Life, Love, & Lies

Forty-Five

"Knock, knock." LoLo hollars, walking into Chaz and Zach's apartment, "Zach? The front door was unlocked so I let myself in." She calls again.

"Dammit, Chaz." Zach appears from the hallway, shaking his head. "I reminded him to double check that he locked the door when he left, and he still didn't."

"Well at least it was only me who tried to use the open door." She shrugs softly.

"Yeah, I have something for you." He grins, motioning for her to follow him as he spins back around, leading her to his room.

"Is it done, done?" She asks nervously as he lifts a rather large stack of papers off his desk.

"I mean, it needs editing, and it needs all the harsh feedback you would like to give it, but ya... it's done." He grins.

"Have you named it too?" She bites her lip nervously as she takes the bound stack of paper.

"Imprisoned Without Bars, the official biography of Felicity Abernathy." His eyes are watching her as he says it, looking for her reaction.

"Wow... It's, the name, it's perfect." She nods, ghosting her fingers over the same words on the first page of the stack he just handed her.

"I hope you feel the book does your life justice, LoLo. I hope it's everything you want the world to know, written the way you want the world to hear it. I have never loved anything I have created as much as I love this book."

"I'm nervous to read it..." She admits, sitting on the edge of his bed, resting the book in her lap.

"Why?"

"Because it is my story, and it's going to be me at my most vulnerable in some ways. It's nerve wracking to think the world will get to see me in that state through these words. And despite the fact that I have no doubt you wrote it beautifully, and that these chapters are filled with me in the best light I've been seen in, I still feel very exposed just thinking about the content of the book." She rambles slightly.

"You have full control, LoLo. If you read it and don't like any of it, I will cut it out, no questions asked. Or scrap the whole project if that's what you want." He settles onto the bed beside her, resting his hand over hers on the top of the book.

"I'm going to read it with an open mind, and I'm going to trust you, Zach. I do trust you, and I trusted you with this job. I will try not to ruin too many parts of your book."

"I appreciate that, and part of me is hoping you won't want me to change or remove any of it, but it's okay if you want me to edit it some. I understand that this is your life, and your story. I want it to be right by you."

"I know. Thank you again, Zach. For every part of the last six months. For seeing me, for confronting me, for forcing me out of the comfortable but bad place I was in, for listening, for writing, for wanting to do it all. I owe you so much."

"You owe me nothing. I was happy to do it. Thank you for trusting me, for opening up to me, for showing me your life and letting me turn up old dirt and shit to get the full story. For complying with my requests and answering my millions of questions. This is my project, but it is your life."

"We make a pretty good messed up pair, don't we."

"We're messed up?" He laughs.

"Well I am." She shrugs, "You just help me make some sense of the mess."

"I'm happy to keep that position even with the book being complete." He offers, squeezing her hand softly, the memory of Matt kissing her a couple days previous suddenly flooding LoLo's mind as he does.