Chapter Twenty-Five #2
I take his wrist and look at his Apple watch. It’s already past 8:30 p.m.! He senses my growing anger and shrugs. “It’s fine. We only have a couple weeks left.”
But it’s not fine for me. I can’t just sit back and watch these hardworking people get taken advantage of because they’re afraid they’ll lose their jobs if they exercise their rights. They may be afraid to ruffle Kristina’s feathers, but I’m not.
That being said, I don’t want to get Blue in trouble.
So, to make sure he has plausible deniability, I just tell him good night, adding that I hope he feels better soon.
But the minute he leaves, I find my contraband phone in my suitcase and make a few calls.
The first is to 411 to get some phone numbers.
Specifically, the number for the local office of the Teamsters union, the California Labor Commissioner’s Office, and the US Department of Labor, for good measure.
Then I make some anonymous labor violation complaints.
It turns out that the state of California has strict laws in place to protect its workers, and the Labor Commissioner’s Office is very interested in hearing from me.
And finally, when I feel like I’ve blown enough whistles for the day, I check in on my froggies’ Super Bowl.
I FaceTime Cassie, and when the screen fills with the faces of Cassie, Eliza, and Alec, the sight of my friends makes me tear up.
I guess an impending one-on-none date will do that to a girl.
“How did it go today?!” I ask.
But Alec ignores my question and instead says, “Why do you look like shit?”
“Why does everyone keep saying that?”
“She’s hungover,” Cassie explains.
“Still?” Alec scoffs.
“Since when do you drink too much?” Eliza asks.
“Since she started making out with models in hot tubs,” Cassie says in rapid fire and then exhales. “Thank God. It was so hard keeping it from them.”
“I only told you a few hours ago!” I shake my head.
Alec gasps. “But what about Javier? I thought you guys were a thing!”
“Says who?” I sputter.
“The TV! You kissed.” Alec looks heartbroken.
“Yeah, they definitely edited it like you two were hitting it off,” Cassie agrees.
“Javi is great, but he’s with Ciara now,” I say gently, trying to cushion the blow for Alec.
“Which one’s Ciara?” Eliza asks. “Perky blonde or bitchy brunette?”
“She’s the late arrival,” I explain.
“Oh, we haven’t met her yet,” Cassie says like this is real life and not some lame show they’re way too invested in. “She probably comes in episode two.”
“Bummer. Javier was charming. I liked him for you,” Alec whines.
“Guys, let’s get back to the important stuff. No one cares who I’m making out with—”
“I do!” Cassie says.
“Me too!” Alec raises his hand.
“I’m partially intrigued,” admits Eliza.
“Please just tell me how it went with the release today!” I yell as I pace the empty shack. Then realize I should probably break the forbidden phone rule more quietly.
“It was amazing!” Cassie beams.
“Well, we won’t really know for a few weeks, when we check the population again,” Eliza counters.
Cassie rolls her eyes at Eliza’s bluntness. “Everything went perfectly. All fifty test subjects have been vaccinated and microtagged, and they’re happily back in their native habitat. I’d say that’s a win.”
I exhale a sigh of relief commingled with joy—I’ve poured my heart and soul into this project. This will be huge for the species. Hell, it’ll be huge for frogs and amphibians in general. “Thank you, guys,” I say, feeling emotional.
And then Cassie moves the phone, and I can see from the background that they’re on Cassie’s roof deck. Not only did I miss the release, but now I’m missing the celebration. While I’m stuck here icing my ankle in a shack. I try to push down the self-pity and jealousy, but it’s hard.
Of course Cassie notices. “Are you okay?” she asks softly.
I nod. “Yeah, it was just a long, weird day.” Frankly, I can’t believe this is still the same day I found out about Scott and Beth Anne, sprained my ankle, and kissed Andrew.
“Would money cheer you up?” Alec asks, and I perk up. “Because we’re up to fifty thousand dollars in our fundraiser!”
“Holy shit! We raised that much since yesterday?”
“Well, the first episode dropped, and Matt coordinated a big social media push with it. It was honestly kind of incredible,” Cassie explains, like she’s some sort of influencer groupie now.
“That’s amazing,” I say to Cassie. “Still don’t like that you’re in such close contact with my brother, but fifty grand is nothing to sneeze at.” Then I look at Alec. “Promise me you’ll cockblock them if it comes to it.”
“Oh wow. Grace says ‘cockblock’ now,” Alec says, equally amused and horrified.
“I also learned what a ‘fuck boy’ is,” I say smugly.
Eliza ignores us and shakes her head. “I can’t believe this dumb plan is actually working.”
“Yeah, who knew you’d come across as so likable?” Alec says.
“You did! You said America loves an underdog,” I counter.
“Yeah, but I didn’t really think you had a chance.” Alec shrugs.
“Well, I still don’t. I’m the only one not in a couple.” Then I relay how Bill was kicked off the show.
“I know we don’t like him, but that’s pretty harsh.” Cassie winces.
I nod in agreement. “Yep. And I’m going home next unless I hit it off with one of the new arrivals.”
Eliza shakes her head. “This show is fucked up.”
“You’re just realizing that now?” I laugh, then rub my temples because I might just have this hangover headache for the rest of my life.
Cassie looks pensive. “The producers must like you if they didn’t kick you off with Bill. Maybe they’ll throw you a bone and send in a hot cardiothoracic surgeon or something.”
I scoff in response. “Yeah, right. They barely wanted to give me crutches.”
“Why did you need crutches?!” Cassie asks in alarm.
Before I can explain, Eliza bursts out laughing and holds up her phone. “Holy shit, there’s a hilarious meme of you falling with a banana hanging out of your tits.”
“That’s why.” I cringe as I hear them watching the video on a loop and curse whoever leaked the video. “Okay, well I should probably rest up for my one-on-none date.” This just makes Eliza laugh harder. I shake my head at them. “Good night!”
Alec calls, “You’re doing God’s work!”
“Yeah, keep it up, Grace! You’re killing it,” Cassie says, too enthusiastically.
“Other than the banana incident,” Eliza adds.
Cassie and Alec blow me kisses. Eliza just walks away from the phone.
I hang up and consider the dirty shack floor I’m lying on, my hangover headache and swollen ankle, and the depressing one-on-none date that looms ahead of me while I try to block out inappropriate thoughts of the on-set lawyer I’m definitely not supposed to be kissing. Yep, I’m totally killing it.