Page 19 of Antihero

He opened his eyes. “What?”

Joey stuck her head in. “How about: ‘Don’t fall in love with Plan A’?”

“Huh?”

She was supposed to be buried in her laptop. He’d asked her to track Lesandro Candella through Epic and Cerner, the prevalent electronic medical-record systems used in California. It was not his habit to keep track of those he helped once they were out of the crosshairs but his habits seemed to be shifting of late without his permission.

“My new Commandment!” Joey said. “The eleventh one or whatever.”

“I came up with that.”

“No. No. I’m pretty sure you got it from me.”

“Joey. I’m meditating.”

“We were sitting at the sushi-roll place in Westwood and you were all like, ‘I’m not going to your recital,’ and I was like, ‘Don’t fall in love with Plan A.’”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how that happened.”

“Whatevs.”

She withdrew.

He closed his eyes. Found his breath again.

Another knock.

“What?”

“‘Need no praise,’” she said, this time in her movie-trailer voice.

“That’s from Jack.”

“So what? The other ten were from Jack.”

“Josephine. I’m trying to focus. Don’t you have some antioxidant trail mix to chew on?”

“Real clever, X. You wait. That’s two now. Two for Joey. ‘Don’t fall in love with Plan A.’ And? ‘Need no praise.’”

“Neither are—”

But she was gone.

He ground his teeth. Gazed out the window. Took in the cake-frosting layer of stratocumulus clouds floating below the jet. He focused on the softness of the mattress beneath his back, the—

“‘There are no arguments to win. Only actions to take.’”

There she was filling out the doorway. Past her he could see the can of Red Bull wedged in the cupholder of her leather seat; evidently her clean-living pledge didn’t hold past Kansas.

“That sounds like a motivational poster,” Evan said.

Joey screwed up her face, considering, her expression at odds with her suit. “Okay, mebbe. How about—”

“Joey. If you don’t get out of here I’m gonna demote you.”

“Demote me? That means I did get a promotion! Can we talk about my new job title?”

“No.”