She huffed, and I shut myself in the bathroom and hit redial. “Hey, Max.”
“Lachlan, where are you?” Normally calm to the point of monotone, Maxwell’s voice hit a panicked pitch.
“I’m still in Las Vegas.”
“You need to get out of there.”
My reflection in the mirror would’ve terrified small children. My eyes were puffy, and my hair looked like I’d just auditioned for a Bon Jovi tribute band. “I’m working on it.”
“I’ll charter you a flight. so you can begin defusing this bomb.” Max was ever the fixer. “Now tell me exactly what happened and why I had to read about it on some deplorable gossip site.”
I quickly explained what little I knew. “We were obviously victims of a crime. I’ll pursue it with law enforcement.”
“But the damage is done,” Maxwell said. “It doesn’t matter what the truth is when the internet tells a more interesting story. Lachlan, you’re at a pivotal point for yourself and Star Gazer Corp. In a matter of months you’ve got the movie premiere and a very public tech launch.”
This conversation was not helping the jackhammer in my head. “I’m aware.”
“So this is how you’re going to kick off your media blitz? As a man who got sloppy drunk in Vegas, got married, and now needs an annulment? Is this the guy who investors will trust with their money?”
I was not a reckless person anymore and hadn’t been for some time. When did I get to drop the mantle of playboy and be taken seriously? I’d worked too hard to be cast as this character once again. “Then I’ll rewrite the story.”
“What does that mean?”
“The games that succeed are the ones that tell a good story. If the game doesn’t work, you tweak the plot.”
“I’m a finance and strategy person, Lachlan. The rest is all frippery and fluff to me.”
I’d always been an idea guy. I didn’t say they were always good ones, but my mind was a veritable solution factory. So when a vague, nebulous notion dropped in my head, the first bloom of hope poked above the muddy surface. It was insane. Absolutely my craziest idea ever. But I had too much on the line to irreparably screw up my entire future because of a disaster not even of my own making. Besides my own fate, I had employees whose livelihoods depended on my success.
I’d come too far to watch it all go up in flames because of a disaster gone viral.
The question was…did I dare?
And would Olivia ever go along with it?
“I’ll call you back, Maxwell.”
“Lachlan, I’m not through talking to you. We need to discuss—”
“I’m about to rewrite the second act,” I told him. “I’ll let you know how it goes.”
“Lach—”
The door creaked as I slipped out, my nerves humming with that electric feeling of sudden inspiration, the kind that was half-crazy and half-divine. The same feeling I’d felt the last few weeks of creatingMars Wars.
Olivia sat on the bed, wringing her hands. Her hair had been brushed out, but her makeup still tracked down her cheeks. “You’ve been in there forever,” she said. “I had to scream into a pillow.”
“Sorry I missed that.” It had been a mere five minutes. “Important call.”
“Your girlfriend?”
“Yes,” I said, “but she’s willing to share me.”
“You probably have ten more to call.” Olivia tied her hair into a ponytail with a snap of elastic. “Maybe we can stop by Bobby’s House of Booty Shakes on the way back into Sugar Creek, so you can tell them all at once.”
“Hate to take a blowtorch to your impression of me, but I’ve actually been too busy to date. No one will be crying over this development.” Wrenching open an elf-sized refrigerator, I grabbed a bottle of water and twisted the top. “And for the record, my last girlfriend was a kindergarten teacher I dated for two years, and we only broke up because she decided she preferred someone else.”
“Oh.” I saw Olivia wilt a degree and felt some measure of satisfaction. “I almost believe that.”
