PART 2 Lexi
I’ve spent so much of my college career at the Nash Mathematics Center that I can name every floor, every lecture hall, every professor and where their office is located. I know that there are a total of ten bathrooms scattered across all the floors, centrally located near the elevators and stairs. And I know that this building hosts one of the creepiest basements you’ll ever enter.
It’s only a little after six in the evening and the sun still hasn’t made its full descent into the horizon, but the main hallway of the basement is dark as I walk down it. I’ve been in this basement a total of twenty-two times. Hosted eight Double C events here. Ironically enough, the last Double C event I hosted here was the first time I met Blake.
It was also the night that I watched Finn kick an ex-UFC fighter’s ass and walked out with an extra three hundred bucks in my pocket.
My phone buzzes in my hand, breaking my train of thought. I glance at the screen, and a smile tugs at my lips when I see the sender.
Ginger: Guess who has an interview with Apple?
Me: Tim Cook’s long-lost niece?
Ginger: Close. Ginger Lewis, soon-to-be Queen of Code. Silicon Valley better roll out the red carpet.
Me: When’s the big coronation?
Ginger: Thursday at 10 a.m. Let’s all pray that I don’t blow it.
Me: You won’t.
Ginger: You’re right. I won’t. And then I’ll be so freaking happy! And you’ll be happy too, because your favorite Ferris pal can send you free swag.
Me: I’ll take a Macbook. Thanks.
Ginger: You’ll be happy with Apple stickers and, like, a pen or two. Oh! By the way, I saw that ESPN footage, making the rounds again on TikTok…
Me: Don’t remind me.
Ginger: Don’t remind you? Lex, that footage is ICONIC. Your studly football star boyfriend kissed you on the mouth in the middle of the field and was looking down at you like you’re the love of his life because, well, you are. Sheesh. I’m still swooning over here, you lucky bitch. Also, it did remind me of something very important…
Me: And that important thing would be?
Ginger: You still owe me lunch. And a full-fledged rundown of everything that’s happened between you and Mr. Football Star. I’m talking alllll the details.
Me: How about next Friday? Then, you can tell me all about the big interview.
Ginger: Oh honey, count me in. I’ll text you next week to harass you about a time and a place.
I laugh and tuck my phone back into my bag just as a voice calls out behind me.
“Lex!”
I glance over my shoulder to find Connor jogging to catch up with me. I slow my steps until he’s at my side, and he doesn’t hesitate to hand me the deep navy velvet cloak I was given the night I was initiated as the president of Double C with Connor as my VP, surrounded by candles and darkness and four of the fifteen Dickson alumni who make up the chairpersons of the board for Computare Caterva.
Pretty official for a secret society, I know, but when it was formed in the early 1900s, only a few years after Dickson University was established, formality was at the center of everything, and that history that runs deep. Historical figures, political figures, celebrities, professional athletes—there’s a whole slew of big names who have been a part of Double C.
Though, I can’t speak of those names. No one can. That rule is one of the pillars of the society.
The farther we get into the basement hallway, the darker it gets. A dingy, metallic smell settles inside my nose as we reach the door that leads into the very same room where we once hosted an underground fight club for the night, and Connor unlocks it, utilizing the stack of keys that gives us entry into every single building and room on campus.
A set of keys that is about to be handed off to someone else.
He holds the door open for me, and I step inside, pulling my cloak over my body as I do. I lift my hood, covering my hair, and spot the two chairs that will be running tonight’s torch-passing ceremony.
Candles are already lit around the room, and a single gold velvet throne sits in the center. And it’s exactly how I remember it from when Connor and I were initiated into our head Double C positions five years ago.
But now that we’ve closed the college chapters in our lives, both of us heading into the real world of adulthood and careers, it’s time to move on.
Both of the chair members have their backs turned to us, their gold cloaks covering their bodies. And while I don’t know who will be handling tonight’s ceremony, I do know who the next sitting president of Double C will be, and it wouldn’t feel right if one chair, in particular, weren’t here to witness the passing of the torch.
“This is wild,” Connor whispers toward me. “I can’t believe we’re done with college. Done with Double C.”
I look over at him and smile. My emotions are a mix of excitement and nostalgia. “I know. We’ve had some good times with Double C, haven’t we?”
He grins. “Too many.”
My phone vibrates in the pocket of my jeans, and I reach beneath my cloak to grab it. Seeing as the ceremony hasn’t officially started, I discreetly pull it out to check the screen.
I’m expecting it to be Blake, sending me something funny or sexy or a combination of both, but my brow furrows when I see it’s from my lawyer.
