"Fuck you all very much," Isnapped.
"Everyone, that's enough," Shannon said with a snap of her fingers. "Get outofhere."
"Those two can go, but I'm staying. Riley, Andy and I are meeting to discuss an upcoming project," Patrick said. Matt and Sam ignored this, and stayed right where they were. "Actually, we're about fifteen minutes past our scheduled time. And we're waiting onlunch."
I wouldn't turn a meatball sub away but I groaned at the thought of carrying on a business conversation right now. My head was pounding and my stomach churning, and I sank down to the floor. Within a matter of minutes, I'd sent an unwelcome dick pic to my siblings, thrown the mistimedI love youcurveball, and flashed all of Alex's unmentionables despite promising to keephersafe.
The fucker who was in charge of making sure I wasn't fucking things up was really fuckingfired.
"You can reschedule," Shannon said. "Back to youroffices.Now."
Instead of leaving, they stayed right where they were, chattering about all the ways I could accidentally share naked photos of my girlfriend. I wasn't sure which part of me was collapsing right now, but the only things holding me together were the floor and Shannon's hand on myshoulder.
I didn't care whether they'd gotten a good look at me. I had enough trouble keeping the snake in the cage, and I didn't give a good shit about that. But Alex wasn't available for public consumption. She was mine, and those images wereforus.
That I'd accidentally sent them to my family left me feeling possessive to a degree I didn't understand. It wasn't the same old sense of not wanting to share Alex. It was a desire to protect her, to wage war for her, to sacrifice for her. I wanted to pull myself together and be the man she needed metobe.
"If I get down there, you're going to have to help me get back up," Shannon said as she maneuvered herself to the floor beside me. "Now, listen. Those images were mostly indecipherable. I mean, it was obvious they were—ahem—personal, but I couldn't tell you exactly who or what was on that screen. So, put that out ofyourmind."
"Yeah, sure. Let me just forget the events of this afternoon," I replied, brushing my hands off. "Allset."
She rolled her eyes. "There's no need to be snippy," she said. "I'm pregnant as fuck and sitting on the goddamn floorwithyou."
I wagged a finger at her, not falling for her delicate daisy routine. "Alex is supposed to go out with you and the rest of Pussy Riot tonight. But"—I held up my phone—"this happened and I'm freaking the fuck out because-because-because—"
"Calm down," she said. "First of all, Lauren will be there and she's physically incapable of being rude to people who aren't herhusband."
"And second," Shannon continued, "Andy won't put up with any shit. If it gets weird, she'll shut itrightdown."
"It better not get weird," I said. "If it does, you won't get another tacofromme."
"Paper towels to the rescue," Andy announced. From my sheltered view, I watched her booted feet move across my office and stop in front of my desk. "Don't stand there watching me, boys. Pick up those pens and pencils. Come on. No one is paying you to have a tea party thisafternoon."
Grumbling, Matt, Sam, and Patrick set to collecting the spilled items from the floor. Patrick wanted to separate out the Chartpak from the Prismacolor markers, Matt wanted to get rid of the cheap mechanical pencils I preferred to his fancy ones, and Sam wanted to run antibacterial wipes over everything. I heard the perforated rip of the paper towels, soon followed by the soggythunkas they landed in my wastebasket. Then my siblings decided to reorganizemydesk.
Despite this commotion, Shannon was still beside me. "What's her nickname?" sheasked.
"What?" I asked, my voice still raspyandraw.
"Her nickname," Shannon said. "You always find the perfect nicknames for the people you care about, so I'm just wondering what you choseforher."
Gastro Girl. Shortstop.Honeybee.
But that wasn't it. I couldn't force Alex into the narrow mold of a comic book heroine or fairy tale princess. She wasn't a handful of conveniently aligned characteristics. She was my Elektra, my Mystique, my Leia, my Katniss, my Daenerys, my Agent Carter, my Elizabeth Swann, my Arwen Evenstar, my Buffy, my Beatrice, my Catwoman, my Dorothy Gale, myeverything,my…
"Aly," I said. "She'smyAly."
ChapterTwenty-Four
Alexandra
Iglancedat Erin again as we crossed the street. "Are you sure about this?" Iasked.
She gave me a confident nod and mouthed "Definitely" as we darted around a throng of people headed for the Boylston Street TStation.
"You're supposed to say that," I continued when we fell in step together on the sidewalk. "They're yourfamily."
She chuckled as she paused behind me, yielding to a woman pushing a double stroller. "I've never said what I was supposed to when it comes to my family," she said. "And believe me when I tell you that I'm more surprised than anyone to be getting a damn pedicure with Shannon and my sisters-in-lawtonight."
