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open.
    What the FUCK?!
    This was an open-and-shut case of bribery. THIEVERY. Glen was a fucking, absolute asshole – an embezzler, a crook, a criminal!
    “That seems highly irregular,” Ryan said mildly.
    ‘Highly irregular’ was like saying RuPaul in drag is a little bit gay.
    “She’s not officially on the books,” Glen shot back. “So I had to get a little creative.”
    Ryan paused from writing the check. “Wait… so you ‘hired’ a writer with little experience, didn’t pay her, and did some sort of expense account… ‘scheme’ to cover her expenses? Does Rolling Stone even know she’s working on this assignment?”
    Glen took a long time to answer.
    When he did, he gulped. “Not entirely, no.”
    Whoa.
    WHOA.
    My world got rocked a little bit more.
    Ryan cocked his head to the side. “So… they don’t know she’s working for you on this.”
    “…not officially, no.”
    Ryan glared at him like a wolf staring down a dog.
    Glen shrank slowly behind his desk.
    Then Ryan went back to writing the check. “What’s your last name, Glen?”
    “Ryan, you can’t – ” I protested.
    He held up a hand and turned his head far enough towards me so Glen couldn’t see him wink.
    Trust me.
    So I did.
    “Smith,” Glen said.
    Ryan finished writing the check, tore it out, and held it out over Glen’s desk.
    Glen grabbed for it –
    But Ryan jerked it back, just out of reach.
    “I trust this concludes all our business?” Ryan asked coldly.
    Glen blinked at him. “Business?”
    “From this point onward, if you take this check, Kaitlyn owes you nothing.”
    Glen looked over at me with smoldering hatred. “She owes me a story – ”
    “You didn’t pay her, she’s working off the books, Rolling Stone has no idea she even exists, and we’re reimbursing you for any expenses you covered. If you take this check, she’s free and clear from this point onward. She might supply you with a story, but that’s at her discretion. She’ll call you, not the other way around. Deal?”
    Glen whined, “But she was supposed to deliver the story.”
    Ryan fluttered the check. “Deal or no deal?”
    Glen stared at the check like a starving dog eyeing a morsel of meat. Then he snatched it away from Ryan. “Deal.”
    Ryan stood up and took my hand. “Then that concludes our business. Good day.”
    Glen just hunkered down behind his desk, holding the check like Gollum would his ring. I almost expected him to croak out, The preciousssssss.
    Then we were out of his office and gone.
    “You didn’t have to do that,” I said.
    “I know,” Ryan said.
    “I could have handled it.”
    “I know.”
    “You basically just bribed him to leave me alone.”
    “I know.”
    “That doesn’t feel very good.”
    He looked over at me as we reached the elevator.
    “I’m sorry,” he said, in all sincerity.
    I sighed, and we got in the elevator alone. Nobody else entered. It was just the two of us.
    As the doors slid shut, I leaned my head against his arm.
    “Thank you,” I said.
    He found my hand, gave it a little squeeze, and then let go.
    “You’re welcome.”

11
    I didn’t find out Ryan had booked first class until the desk person came over the loudspeaker and announced that boarding the plane was about to begin.
    Ryan stood up and held out his hand to me. “Come on, that’s us.”
    I stared at him. “First class?! Ryan – !”
    “Hey, I’m a rock star,” he joked. “I have to keep up appearances.”
    “I’ll… I’ll pay you back. For this, and for Glen – ”
    “Kaitlyn, if I were in bad shape, would you give me fifty dollars?”
    “What?”
    “If I were starving, or hurt, would you give me fifty dollars? What you make in a couple of hours, say.”
    He was being overly generous with that ‘what you make in a couple of hours.’ That was more like what I averaged over a day.
    But I went with it. “Of course.”
    “And would you expect me to pay you back?”
    “No, of course not.”
    “Well, I