Page 137 of Joey

“What?”

“You heard me,” Jesse says. “So I’m not gonna repeat that.”

“Who told you this?”

“Emma just called and said Brooke showed up at Bright Berry Beach demanding to talk to Mila because she read her book and was, I don’t know, fucking inspired or some shit. And then she used the words ‘Joey’s fiancée’ and ‘kidnapping’ and ‘Johnny’ all in the same sentence. And then Emma, bossy woman that she is, decided to call up Johnny and set up a little meeting without consulting me first because hey, that’s a good idea.”

“Shit.”

“That’s all you have to say? Shit? What the hell is going on and why am I the last to hear about it?”

“Meet me at the Bossy. I’ll fill you in there.”

I end the call and look at my friends.

“What’d he say?” Huck asks.

“Brooke is on her way over to Johnny’s to have some kind of meeting.”

Wald throws down his controller and stands up. “OK, then. Thinking time is over. We’re gonna settle this shit once and for all. Just let me get my shoes.”

He walks down the hallway and disappears into his room.

Huck looks at me and shrugs. “I’m going too. You’re not in this alone, Joey. We’re not afraid of your baggage.”

“You don’t even know what the baggage is yet, Huck. What I told you is just the beginning. Maybe it’s better you and Wald go back to Tokyo and—“

“Fuck you,” he says. “Just fuck you. What more do we have to do to convince you that we go where you go? Seriously,” he says. “What more will it take? How many more decades of us hanging around do you require before you see what’s right in front of you?”

“That’s not it, and you know it.”

“Do I know it?” Huck asks.

“You should,” I say.

“Then how about you pretend I don’t and you tell me again?”

I huff. “I’m just looking out for you and—“

But Huck is crossing the room at a quick pace, and Wald is coming out of the bedroom with shoes in his hand, and I’m pretty sure this is one of those moments when Huck is gonna kiss the stupid out of me, and so I kinda freeze as Huck stands in front of me. Face to face. Eye to eye. And says. “Tell me. Again.”

“I fucking love you, OK?” I look over at Wald. “I love both of you. I didn’t think that was a secret. I didn’t think it needed to be said.”

“It doesn’t,” Huck says. Still angry.

Wald comes over to us, drops his shoes on the floor, takes a seat on the couch, and looks up at me as he starts putting them on. “But it is nice to hear every once in a while.”

I sigh. “I feel like I’m fucking everything up right now. Maisy’s life, Brooke’s life. Our lives. It was all fine before I came back here and now it’s—“

“It wasn’t fine,” Huck insists. “It was exactly the same. The only difference is… now you know.”

“And now we know too,” Wald adds.

My heart skips a beat when he says that, I’m not gonna lie. “So what’s that mean?”

“Dude,” Huck says, getting in my face. “What the hell part of ‘we’re in this together’ do you not understand? Is it so fucking hard for you to believe we’re on your side?”

I glance at Wald.