Page 101 of On the Plus Side
“Then why do you seem mad at me?”
“I’m not. I’m just confused.”
“About what?”
He moved toward her, and she fought the urge to retreat. She was done running. Done hiding. Done leaving boxes unopened because she was afraid of what she might find inside.
“You and Sady.”
He frowned. “Everly—”
“I hate that, for even a second, I wondered if you weren’t answering my calls because you knew about the promo. Which is so irrational, because you’re in that clip, too. Why would you do that to yourself?” She shook her head. “But you always defend her. No matter what. And I don’t understand why. I feel like I can’t one hundred percent trust in you—” Her eyes skipped from his face to the floor, and her hands fretted at the stretchy material of her leggings. She would have given anything right now for Bagel or one of Logan’s dogs to pet. “—trust inus—until I understand what she is to you.”
Logan lowered himself to the arm of the sofa. He reached for her, and when she offered her hands, he drew her between his knees, curling their locked fingers to his chest. “Everly. God. Okay. I guess I need to be clearer about some things.” He didn’t say anything else until she looked at him.
Which was painful, after everything she’d said. She felt a little too raw. More naked than she had been in that video.
“I’m sorry about Sady. And I’m sorry about dismissing your worries.” His eyes drifted to the TV as if a ghost of that clip still clung to the screen. His gaze didn’t return to her. “I could never make my parents happy. I think a part of me looks for that from Sady. Like her approval cancels out their disapproval or something.” His shoulders slumped forward. “That probably sounds ridiculous, but I was pretty young when I met her, and she opened up this whole new path for my life that I never would have thought possible. She’s always been like a sister or a mentor or something…”
Everly rested a hand on his cheek and guided his face forward. Their eyes locked. “It’s not ridiculous,” she said softly.
“I’m not okay with what she did. This is fucked up.” Anger roughened his voice.
She exhaled sharply. “What are we going to do? I can’t be having sex on TV. I’ll lose my job. It would follow me everywhere. You, too.”
He wrapped his arms around her waist. “We’re going to figure this out,” he said. “Together.”
Everly let herself melt against him. The closer she was to him, the easier it was to believe things would be okay.
“But first…” He scooped her phone off the couch. “We’re going to call in reinforcements.”
“I brought wine,” Stanton announced as he pushed past Logan into Everly’s apartment. His paisley button-down looked recently pressed.
“And I have coffee,” Jazzy chimed in. She trailed behind Stanton, decked out in a faux-fur leopard-print coat over a jogging suit in a subtle shade of pink, a giant tote bag hooked over her shoulder.
Everly arched her eyebrow. Apparently these two never went anywhere unpolished. “I hope you don’t expect to drink them together.”
Stanton shed his coat onto the back of one of the kitchenette chairs. “That would be horror-movie levels of disgusting.”
“We weren’t sure if this was a ‘get buzzed’ kind of emergency or more of a ‘pull an all-nighter scheming’ situation. Logan was vague on the phone,” Jazzy added.
Logan had made one quick call, and Jazzy and Stanton had come running like the cavalry. Everly’s heart felt too full. It reminded her that no matter how much Sady staged and editedOn the Plus Side,its hosts were genuine. They werereal.
Jazzy dropped her tote on the kitchen counter. “I also brought popcorn and ice cream because they’re antidotes for all ills.”
She emptied the bag, handing off two pints of ice cream—one cookie dough and one caramel swirl, because Jazzy Germaine had impeccable taste in everything—to Everly.
Everly eyed the two hosts as she unearthed her small supply of stemware for the wine. She didn’t know their relationship to Sady, beyond the fact that she ran the show, so Everly had no idea how they’d react to this news. “So, tonight’s episode…”
Stanton waved her off. “We don’t watch those things during filming. We need some kind of work-life balance.” He settled himself at the kitchenette and poured a glass of wine.
Jazzy’s gaze jumped between Everly and Logan. “Why? Did something happen?”
“Look up the promo for episode seven.” Logan nodded tightly at the phone in her hand.
Jazzy typed out a few words on her screen, then scrolled. She set the device between her and Stanton, both of them leaning close. Everly knew they’d reached the clip in question when Stanton muttered, “What the fuck, Sady?”
With an abrupt flick of her finger, Jazzy cleared the screen. “This is not okay,” she said simply.
