Chapter 399 | Talent: Primary

Chapter 399: 399 | Talent: Primary

Jordan had about eight seconds of peace before Chloe’s fingers found the sore spot at the base of his skull and pressed down with surgical accuracy.

"Ow."

"You walked twenty-two miles and then had sex four times."

"Five."

Her fingers paused. "Five."

"Shower Sunday morning. You were on the laptop."

"That counts as a half at most."

"Your thighs were shaking after."

Chloe’s hand moved to his temple and started making slow circles that unraveled his spine inch by inch. "My thighs shake when I sneeze now."

Jordan had no good response to that so he made a sound that meant he was listening and closed his eyes. The couch smelled like her conditioner and the lemon stuff she used on the counters when she was stressed about something she had not mentioned yet, and her lap was warm, and if he stayed here long enough maybe his lower back would remember what its job was.

"Eliza texted you," Chloe said.

"I know."

"You didn’t answer."

"Nine tonight. Six hours. Like you said."

Her fingers stilled completely for two seconds, which was how she showed surprise. "You’re actually following the script."

"You wrote it, I’m following it."

"That’s the first time in six weeks you’ve done exactly what I suggested without altering the plan midway through because you thought of something funnier."

Jordan opened one eye. "Are you complaining that I’m listening to you."

"I’m noticing a pattern." Her thumb pressed into the junction where his jaw met his skull and his entire head tried to melt. "Saturday you let me pick the suite. Sunday you asked me if Kumiko could ride with us before assuming. This morning you carried her bag without being asked. You’ve started checking if I’m okay before deciding things."

"That’s called not being an asshole."

"That’s called you being scared." Her voice had gone flat and clinical, which was how she sounded when she was working something out in her head and saying it aloud to test if it broke. "You had the best weekend of your life and now you’re waiting for the part where it gets taken away, so you’re trying to be perfect enough that nobody leaves, which is the opposite of sustainable and also insulting because I’m not going anywhere and neither is Kumiko, and you doing everything I say because you think obedience prevents abandonment is going to make me angry in about four days."

Jordan lay there and did not move and wondered if she had a camera installed in his brain or if he was just that obvious.

"I’m not scared," he said.

"You posted a shirtless mirror selfie at midnight to make Eliza jealous and then checked your phone eleven times before breakfast. That’s scared."

"That’s tactical."

"It’s both." Her fingers slid through his hair and he exhaled into her knee. "You’re allowed to want things to stay good without performing for it. I’m not your mom giving you conditional approval. I’m your girlfriend who already decided, and the decision doesn’t require maintenance."

Jordan thought about his mother’s text from three weeks ago. I believe you’re meant for great things, sweetheart. Your father and I just want you to believe it too. He had read it seventeen times in a parking lot and then put his phone away and went to train with Maya until his shoulders stopped working.

"Noted," he said.

Chloe’s hand did not resume its earlier rhythm. "That’s not an actual answer."

"I don’t have an actual answer. I have this." He gestured vaguely at the ceiling. "I’m lying in your lap at one in the afternoon on a Monday because I can’t walk straight and you’re explaining my psychology to me while pregnant, and three months ago I was crying on this floor because a girl I spent forty-five hundred dollars on let another guy grope her in a parking lot while I watched. So yeah, maybe I’m a little afraid the universe is going to remember it made a clerical error and take this back."

Chloe was quiet for long enough that he opened both eyes and looked up at her. She had her glasses on, the black frames that made her look like she was about to grade something harshly, and her brown eyes behind them were soft in the way they only got when she had decided to be mean about caring.

"The universe doesn’t make clerical errors," she said. "It makes supply and demand corrections. Three months ago you were worth less than the attention you were buying. Now you’re worth more than what you’re spending. The System just tracks the delta." She pushed his hair back from his forehead. "And I’m not the universe. I’m a business major who got pregnant on purpose by someone I decided was worth the investment, and I don’t invest in assets that depreciate. So you can stop waiting for me to realize I made a mistake, because I ran the numbers in December and the numbers still work."

Jordan stared at the ceiling and tried to figure out if he had just been romanced or audited.

"You’re so fucking weird," he said.

"You like that I’m weird."

"I love that you’re weird."

Her face did the thing where it almost smiled but held the line. "I know."

His phone buzzed on the coffee table at 2:17 and he reached for it without moving his head from Chloe’s lap because his body had given up on voluntary movement.

KUMIKO: i keep trying to work on my portfolio but i cant stop thinking about sunday

KUMIKO: which is a problem because my professor wants fifteen new pieces by friday

KUMIKO: and all i can think about is how you said my name when you

KUMIKO: okay i deleted that one four times but im sending it anyway because dr nakamura says avoidance creates anxiety

KUMIKO: you said my name like i was the only person in the room even though chloe-chan was right there and i know that sounds stupid but it made me feel like i was the center of something instead of the supporting character and i didnt know i wanted that until it happened

KUMIKO: im going to stop typing now before i say something embarrassing

KUMIKO: more embarrassing

KUMIKO: i miss you

Jordan showed the phone to Chloe, who read it over the top of her laptop.

"She misses you and it’s been four hours."

"She slept in my shirt last night."

"I know. She told me this morning while you were in the shower. She also told me she’s going to ask if she can keep it, and I told her yes because you have six identical black shirts and losing one won’t hurt your operational capacity." Chloe adjusted her glasses. "You need to answer her."

"What do I say."

"That you miss her too and you’ll see her tonight." Her mouth twitched. "And that she wasn’t a supporting character on Sunday. She was the main event and you were supporting crew."

Jordan typed it exactly how she said it, added you’re keeping the shirt, and hit send.

The reply came back in eleven seconds.

KUMIKO: im crying at the fabric store

KUMIKO: the employee asked if im okay and i said yes and she said i dont look okay and i showed her your text and she said that’s very sweet and asked if you have a brother

KUMIKO: i told her no but i’d ask

"Does Kyle have a girlfriend," Chloe said.

"Kyle has a rotation."

"Then Kumiko can tell the fabric store employee no." She pulled her laptop back onto her knees. "I’m doing payroll for the agency. Nova cleared four hundred and twelve dollars this week from passive income, which is mostly your Instagram engagement converting to click-throughs on Kumiko’s cosplay account. Brooke’s projection says if you post three times a week at optimal times we hit eight hundred a week by March, which is thirty-two hundred a month, which is rent."

Jordan processed that. "My Instagram is paying our rent."

"Your Instagram is paying sixty percent of rent. The System rebates are paying the other forty percent. Technically you’re a profitable asset twice over." She typed something. "I’m putting you on the Q1 earnings report as Talent: Primary."