Page 81 of Medium
I let go of both of them. “Sorry.”
Rory squirmed in his seat and adjusted his grip on the steering wheel. “Um, no worries.” His voice was a little higher than usual.
I caught Ellis checking out Rory’s lap. I wanted to do the same, but I decided to behave myself, sliding back in the seat and buckling myself in.
Ellis cleared his throat. “Ah, speaking of bonding. Simon said we need to do it soon. Not to, I guess, kill the romance or anything, but what are we going to do about your jobs?”
Rory scrunched up his face. “What do jobs have to do with...? Oh, wait. You mean the thing where you and Shane were having to stay within a few feet of each other?”
“Yeah, it can take weeks before you can be apart for more than a couple of hours. Can you work remotely?”
He shook his head. “The boss likes to see us in the office. But honestly I’ve been making more money from the investments Grandfather’s been helping me with. I wouldn’t be sad to pull a Shane move.” He raised his eyebrows at me in the rear-view mirror.
Ellis looked back at me questioningly, so I told him how Ricky had called me at the wrong time, and I’d let him have it.
Ellis laughed. “I’m so proud of you. I wish I’d been able to see it.”
I didn’t tell him that if he hadn’t been kidnapped, I didn’t know if I’d have ever found the courage to quit.
Ellis reached back and patted my leg. “We’ll find you something better, something that’ll make you happy.”
“Thanks, Ellis.”
I rubbed my chest where the two hundred connections clamored to be noticed. Ordinarily District Monitor connections were pretty quiet, only calling attention to themselves when the Wonder was stressed or afraid. But it was starting to feel like every one of them was on high alert, even though when I focused on an individual connection, nothing was wrong. It wasn’t a problem with the connections, it was that I didn’t have enough magic to maintain them all.
“Guys, would you have any issues if we did the bonding tonight?”
Ellis twisted in his seat to look at me again. “Simon was right, huh? No, let’s do it. Your little experiment a minute ago woke my libido up like you wouldn’t believe. Rory? This’ll be the biggest change for you.”
Once again, Rory met my eyes in the rear-view mirror. But this time they were full of heat. He swallowed, and I watched his Adam’s apple bob up and down. A jolt of lust came through the connection.
Ellis swore.
“Yeah, tonight’s good,” Rory rasped out.
I was about to reply when my phone rang. I checked the screen, half-expecting it to be Ricky. “Oh, shit!” I couldn’t help the panic in my voice.
“What is it?” Ellis turned around again. I had a stray thought that we should buy one of those ancient trucks with the bench seat in the front so the three of us could sit together.
I held my phone out so he could see the screen. “It’s Mr. Yamamoto from Akagi Inc. He was one of our clients. I used to do all of his designs, but of course Ricky told him he’d done them. I only really dealt with him during installation. Shit, should I answer?”
“I’ve got it.” Ellis took the phone from me and swiped to answer the call. “Shane Costa Landscaping, this is Ellis speaking. How may I help you.”
I stared, my mouth hanging open. Did he really do that?
“Yes, sir, Mr. Yamamoto. I’m so sorry, but Shane is meeting with a client right now. However, I’m in charge of sales. Is there something I can help you with?” He tilted his head as he listened, then he smirked. His amusement came through our connection loud and clear. Rory kept glancing over at Ellis, so he must’ve felt it too.
Ellis did drop the smile as he replied. “Yes, sir, that’s correct. All of the designs Ricky told you he drew up were in fact done by Shane.” He gave us a thumbs up as he nodded at whatever Mr. Yamamoto was saying to him. “Of course. If you’ll text the address of the new property to this number, we’ll come see it tomorrow. Does 2pm work for you? Excellent. We can have an estimate to you by a week from today.”
After a few more pleasantries, Ellis hung up the call. He grinned as he handed me my phone back. It buzzed with a text message. Mr. Yamamoto had sent the address.
“Ellis, you... I can’t... I don’t know how?—”
“Breathe, Shane.” Twisting around again, he reached through the gap in the seats to pat my knee. “You can do this.”
I threw up my hands. “I mean, sure, I can do the design. But how much should I charge? Where am I going to get the plants? How will I pay for the plants before Mr. Yamamoto pays me? What if I don’t charge enough? I don’t even have a laptop to send an invoice!”
Ellis squeezed my knee. “Shh. It’ll be fine. That’s what I’m here for. I can solve all of those problems for you.”
