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He pulled up the number of his wildlife-rehab client and hit Call.
APRIL 29, FOURTEEN DAYS TO PUBLICATION
Chris: Remember how we talked about Z having a cat?
Daphne: I’m trying to forget.
Chris: LOL Okay, so I started thinking. I have this friend of a friend who owes me a favor and, well, one word. Cougar.
Daphne: What you do with your private time is your own business.
Chris: What? Oh. Cougar. Ha!
Chris: No, it isn’t that kind of cougar. Not that I have any problem with that—older just means more experience, right?
Daphne: Cell service flickering.
Chris: So this friend-of-a-friend runs a wildlife-rehab center on Van Isle, and they just got in a cougar cub, so I got some pics.
Daphne: Of the cub? Okay. I’m a sucker for baby wildlife. Send.
Chris: Done!
Daphne: Uh, this is a picture of you cuddling a cougar cub.
Chris: Yes! See? It’ll win the cat-lover demographic without tarnishing Z’s masculine rep.
Chris: Second pic incoming!
Daphne: So… looks like the cub ate your shirt.
Chris: Funny how that happened, huh?
Daphne: You are now shirtless, cuddling a cougar cub. Wait, is that blood?
Chris: Shit! Forgot to ’shop that out. Kitty had claws. Weird, huh?
Daphne: I think there’s someone at the door.
MAY 2, ELEVEN DAYS TO PUBLICATION
Daphne: WTF???!!!
Chris: Language, D. You’re a kid’s book writer, remember? Oh, sorry. I’m not supposed to say that. You’re a literary speculative-fiction novelist, whose book features a teenaged protagonist in a brutal but inspiring coming-of-age story.
Chris: That’s the line the publisher gave me.
Daphne: You asked for access to the Zane account so you could keep abreast of the publisher’s plans for my book while I took a weekend off. You promised you would never EVER respond to an email directed to Zane.
Chris: I didn’t respond to a new email. I noticed you left the cougar-cub pics out of the latest batch, so I passed them along. I was being helpful.
Daphne: You passed them photos I had decided against using, and then you responded to questions about those photos, which were used in a major online article about the book.
Chris: I was being helpful.
Daphne: Two days, Chris. I was gone for two days.
Daphne: Also, you said you rescued the cub from a grizzly.
