practically jumped from my bed when I read it the following morning. It wasn’t a big accomplishment, but it was something. Plus, it paid two hundred dollars.
Now that Cortland and I had worked out our relationship and closed that chapter in our lives, I was ready to move forward alone. I thought I needed a guy to make me feel better, but really, I only needed myself. I missed the strong woman that I used to be and I wanted to find her again—be her again. Hopefully, she still existed.
Cortland and I still hadn’t told Ryan about our mishap but neither of us felt rushed to confess our sins. I was worried that Ryan wouldn’t forgive Cortland for what he did, and I didn’t want him to lose his friend—especially since it was my fault. Sean kept popping up in my mind and I wondered if he was still sleeping with Janice or if he found someone else, but I dismissed the idea, forcing it to the back of my mind. I couldn’t think about Sean anymore. The guy never called me—he obviously didn’t think about me. Why should I think about him?
Not a single person had contacted me for an edit on their manuscript, and I was starting to doubt anyone would. Then one day, I got an email in my inbox. It was from a woman that used to submit her novels to R and R Publishing, but the chief copy editor failed to edit her manuscript the way she requested. Apparently, he changed her style and use of punctuation, and she specifically wanted me to edit her novel because I had done it before and she liked my work. I felt my cheeks blush as I read her words and the praise she gave. It made it even better that she was trashing Carl Rogers. I replied to her email immediately and told her I was living in Seattle. Ironically, she was from Seattle as well, and we arranged to meet at Mega-Shake the following day.
I closed my laptop and left my bedroom, practically screaming as I ran into the living room. Ryan was watching a baseball game, but he turned it off when he saw me run into the room. Cortland was sitting beside him with a basketball on his lap. The scent of their body odor was evident, so I knew they must have just returned from a game, but I didn’t care. Ryan flinched when I jumped into this lap. Then he started laughing when I started clapping to myself.
“What are you so happy about?” he asked.
I got off his lap then hugged Cortland, who returned my embrace awkwardly because my brother was sitting right there, then I stood in front of the television. “A woman that used to submit her work to my old company has contacted me personally because she likes my editing abilities. Apparently, she prefers my edits over my old boss, and she wants to hire me privately. Isn’t this exciting? And Mark Robinson loved my article and is paying me two hundred dollars!”
Ryan smiled at me as he leaned forward. I could feel Cortland grinning from the couch and I knew they were both happy—elated—for me.
“I’m really happy for you,” Ryan said. “I was worried that this day would never come.”
“Me too.” I nodded.
“I told you that you would pick yourself up again,” he said as he stood from his chair. “And look at you. You are back to being you.” Ryan held me for a moment.
“Thanks to you,” I said as I returned his embrace. “You’ve always taken care of me even when I didn’t deserve it.”
Ryan laughed. “Yes,” he said. “Sometimes you can be a brat. But I love you anyway.”
“I think this is worthy of a Mega-Shake,” Cortland said as he stood up. “I’m treating Scarlet.”
“I should be treating you,” I said to him. “You are the one that got me that article job and you set up my website. Let me buy you one—this one time.”
He stared at me for a moment, thinking it over in his mind. “Okay,” he agreed.
“Are you just saying that?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “I’ll let you do it this one time.”
We left the apartment and arrived at Mega-Shake a few minutes later. We stood in line and I ordered all of our shakes then I opened my wallet to pay for it. I looked at Cortland to see if he was going to make a move for it, but he was smiling at me with his hands in his pockets, and I handed over the twenty without a fight.
“I thought you were yanking my chain,” I said.
Cortland grabbed the milkshake from the counter and drank it. “Thank you,” he said.
The three of us sat down in our usual spot. There weren’t many people in the diner on that weeknight so we had the restaurant to ourselves. I was riding the high of my happiness with my two closest friends. Sean came into my mind and I wanted to call him and tell him about my success, but then I remembered that I couldn’t. We weren’t friends anymore. I still missed him and loved him as much as the day I left him, but it had gotten easier to be apart from him. I knew Ryan and Cortland were responsible for that. Without them, I really don’t know what I would have done.
Ryan tapped his cup against mine then Cortland’s. “Cheers,” he said.
“To Scarlet,” Cortland said as he raised his glass.
“To me,” I added with a smile.
“Now we just have to apply for the business license and the logo print,” Ryan said.
I sighed. “Thanks for killing the mood.”
“What’s bad about that?” he asked. “Now that your business is successful we need to get it licensed. This is a good thing.”
“You have like seven hundred dollars lying around?” I mocked.
“I got you, Scarlet,” he said.
“I’ll pay you back with this editing job.”
