Chapter 6: The Contract

I made my face do what it always did.

I'd had four years of practice smiling for her camera.

"You didn't have to," I said, and took the balloons.

"Of course I did."

She kissed my cheek. Her perfume was the same one she'd worn at the front desk. I'd never noticed before.

"Ollie! You drove all this way."

"Somebody had to bring the stegosaurus," Ollie said.

His voice was almost normal.

His hands were in his pockets, and I could see the knuckles through the flannel.

Lisette peeked through the door at Benji asleep.

"Oh, look at him. That little face." Her phone was already halfway up. "Just one, for the followers. He's so peaceful."

"He's asleep," I said.

"That's what makes it peaceful."

"Lisette. No."

She lowered the phone, pouting.

"Fine. Tomorrow, then. The brand's rep wants to meet. They're devastated about the shoot. I told them we'd do coffee downstairs at ten."

She squeezed my arm.

"Wear the green dress. You look like a saint in green."

She left the balloons and her perfume behind her.

Ollie waited until the elevator closed.

"I'm going to be sick," he said.

"Not in the good bathroom," I said.

Neither of us laughed.

That night I sat in the recliner next to Benji's bed with my laptop on my knees.

I opened the folder named CONTRACT. I'd never opened it since the day I signed.

I'd been twenty-three. Pregnant and alone in a Nashville apartment with a mattress on the floor.

Lisette had brought sweet tea and a pen.

"It's standard," she'd said. "It just protects you."

Now I read every page.

Grimball Creative shall receive forty percent of all gross revenue generated by the Account, in perpetuity.

In perpetuity.

I looked it up to be sure. It meant forever.

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