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“You keep thinking instead of talking to me.Youthoughtit would be a great idea to not tell me about Colt until I saw him with my own two eyes.Youthoughtit was a great idea to tell me to give him a fake name.Youthoughtairing my shit in front of a room of people would help.”I loved Ted but he was going to be the death of me.“Stop.Just stop.This is my life and I’ll clean it up on my own.”I spun away and finished storming intomyroom.

Ted followed me and slammed the door shut.“Heshouldknow.”

“No he should not!”Ishoutedback.

“But why?If he’s confused or hurt, I get it.We all feel put off when we find out we’ve been lied to.It’s human nature.But you have a really goodreason.”

I realized Ted was never going to listen to me.He genuinely thought he knew better.“Don’t you dare tell him a damn thing, Ted.Iforbidit.”

“I could slip him a few news articles.Forwarding him a TMZreport—”

“No!”I shouted even louder, hoping increasing my volume would somehow help.“I have my reasons.Can’t youunderstandthat?”

“No.”

Well, that was at least an honestanswer.

I sat down and waved Ted into the other chair.“Look, I see what you’re saying.I do.And I agree that explaining some of it might help him understand where I’mcomingfrom.”

“Then why aren’t you doing it?You could be making out with himrightnow.”

Unlikely.“You can’t tell him because it will make things harder in the long run.Colt, he’s...well, he’s a fixer.If I tell him what I’m dealing with he’ll try to fix it.And he has his own problems and more than enough to handle.The last thing he needs is to add another problem to hisplate.”

But Ted didn’t agree.“Shouldn’t that be his decision?Would I be better off if Charley had kept Evangeline a secret because I was busy getting a movie online and she didn’t want to add to myproblems?”

“It’s not the samething.”

“It’s not entirely different,either.”

“Babies aregoodnews.”

His whole face lit up.“So is falling in love with the right person.He spoke to your soul, remember?Show him the script you wrote.”He shot up off the chair and over to myluggage.

“Oh no you don’t.”I shoved him away, grateful I’d moved my writing to a different bag.I was eventually going to muster up the courage to start telling Colt about my family.We needed to have that talk.But my writing?Umm...no.That was staying hidden.“Look, I know you’re trying to help, but some of us needmoretime.”

He dropped the bag and sighed.“I suppose not everyone can be as decisiveasme.”

“Very fewpeopleare.”

“You’re allmissingout.”

I turned him around and began pushing us back toward my door.“First he needs time to process, then I’ll start filling him in, if he’swilling.”

“Oh he’swilling.”

I rolled my eyes.“One thing at a time.Go home to your wife.Rubherfeet.”

He mercifully left me without any more arguments, which was a good thing because I was on the verge of a headache after all that.I managed to finish unpacking but I wasrestless.

Okay I was also hungry.Turns out I didn’t eat nearly enough once my butterflies kicked in at dinner.So I ventured out of my room to see if the fancy kitchen stocked midnightsnacks.

I pushed open the kitchen door and walked right into a Colt-shapedwall.