“You’re staying?” It wasn’t computing for some reason.
He nodded. “We can all stay as long as we’d like. You know how much I love this team. Sterling, Gideon, Brooks, Kieran, you. I’m hoping you all decide to stay with me.”
“That’s…” I was stunned. Speechless.
Max shook his head and slid the contract in my direction. “You don’t have to decide to make a permanent move right now. Think it over. Talk to Kieran or whoever you need to talk about it with. We have time. For now, though—you’re in on the rest of the season?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Great.” He passed me a pen.
I flipped through the contract, skimming over each paragraph. It was the same as any other TV contract I’d had and nothing jumped out at me, so on the final page, I scribbled my name.Micah Pollard.
A lightness enveloped me, my shoulders loose and relaxed. Immediately, I pulled out my phone to text Asher.
Micah: Great news. I’ve been offered a contract to stick around for the rest of the show—four more episodes.
After that, I hurried home to tell Kieran the good news. I hadn’t seen him the night before, after Asher had brought me home, and today at work, he’d been off on a shopping trip with a junior designer.
When I stepped into the house, he was reclining on the couch already, shoes off, socked feet on the coffee table. He looked over at me and grinned. “Hey. You’re home.”
“I am. With news. I—” I looked more closely at him. There was a mysterious purple blotch on his neck. “Is that—Oh my God, Kier, you didnot.”
He slapped his hand to his neck. “What? It’s a mosquito bite.”
I couldn’t suppress my laughter. “You’re fucking kidding me.”
“No.” His face turned bright red and he scratched lightly at his neck as he scowled. “It is. It’s a mosquito bite. I swear.”
I smirked. “Okay.” He’d tell me when he was good and ready, so I just shook my head and moved on. “Guess what.”
“What’s up?” Heslowlylowered his hand from his neck before shifting on the couch so I couldn’t see it.
“Have you talked to Max about the rest of the show?”
He nodded and hummed. “Yeah. He got to me this morning. I’m sticking around through the last episode.”
“Me too,” I said, barely able to contain my excitement.
“That’s awesome. Have you told Asher?”
Kieran knew a little about us, of course, but he didn’t knoweverything. He’d agreed to pretend he knewnothingwhen we’d gone out the night before, to keep Asher’s secret confidential. When I gave him a look with narrowed eyes, he held up his hands.
“Hey it’s clear he’s smitten with you. That was obvious last night.”
“I don’t—how was that obvious? We didn’t eventoucheach other last night.”
Kieran chuckled. “I could tell by the way he was looking at you. All heart eyes. He barely said a word to anyone else, and you both left early.Together. Give me a break.”
“He just brought me home.”
He raised one eyebrow. “If you say so.”
“You wanna talk, we can talk about your mosquito bite.”
He exhaled sharply through his nose and picked up the TV remote. We were at a stalemate.
I collapsed onto the couch and kicked my shoes off. “What are we watching?”
