Hate Is A Strong Word

46.

"Are you really okay with this?"

"Of course. The main thing is that you made a fortune out of it and you have a career."

"You're funny." He laughs into his phone and I walk down the stairs.

"Plus, my girlfriend loves your books." I smile, and on the way, I reach for a toy one of the cats left lying on the staircase.

"So you're really not mad."

"At you, Justin? No one can be mad at you, you're the nicest person in the world."

"Say hi to your girlfriend and have a great season."

"Thanks, you have a good one too. Bye."

"Bye, Kristian." I hang up the phone and tuck my phone into my sweatpants pocket. Well, the last few days have been crazy, and that may still be an understatement. After the big reveal, the entire internet, all the media, and practically the entire gone crazy that I'm writing books and am one of the world's best, best-selling, and most respected bestselling authors.

Imagine taking a Coca-Cola and regular blue Mentos, yeah, we all have that scene in our heads. Only instead of normal size, you'd have twenty football fields full of the sugary liquid and a chewy candy the size of a small town. Then you'd drop the candy and imagine the reaction, I guess it was something like that.

Just boom. Like a big boom.

The last couple of days I also didn't leave the house and when I did, it was to the garden or Sebastian would pick me up and we'd go to his place. He understands what it's like. Simply put, I've been dealt with all over the place. Every newspaper, TV station, tabloids, internet articles, social media and so on. I was also a much discussed topic in the locker of the local junior hockey club.

Not surprisingly, I've written a book about their teammate, actually two of them now.

The first to speak up was Samuel, who was very chill. Very calm. We talked about it, he told me he was fine with it and proud of me. Also, that I probably described him best and he really liked the role of Samuel the basketball player. We talked most of the morning. Same with Kristian, also okay with me writing a book about him. He said he would be able to brag that someone had written a book about him.

I'm glad it worked out that way with them. But they both wished me good luck with Sebastian. The book about the two of us has been out for about two days now, and let's just say it's also been talked about a lot and people have put two and two together very quickly. Unexpectedly, there's a blonde hockey player on the cover. But everybody loves it. They say it's the best of all. Only good things are coming my way.

In the end, it all turned out well. The world knows who I am, the book is selling like crazy all over the world, I've gotten nice messages from other writers, and it's just better than I expected. Wow, it's quite a relief. I've gotten a lot of offers for various interviews and talk shows, but I'm not planning on doing that right now. I did a stream yesterday where I answered questions and that should be all I need for now.

I'm still in shock, but everything seems to be going well.

I have everything off my back, book, revealing my identity, telling Sebastian I love him and coming to terms with him leaving. I've half absorbed the leaving, even though he's leaving in a minute. But there's a smaller, rather bigger problem.

Sebastian has gone to Prague for two days because he has some light testing to do and, more importantly, a charity event. One day they had an autograph session and some interviews, the other day they played football with other hockey players, like my brother. My whole family including my grandma and grandpa and pregnant Andrea are in Prague and they are not coming back until tomorrow night. I refused to go, for obvious reasons, and they understood, and so did Sebastian.