Page 141 of Rookie Rules

Rowan had repaired the professional mistake.

The restrictions he placed on Luca remained.

Chapter 22: Not Ashamed Of Myself

At five forty-two in the morning, Luca told Claire the revised Boreal authorization was still not ready to sign.

Her face filled his laptop screen from a home office where one lamp was on and the rest of the room remained dark. She wore glasses Luca had never seen at the rink and the expression of a woman who had expected this call.

"Which clause?" she asked.

"Page eleven. They removed the dating questions, then gave themselves permission to describe my chemistry with Nadia however they want."

Claire looked down at her copy. "They call it campaign narrative."

"They can call it weather. It still implies something we said no to."

"If we strike it, they may walk."

Luca considered the number at the end of the agreement, the visibility, and the part of him trained to accept admiration before anyone changed his mind.

"Then they walk," he said.

Claire looked up. "Are you sure?"

"I want the campaign. I do not want it enough to let them rent a version of my life. Separate talent, separate frames, no romantic copy. Put that in the approval clause, not an email they can forget."

Claire's expression eased by a degree. "Anything else?"

"Closed set for the skin work. My approval on final selects. And strike heartthrob, eligible, and fantasy unless I approve the exact copy."

"You have become inconvenient."

"You told me that was what representation was for."

"I told you representation gives inconvenience letterhead."

She sent the changes while they were still on the call. Boreal's counsel returned the document twenty-one minutes later with every material protection accepted.

Luca read the final language himself. Separate campaign frames. No implied relationship with Nadia Bell. No questions about his dating life. Approval over loaded copy. A closed set and image rejection rights.

At six twelve, he signed.

It was still a fragrance campaign. It was still going to put his face on glass walls and transit shelters across the city. It would still give strangers a larger, cleaner version of Luca Bennett to want.

But the terms belonged to him now.

He signed because he wanted the money, because his mother would understand what it meant without pretending not to be proud, and because saying no solely to prove Rowan's advice had hurt him would make Rowan the author of that choice too.

Luca was tired of giving him authorship.

Claire remained on the call while he opened the campaign calendar. The first fitting would take half a day. Photography required two days during a home stand, with one protected recovery morning afterward. Publicity would be limited to the launch event and one interview whose questions Claire would receive in advance.

"Training gets priority," Luca said. "If a shoot moves, it moves around the team schedule. Not the other way around."

"Already in the rider."

"And the youth-equipment percentage?"