Chapter 17: The Plan

Joan's kitchen had a long oak table, and by Wednesday night it held four women, a lemon cake and my phone.

"He wants a yes," Tilly said. "On camera, in front of the whole city. So give him one."

"No," Dani said.

"Hear her out," said Joan.

"It's the only thing he's afraid of." Tilly turned a fork over in her fingers.

"He cannot stand a no he didn't write. Eliza said no in the shop and he made a video about it."

"So I say yes," I said slowly. "In front of the cameras."

"And you let him get all the way to the end of his speech."

Dani put her head in her hands. "Eliza. You're going to say yes to Trevor."

"I have been practicing my surprised face for three years," I said. "I may as well use it."

Joan laughed out loud, one dry bark, and looked startled that she had.

"Then what?" she asked.

"Then the screens behind him show what he wrote."

I slid my phone across the oak.

On it was the note he had handed me in the apartment, Our Open Rules, v2.

"I screenshotted it that first night," I said. "I don't know why. I think I knew."

Tilly pulled out her own phone and set it beside mine.

"I have five months of his messages," she said.

"I have the one where he calls you a roommate. I have the one where he says you're sad and he can't leave you yet."

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