Caplin Hawkins: Medivanta agreed to all provisions. Their legal team is signing the contract now. And while this is off the record and completely out of character for your very professional—and incredibly talented—lawyer to say, as your Uncle Cappy, I have to say it. I’m so fucking proud of you. Congratulations.
Oh my God. I stare down at my phone, my eyes wide with surprise and elation and all the myriad emotions that come with finding out the news. This is huge. So huge that I’m not sure I’m going to be able to fully process it all until I see Blake’s reaction when I tell him later tonight.
I just sold something I made for thirty-two million dollars.
And now, I can officially start my own company and continue to do what I love—creating software and apps and technological advancements.
Lexi Winslow, CEO and owner of LexLink. Soon, that’s going to be me.
Holy hell.
I look over at Connor, my mind desperate to tell someone the good news, but just before I can open my mouth, I clamp it shut. It doesn’t feel right telling anyone but Blake first. He’s…my person.
I guess that’s what happens when you love someone. I never understood what my mom would mean when she’d say that about Wes, but now, I get it.
It’s not scientific. It’s not logical. But it is fact.
Blake is my person. He’s my lover and my favorite confidant and my biggest support and my loudest cheerleader. He’s my best friend. I don’t know how one person can play all those roles at the same time, but that’s what he does for me.
One of the chairs walks toward the secret door at the back of the massive room, and I slide my phone back into my pocket, forcing myself to focus on the ceremony that’s about to start.
I can’t make out the chair’s face as they guide Double C’s next sitting president out of the secret room that I know from Connor’s early text confirmation, he’s been waiting in for a good forty-five minutes.
His face is blindfolded, but a perpetual full-toothed smile is etched on his lips. Fucking kidnapped with little to no explanation and the bastard is still smiling—I swear, only him.
When the chair guides him to sit in the gold velvet throne in the center of the room, her hood shifts a little, and I spot her familiar dark-brown hair and pretty eyes and her proud but mischievous smile.
Oh man, the family’s all here. This is going to be good.
“Ace Tobias Kelly, I’d like to welcome you here tonight,” the other chair—whom I recognize as a very well-known billionaire who was once on a mainstream television show that allowed everyday people to pitch their company in front of a board to try to get investments—starts to announce, walking around where Ace still sits blindfolded on the velvet throne. “This is going to be one of the most important nights of your life. Are you ready to take on the challenge?”
“I’m ready,” Ace chatters excitedly. “I’m so ready.”
Connor and I stay put in the corner of the space, but both chairs step directly in front of Ace’s perched spot on the throne. They drop the hoods of their cloaks, revealing their faces, and the male chair—aka the billionaire—steps forward to remove Ace’s blindfold.
Ace blinks several times, working to adjust his vision to the change from darkness to candlelight, but I can tell the instant everything comes into focus.
“Mom?” he questions, his eyes wide and pointed directly at the female chair I’ve known for most of my life.
Cassie Kelly is a Dickson alum and secret chair of Double C. She’s the whole reason I put up with Ace’s bullshit all last year of inviting new people to our secret society without permission. She was, after all, one of the chairs who initiated both Connor and me into Double C.
Trust me, it was a shock, but it was also a pleasant surprise.
“Hi, Acer,” Cassie says, and even though I can’t see her face, I can hear the smile in her voice.
“What are you doing here?” Ace questions, looking around the room.
“Surprise, motherfucker,” she says without hesitation. “Your clearly very cool mom is one of the secret chairs of Double C.”
Ace’s eyes are so big, they look like they could consume his entire face.
The male chair nods toward Connor and me, and we both move forward, dropping the hoods of our cloaks to reveal our faces and stepping up to where Ace still sits in shock.
“Tonight, we are gathered here for the ceremony of your initiation,” I state, and Ace searches my eyes. His gaze is silently questioning if I knew about his mom’s secret society secret, and I just offer him a brief, knowing smile.
“Tonight, you will be initiated as the current sitting president of Computare Caterva,” Connor instructs. “Are you ready to take the oath, Ace Tobias Kelly?”
Ace looks at me and then looks at his mom, and then the biggest smile forms on his face. “I’m ready.”
“Julia won’t be mad?” Cassie hedges, making Ace’s smile fall for the briefest of moments before he picks it up again.
He shakes his head. “She will. But that’s why we have the fifteen-minute rule. It’s saved my ass more than once, and it’ll save it again. I’m ready.”
I raise my eyebrows with interest. A fifteen-minute rule?
I guess that’s a question for another time because, right now, we’ve got a ceremony to perform.
Look out, world. There’s a new Double C president in town, and his name is Ace Kelly.