“Wake up, Zoe,” C murmurs in my ear.
“Hmm?”
He pushes my hair back from my face.
“What time is it? Please don’t say we have to go back to Boston.”
He strokes my back. “No, but we do have a little business to wrap up.”
“Ugh, it’s so early, Connor!” I pout.
“No, it’s not. It’s eleven, baby.”
“Eleven?” I mumble, glancing around. I usually wake around ten-thirty. I guess I was exhausted. “All right,” I say, sitting up.
C leans back against the headboard. “You’ve made some choices that have affected you and me, and Trick and Anvil. And I’ve let you get away with it.”
“I know. I’ll try to be better from now on.”
He nods. “The thing is you can’t really pay restitution or take on work for either of them to make up for it. And that’s how we roll. We don’t make many mistakes these days, but back when we started, if one of us incurred a debt to the others, we figured out a way to pay that off. It wasn’t about the money or whatever. It’s about respecting the bond. About having each other’s backs and knowing the others appreciate it and will do the same. To be able to count on someone in any situation... I don’t take that lightly because I know how rare it is.”
I stare at him.
“There’s a price for being reckless. The other night Trick paid the price for you, for your poor choice of company in Boston.”
“So what do you want me to do?”
“You’re mine. They expect me to punish you, which I will. They also expect you to make amends. We can do that all at once and put it behind us.”
“How?”
“I can let them do it.”
I shake my head vigorously, getting out of the bed and backing toward the door.
Connor holds up a hand. “You don’t need to run, Zoe. I’m giving you a choice. If you want to spend weeks trying to come up with a better way, you can. But think about what he did. If you want to make him strawberry waffles for breakfast as amends, you’ll be doing that for fifty years. Or you could do this one thing that he’ll appreciate more than five decades’ worth of waffles.”
I swallow, butterflies crashing into each other in my belly. “Can I think about it?”
He nods.
* * *
Zoe
I spend all day in tense contemplation. It’s not that I think they’ll be so rough I won’t be able to take it. I already trust Trick and Anvil to protect me in the ways that count. It’s more that I’d be so vulnerable and the boundaries between me and C’s guys would come down in a way that could probably never be restored. Do I want that? What would that even mean?
I avoid all of them, even Connor. I spend time working through some choreography changes for the show and on watching some old musicals that always inspire me. I have a few snacks, but shake my head when C asks if I want to go out to lunch.
Finally, I work up my courage and seek Trick out. He’s alone in the media room, watching a business channel.
“Hey,” I say.
“Hey,” he says, turning his attention from the screen to me.
I sit on the couch next to where he’s reclining. “So, I’m sorry that I didn’t take your advice about going for a run or to lunch with my cast mates to deal with feeling stir-crazy.”
He nods.