“It’s my gift to you,” he said. “You don’t need to pay me back.”
“I want to, Ryan,” I said. “You’ve already given me free rent and food, plus a weekly allowance. I am definitely going to reimburse you.”
“How much is this woman paying you, by the way?” Ryan asked.
“I have no idea,” I said. “At this point, I would do it for free just to put it on my website. She is already a famous, published author. I need that kind of publicity.”
“She’ll pay you,” Cortland said. “She probably assumes that you started your own company and you are successful. You wouldn’t have left your job unless you were.”
“Hopefully,” I said.
“How much do editors typically get paid?” Cortland asked.
“Well, it depends on the length, the genre, and the editor themselves. I won’t know any of that until I meet her tomorrow.”
“Where are you meeting her?” Cortland asked.
“Here,” I said.
“Mega-Shake?” Ryan asked incredulousl
y. “Isn’t that unprofessional?”
“No,” I said. “She said she loves this place.”
Ryan rolled his eyes. “If you think that’s a good idea. Why don’t you meet at a coffee shop?”
“That’s so cliché,” I said.
“Whatever,” he said. “You are the editor.”
Cortland and I looked at each other for a moment, but then he dropped his gaze. I knew that we were sharing the same thought. When are we going to tell him? The more I thought about it, the less I wanted to. I knew my brother better than anyone, and I knew how upset he would be. He would assume that Cortland took advantage of me then he would be furious with me for sneaking around behind his back. Ryan had every right to be upset. I would be too. I just didn’t want him to lose Cortland over it. I loved having him in our lives.
“I’ll file for your business license tomorrow,” Ryan said to me. “And I’ll take care of the company logo. I want to make sure this is taken care of before someone starts questioning your business.”
Ryan’s words made me feel worse. He would do anything for me. “Thank you,” I whispered.
“Of course.” He nodded. Ryan stood up and threw his shake away. “Are you ready to go?”
“Yes,” I said. “I have to pick out what I’m going to wear tomorrow.”
Cortland rolled his eyes. “I don’t think she’s going to care.”
“Well, I care.”
We walked back to the apartment. When we got inside, Ryan and Cortland sat on the couch. I went back into my room and found another email from a client that was asking for a quote for their manuscript. I walked out to the living room and looked at Ryan. “Make sure that business license is taken care of.”
“Why?” he asked.
“I just got another client.”
Ryan gave me the thumbs up. “Now we’re rolling.”
The next morning, I went to Mega-Shake a half hour before the meeting, just in case the author was early. As soon as the woman walked through the door, I knew it was her. She was tall, a little shorter than Ryan, and she had short hair. The author was older, probably in her late fifties, and I felt slightly flustered meeting her. After all, she was a published author of more than thirty books.
“Hello,” I said as I extended my hand to shake hers.
“Hello, Scarlet.” She smiled. “It is very nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” I said. I walked back to the chairs. “Please step into my office.”
She laughed and I was relieved that she understood my joke “Do you do your work here?” she asked.
“Actually, I do,” I admitted. “It’s just my safe haven.”
“I like to write at McDonald’s.” She smiled. “I don’t know what it is about that place—it just inspires me.”
“Who says we can only write in pretentious coffee shops?” I laughed.
She smiled. “Thank you for meeting me here,” she said. “It is convenient that you live in Seattle.”
“I know,” I said. “What a coincidence.”
“Why are you no longer at R and R?” she asked.
I decided not lie, especially to a client. “I left R and R a few weeks ago. The environment was no longer suitable to me.”
“I’ve had a lot of issues with your chief copy editor, Carl. He has changed aspects of my books that I wanted to remain the same. Then, he published it anyway, or kept sections that I decided to leave out. But since the publishing company has the rights to my book, there is nothing I can do. Now I’m self-publishing.”
“I think that’s a great idea.”
“Which has led me to you,” she said. “I know you have edited my manuscripts before and I liked your work. It’s when it gets to your boss that it changes.”
“I’m glad that you figured it out.”
“So, I am willing to hire you if you are interested.”
My body was ready to explode in excitement. “Are you kidding? I would love to.” I felt my cheeks redden at my sudden outburst.
She smiled at my reaction. “Excitement is always good. So, here is some information about the novel before you commit to the task. It is two hundred and fifty thousand words and it is fiction. Is that something you can work with?”
“Yes,” I said. “Your manuscript fits my abilities perfectly.”
“Good,” she said. “So I guess we should discuss the price. I will pay you half now and half later. How about two?”
I stared at her blankly. Two what? “So, that would be one now, and one when I complete the manuscript?” I hoped I was saying it right.
