She kept signing, talking, smiling in all the right places. But underneath it all, her thoughts kept drifting back to him—replaying every moment, trying to understand how all the pieces of him fit together.
Chapter 28
Shareholders or teenage superfans—pick your poison.
The backstage area buzzed with pre-lunch activity, but Emma managed to find a quiet corner in one of the green rooms. She dropped into a chair by the wall, hands aching from hours curled around a pen, and pulled up her notifications, bracing herself.
It was worse than she’d expected.
The feed on X was an inferno.
Her name was trending. Again.
So were #Colehart, #DarrenIsLucen, and—dear God—#SquidGames.
Soft launch, hard launch, now octolaunch??? Darren Cole BB what are you doing to her??
so, I think the #Colehart ship just launched into a new subgenre
of fanfic...
I was there guys I swear to god the way he LOOKED at her!
SDCC IS THIS A ROM-COM LIVE BROADCAST WHAT IS HAPPENING??!!
Emma groaned, pressing a palm to her forehead. “This is fine,” she muttered to herself. “Totally fine.”
A text message appeared at the top of the screen, the sender’s name catching her attention. It was from Adam, her boss.
She frowned. It was Saturday. At least one of her jobs—the less crazy one—should be on pause for the weekend. She closed the all-caps madness on X and opened the message.
Sorry to bother you Emma, I’ve seen on the Internet that you’re busy with this Cole fella, wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t urgent. Please see the email from Henrietta and get back to her. / A
She closed her eyes and inhaled through her nose. EvenAdamknew? He was king of the boomer thumb—hardly someone who spent his time browsing Comic-Con hashtags. How the ever-loving hell did he know?
But the mention of Henrietta was worse. She was a board member, a majority shareholder, and had a...meticulousdisposition, as Adam diplomatically used to frame it. Translation—she was demanding, hyper-detailed, and a general pain in the ass.
Emma went to her email and scrolled past some non-urgent threads, finding the one from Henrietta. Adam was in copy.
From: Henrietta Forrester
Subject: Urgent
Dear Ellen,
Re the Q2 budget pre-read I would like clarification on the following items. Expected ASAP.
Emma stared at it, from the faulty name to the long list of complicated questions that followed, including a few that would require clairvoyance to answer. No hint of acknowledgment that she was requesting a prompt answer on a Saturday.
She let her head fall back against the wall with a dull thunk. This was part of the job. Always had been. As long as she kept it, ignoring a board member wasn’t on the table. But the walls she’d put up between her two lives were starting to crack under the pressure, and she didn’t know how long she could keep patching them.
Well, Henrietta’s questions would require checking some files on her laptop, which was still at the hotel. She got up from the chair and fired off a message to Leah, telling her she was heading back for aquick nap. It was a blatant lie, and Leah would call her on it, but that was a later problem.
For now, she just needed to get hold of a cab.
gig
In the lobby of the US Grant, the late afternoon tide of Comic-Con had started welling in—cosplayers clattering past in half-unzipped costumes, volunteers hauling tote bags, someone in a Snorlax suit collapsed dramatically on a couch.
