Page 99 of Faking Cinderella
And I’m not hereonlyto ask if they’ll help me.
I’m here partially because they’re completely untouched by my world, but still family, and after watching Daphne form a small family of friends, I’ve realized there’s never too much of a good thing.
When family’s good.
And so far, I think they are.
“So if there’s no naked negotiations going on, and you’re not hiding his body…what’s the deal?” Daph asks.
“He’s blackmailing me,” I reply, even though I’m almost positive Rhys will keep my secret because of the nuance of the situation and all the ways being related to me could fuck up Decker’s life.
Daphne gasps.
Oliver mutters something that could be awhoa, or possibly he choked on his coffee.
“It’s fine,” I say.
“Margot.It is not fine. What aren’t you telling me?”
“I actually respect his nerve.”
“And?” she prompts.
I start to smile. “AndI’m the reason he’s been walking around all week with lavender streaks on his face and in his eyes. So I feel like I owe him a little leeway.”
“What did you do?” Daphne whispers reverently.
“Homemade personal security system involving hair dye. I told you I was going to set it up. It worked.”
“Margot,” she squeals. “I’m so proud of you!”
“Hiseyes?” Oliver asks.
“Apparently hair dye can stain the whites of your eyes if you don’t rinse it out fast enough,” I say. “I nailed him in the gut with a cast-iron frying pan too, which I regret more than the dye. That was overkill. I was running on adrenaline. Probably I need to spend a little more time without security and tackle a paranoia issue. But my roommate and I have come to a kind of compromise, and now he’s teaching me how to split firewood and saving me from mooses—mooses? Meese? Wait, it’s just moose, isn’t it?”
My sister’s still cackling on the other end.
“It’s just moose,” Oliver says.
“Aw, you haven’t changed in some ways,” I say.
Daph cackles harder.
“But about this compromise,” I say, “Oliver, I need a favor.”
“Does it involve working?” he asks.
“Tangentially.”
“Then no. I already have a job, and I’m only working one job at a time, so there’s no room left for me to do anyone work-tangential favors.”
I shake my head while I keep my eyes peeled for moose and deer and elk.
He’s managing a drive-in movie theater and making popcorn, doing a fun job instead of the high-stress chief executive role he left behind a few weeks ago.
“Maybe between making batches of popcorn, you could make one or two phone calls for me?” I say. “I don’t want my hands directly on this.”
Especially since Rhys hasn’t asked me to do this, and I’m operating on a gut feeling that it’s what he wanted to ask. I could be wrong about it.