“Yes,” she said. “I can write you a check for one thousand now and give you the other half later.”
I felt my mouth drop. She just offered me two thousand dollars to edit her book, something that I would have done for free. And this woman was a famous author. I couldn’t believe it was happening. “How about you pay me in total when I’m finished?” I asked. “I want to make you as comfortable as possible.”
“I trust you.” She smiled. “But I have no issues if you prefer your payment that way. So, are you accepting my offer?”
“I am honored,” I said.
She reached into her bag and pulled out a yellow envelope. “Here is the printed version, and a flash drive is inside the envelope. When can I expect you to finish it?”
I flipped through the pages and skimmed through the words. Most of her work was already clean and without grammatical errors or poor sentence structure. She was a published author, after all. “A few weeks at the most,” I said. “I will email you every evening and tell you what page I’m on to give you feedback regularly. Does that work?”
“Yes,” she said. She rose from her chair and shook my hand. “I look forward to working with you.”
“The pleasure is mine, Ms. Dirkson.”
She turned around and left the restaurant. I waited until she was completely past the windows before I started dancing in the middle of the diner. Everyone was staring at me, but I didn’t care. I opened up my laptop and started working immediately, excited to get going on this new project and collect my payment.
Ryan called me a few hours later and asked where I was. The employees were mopping behind the counter and I realized it was almost midnight. I was working so hard that I hadn’t even noticed where the time had gone.
“I’m at Mega-Shake,” I said into the phone.
I heard him sigh. “I’ll come get you.”
“I can make it home alone.”
“Don’t move,” he said. Then he hung up.
A few minutes later, Ryan walked into the diner and helped me put my stuff away.
“If you are going to be here all day and stay this late, please let me know. A simple text will suffice.”
“I’m sorry,” I said as I put the manuscript in the bag. “I just lost track of time.”
“I’m assuming the woman hired you,” he said as we left the diner and walked up the street. Ryan grabbed my bag and held it for me. Sometimes he was a direct contradiction. He spoke to me like he was angry at me, but then he carried my stuff like a gentleman and wouldn’t let me walk home at night.
“Yes.” I smiled. “And you know how much she is paying me?”
“What?”
“Two thousand dollars!”
Ryan looked at me. “Are you serious?” he asked. “That’s great.”
“I know,” I said. “I’m so happy.”
We walked up the stairs and entered the apartment. Ryan put my bag down in my room and came back out into the living room. “Some mail came for you,” he said as he nodded at the kitchen table.
I had changed my mailing address the day I left New York, so I was happy that my mail had started to come in. Most of it was junk, but there was one letter that stood out to me. It was from the government. I opened it and read through the paper.
Ms. Reese,
Your loans can no longer be deferred. A payment must be made in the next seven days or legal action will be taken against
you.
Thank you,
Charles Brandworthy
Secretary of the Treasury.
I sighed as I put the paper down. I hadn’t made a single payment since I graduated college, but it wasn’t because I forgot or chose to spend my money on other things. It was because I didn’t have any. Now that my business was taking off, I would be able to make a payment. As soon as I was done with this manuscript, I would have something to send to the government. I sighed again. I wouldn’t be seeing any real money until that loan was paid off.
Ryan sat on the couch with his back to me. “What is it?” he asked. He must have heard me sigh.
“Nothing,” I said as I shoved the notice into my pocket. “Just some junk mail.”
23
Sean
The bottles in the cabinet tumbled over as I reached inside, searching for the strong pain killer medication that my doctor had prescribed to me a year earlier. One bottle fell on the floor and almost hit my foot, but I ignored it and kept searching. Finally, I found two bottles of vicodin and put them on the kitchen table. I was about to open up a bottle of scotch when there was an annoying knock on my door. I looked through the peephole and saw that it was Janice.
She stared at me for a moment after I opened the door, taking in my features and my slightly thinner body. I wasn’t eating like I used to, and I hadn’t been going to the gym. I kept getting smaller. Janice looked thin as well, almost sickly, like she decided a lifestyle of bulimia was preferable to her. A flashback of our recent rendezvous sped through my mind and I wondered if that was why she was there. To get laid.
“I’m not interested in having that type of relationship with you,” I said bluntly. I recalled how much it hurt Scarlet and I would never do that again, even if it didn’t matter anymore. “Sorry that you wasted your time.”
She shook her head. “That isn’t why I’m here. Can I come in?”
“Hold on,” I said as I shut the door. I hid the pills and the liquor in the cabinet then opened the door for her. “Come in.”
Janice walked inside the door and gazed at my messy apartment. I didn’t care about keeping up appearances anymore.