Armand stared down at the pants in his lap.“Ah, I see you’ve met Winnie.”
“Should I ask about why she’s giving you clothes?”
“Mmm, best not.”
“Iwillretract my offer of breakfast if you don’t get up.”
There was more grumbling, but Armand finally lumbered to his feet.
Cooking in a kitchen shared with Armand but with him actually present this time was cute in theory but deeply inefficient.There was barely any counter space for food prep, and I did my best to avoid eye contact with the grease stains on the wall tiles.The magic erasers I’d anticipated needing would be getting a workout later.
Finishing breakfast gave me a perfect excuse to start the pre-cleaning process, beginning with the stovetop.
“Love,” Armand cut in right as I’d fallen into a good rhythm, “you don’t need to do all that—”
“I kind of do, though,” I explained.“Besides, we have a couple hours before meeting Lakshmi.I should—”
“Or—” Armand slid in closer, trailing his hands across my shoulders “—we could do something else to pass the time.”
I swallowed, and Armand’s fingers moved down my back to settle at my hips.
“This okay?”he asked quietly, sneaking his way around my waist.
It was definitely okay, though I needed to sanitize first.
The cafe Lakshmi had suggested wasn’t too far from Armand’s apartment, so Armand drove the two of us to Cuppa Feel.Lakshmi was already there, dressed in a crisp navy blazer, long black hair tied up at her neck, highlighting her sharp cheekbones.She waved us over, then nodded at Armand.“Sit your arse down, Demetrio.We got our work cut out for us.”
We had no sooner sat and ordered coffees than Lakshmi jumped right in.
“Relatable is the new mysterious,” she briskly explained.“Demetrio here’s been a social enigma for years, and that served well enough in the early days, but not anymore.You’ve sparked interest just by showing your mug in public and speaking relatively coherent words.”
Armand’s ears went red, and he scowled at her.“Thanks for that.”
“Pleasure.”She took an elegant sip of her black coffee.“People need to see the underbelly.It’s all about the internet these days, the parasocial relationships people develop with their favorite artist.”Her eyes met mine over the rim of her mug.“That’s where you come in.Armand Demetrio isn’t only a man—he’s a brand.We need to make this boyinteresting.But ...palatably so.”
I playfully bumped Armand’s shoulder with mine, shooting him an encouraging grin and opening my notes app.“I have some ideas.We could do aSurrogate Goosetour, swing by all the places that inspired you to create your comic, visit the spots where the story came to life—”
“So, my flat.”
I rolled my eyes.“It’ll be good for photo ops as well as some question-and-answer soundbites.”
Lakshmi was tapping away at her tablet at lightning speed.“Brilliant.We have a month and a half before the anniversary, so that means churning out content and posting everywhere there is to post several times a day.You can handle that?”
I sipped my matcha latte and waved off her question.“I work around dying horses for a living.I can manage a few hashtags.I could do an interview-style blog column on the comic calledGoose Gab...Oh, and after all the hints you gave about your writing process, we could definitely do some Day in the Life reels.”
Armand sat in silence, picking a bigger hole into his already ripped-up jeans.He must’ve been apprehensive at the prospect of baring his soul to the internet for the sake of marketing.Which was understandable—I couldn’t stomach taking photos ofmyself, and here we were, asking him for more vulnerability than the art he already created.
To his credit, he lasted longer in the meeting than I’d expected before announcing that there was “somewhere he needed to be.”Lakshmi seemed prepared to continue in Armand’s absence, but a second wave of jetlag hit me square in the chest.
Disgusting.Barely one in the afternoon and I needed to crash out again.Jetlag is such a waste of time, why does anyone travel ever?How does anything get done?
I promised I would keepLakshmi up-to-date, and Armand dropped me back off at the apartment before he went wherever he had to run off to.I’d planned to be productive—start drafting posts and maybe wonder what Armand was up to—but I barely made it inside before my body called me a clown and fully gave up.I collapsed on the mattress.
Armand is Humbled by Napkins
August 21
5 days sober
