The Hating Game(110)
“Every night? Well, I can’t on the long weekend. I’m going to Sky Diamonds for the week. I don’t suppose you’re busy then.”
“Take me with you,” he says in between kisses on my shoulders. “I know the way. I’ve mapped the journey. Flights and hire cars. I’ll grovel to your dad. I know exactly what I’ll say.”
“I don’t get it with you and that place.”
“I need to go there so I can start at the beginning. So that I can know everything about you.”
“You sure do love strawberries.”
“I love you, Lucy Hutton. So much, you have no idea. Please be my best friend.”
I’m so ridiculously in love. I decide to try it out loud. “I’m in love with Joshua Templeman.”
His reply is a whisper in my ear. “Finally.”
I pull back. “I’m going to have to change my computer password.”
“Oh yeah? To what?”
“I-love-Josh.”
“4 eva,” he replies.
“You cracked my password?”
He rolls me onto my back and smiles down at me with eyes bright with mischief.
There’s nothing else I can do. When the white flag of his sheets settles on my skin, the Hating Game is over. It’s primal. It’s a miracle. And it’s forever.
“Yeah, all right. Forever. What game should we play now?” I look up at him and we play the Staring Game until his eyes spark in memory.
“The Or Something Game really intrigued me. Can you show me how it works?”
He tosses the blankets over us, blocking out the entire world. He’s laughing, my favorite sound in the world.
Then there’s nothing but silence. His mouth touches my skin.
Let the real games begin.
An Excerpt from The Comfort Zone
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THE COMFORT ZONE
Coming Summer 2017
I got as far as the international baggage carousel before I began sinking back into the Carson-family-drama quicksand. My first mistake was turning off my phone from airplane mode. Actually, no, that’s not right. My first mistake was boarding in Heathrow.
I thought it would have taken some serious arm-twisting to get me onto a plane back home, but in the end all it took was my boss Margo’s words. Emma, the New York office is desperate. You’re still only on a temporary transfer to us in London, so I really do have to say yes to them. It’s only for a month. Eversham Goldstein really needs you.
I was needed? A warm fluttering filled my rib cage and I said yes. I’m a literary agent, so words are my life—and kind, appreciative words are apparently my Achilles’ heel. I wish I’d asked for a day to think it over. If I had, maybe I wouldn’t be waiting here for my battered suitcase. It’s not that I hate this city. I just don’t feel ready to see some of its occupants.
My email inbox doesn’t have any big emergencies with my authors or their editors. I do have an email from Louise, my father’s assistant. The subject line reads: Urgent—Read Immediately. I have a bad feeling that this might mess with my One-Month Survival Plan: Arrive, work, participate in the required family interactions no matter how awkward, leave. Possibly for good this time.
I look up at a departure screen nearby and automatically scan for the word London. It’s arguably an unhelpful way to deal with this, so I make myself read whatever bomb Louise is about to drop on me. The first paragraph of her email is a heavy tapestry of caveats, precautions, and instructions to not panic. All the stuff that guarantees that I will panic. There’s a honk and the baggage carousel begins to move, but I can’t look up from my phone. Not until I know what’s happened. According to Louise, Dad’s received another extortion attempt. And just like that, I’m back in Crazy Town. Breathe that crazy air nice and deep.
Someone hits my ankle with a luggage cart. It’s white-hot agony and I yip like a pup. Whoever did it doesn’t follow it up with a thousand British apologies, or even a single American one. I glower passive-aggressively at the floor, achieving nothing. It’s a painful message from New York itself: Yo, Emma! Welcome back! Want a reminder of why you left?
I have a second email from Louise, a couple of hours after the first. It’s marked “high priority” and the subject line is filled entirely with exclamation points. My stomach drops away into the abyss. Is Dad bound and gagged in a basement somewhere? Will I be drawn into a game of cat and mouse with his kidnapper in a trail leading across the city, the stakes getting progressively higher? Will my eyes glint intently behind my glasses as I deliberate between green and red wires? Will I save the day, and win my father’s love?
Probably not. A recent book-to-movie deal I brokered for one of my authors has made everything feel like a possible cinematic plot. The second scary-looking email from Louise is about a meeting and I’m weirdly crestfallen. I will never get to see The Rock cast as me. My presence is required at a compulsory security briefing regarding the extortion attempt at three P.M. Today. No ifs or buts. Recent international travel is not an excuse.
My watch is still on London time and it hurts my heart to adjust it, but when I do, I have a new problem. I am going to be late. I find my bag, weave through the scores of travelers being picked up by excited loved ones, and head for the train.