Greta:I can book a hotel.
Kaelee:No. Come HERE.
Greta:To stay this weekend?
Kaelee:Or sooner.
Greta:Sounds like a date.
And in her typical, thinking-too-hard, panic response, Kaelee went silent for several minutes. Greta felt like she had a vise squeezing her chest every time Kaelee went silent. The trio of dots that indicated she was typing appeared and vanished several times. Then a message appeared.
Kaelee:Check your email.
Greta refreshed and saw a link to a cloud file called “Alden Notes,” and then it was followed by another text message.
Kaelee:Read this before any decision about dating.
Greta:Your family?
Kaelee:Yes. There’s a lot more where that came from. Read it, and then you can let me know if you’re still visiting.
Greta:You aren’t responsible for their actions.
Kaelee:They can hurt you. Embarrass you. Out you.
Greta:Nothing here is embarrassing. Being involved with a smart, talented, beautiful woman? How awful.
Kaelee:Read it. Decide. Let me know.
Greta sighed and opened the file. There were articles on a conservative political group, a Southern religious group, articles in which Tripp Alden voiced his various hatreds in coded words. Book banning, anti-choice legislation, bathroom bills, a lot of conservative causes, and Kaelee’s father was repeatedly on the extreme side of it. At this point, it wasn’t surprising. People who tossed around the word “freedom” a lot rarely meant freedom foreveryone.They meant freedom for them with a side order of the right to control and limit other people’s freedoms. Sober people never walked up and announced that they were sober; only drunks said that. Likewise only those who were trying tolimitother freedoms said they were pro-freedom. It was mind-boggling.
And that hateful family had raised the kindhearted woman Greta was falling for. The truth was that liberals didn’t “convert” people as effectively and consistently as restrictive families did. Developing empathy for fellow humans was often all it took to turn away from a lot of those narrow ideas—which ultimately were rooted in fears that had festered into hate.
An hour or so later, Greta picked her phone back up.
Greta:Reading these things affirms that you are amazing. You were surrounded by hate but developed a beautiful heart.
Kaelee:He’ll find a way to hurt your career.
Greta:Thank you for the warning. How’s Wednesday or Thursday?
Kaelee:Really?
Greta:No doubts on my side. At all.
Then Greta walked out to find Ian. He needed to call Kaelee and start the introduction phase of being her editor—and they needed to get in front of the potential issues with Tripp Alden.
She found Ian in Charlie’s office.
“If you want to take me as your concert date, I’m in, but if you wanted to check your date pool first—”
“I’m exhausted.” Ian shook his head, grinning wildly. “You’re the only one who will go with me and not expect orgasms afterwards.”
Charlie laughed either at the words or the expression on his face.
“I don’t expect orgasms from you either, Ian. Coffee? Patience with my schedule? Sure. That’s all, though,” Greta said as she approached them.
As he looked back at her, Ian blushed. “Well, I just meant—”
