The text on my phone was not what I expected to wake up to, but it was like the universe was answering my calls from last night with Odette. After I came home this morning, a message from my mom popped up.
Two words. That was all she said.
Mom: We sold.
I called her immediately, and she confirmed they had finalized the sale of the café this morning with a buyer that they vetted closely. They weren’t just going to sell to anyone, but they had them working in the café for a few weeks to see how they were with the patrons, and it felt right. Mom said that Dad even felt that the couple would keep the place going for generations to come.
They were young and wanted to give life back to something they had grown up with as children.
I felt guilty when Mom told me that, but she quickly followed up with that they were still proud of all I’d done, even if it wasn’t taking over the café for them.
Now I’d been sitting alone in my house, waiting for Beckett to come over, because I was going to do this. The news thismorning gave me the push to decide that it was going to happen. I wasn’t going to wait any longer to give Odette all of me. It wasn’t just that, though. With wanting to tell Odette, I also wanted to tell the world. I’d been toying with the idea that I was done with hiding. It felt like lie after lie to those who just didn’t understand why I kept myself hidden wasn’t being true to myself any longer.
“What’s the 911 about?” Beckett walked through the front door.
“The café is sold.” I blurted out.
“Oh, shit.” Beckett moved further into the house, shock on his face. “I didn’t realize they were so close to selling.”
“Me either. I thought it might be a few more weeks, but it’s done as of this morning.”
Beckett nodded, and his eyes were still trained on me.
“What else? Because I know you didn’t tell me to get over here right now for that when I would have just found out from my mom.”
I took a deep breath before I let out my next statement.
“I’m going to do it.”
I looked up from the couch where I was sitting, to Beckett, standing in the middle of the foyer, staring at me.
“Do what?” He squinted his eyes, unsure of where I was going with my statement.
“Tell Odette.”
Beckett took a few cautious steps toward me, placing a to-go coffee cup on the table in front of me. He must have been out this morning.
“Tell her what, Ryker?” Beckett gave me a weary look as if he knew where I was going but didn’t want to be the one to say it.
“Tell her about me. About CovertRetriever.”
“Absolutely fucking not.” He shook his head and finally took a seat. “This is not a conversation we need to be having rightnow. You clearly fucked her last night and are in a state of delusion.”
“Beckett,” I said sternly.
“What do you want me to say? This isn’t you asking me what you should do. This is you telling me, which means you’ve been thinking about it and have made a decision.”
“This isn’t up for debate. I was only giving you a courtesy heads-up that I would be doing this.” Defensively, I crossed my arms over my chest. I wasn’t backing down. Not when I wanted this.
“I’m quite aware, Ryker.” Beckett grabbed his coffee and took a sip before slamming it down this time. “But who do you think has to get all of this together, clean this up if things go wrong? You aren’t just some gamer; you’re CovertRetriever for fuck’s sake. We have to figure this out before you start doing shit.”
“Then what do you want me to do?” If he wasn’t going to let me tell Odette, I needed him to have a game plan.
“Let me figure this out in case it gets leaked somewhere. I’ll get a contract together for her. Just let me figure this out logistically.” Beckett took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. “You can tell her, but not yet, dude.”
“I don’t want a contract.” I didn’t want our relationship to be a business transaction.
I was staring him down now.
