More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“I thought you exchanged numbers with Winona after the Fun Run?” “I thought so too, but she gave me the number to some Wildlife Conservation fund.” He lies back down, not expressing much defeat in that rejection.
“Eliot’s fans are my favorite,” Charlie says. “They’re mostly theatre nerds who send him Shakespeare love letters and dead ravens.”
On-duty, Oliveira. And this is why you don’t bring your boyfriend to your dangerous-as-fuck workplace.
Charlie rams his right foot into the ladder like he’s shoving an enemy off a cliff. It careens, and the metal ladder and Clifford plummet to the stage with a loud crack!
The weekly Cobalt Wednesday Night Dinner is something Charlie tries his absolute best not to miss. Whatever goes down on Wednesdays drives him back to Philly like an obsession.
“The brightest light shining during the darkest hour,” I smile. “That’s pretty good.” “I’m only doing my best work with you, Long Beach.” I smile, but my lips fall gradually. “What happens when the light dims? You’ll still be interested then?” “Oh yeah.” Oscar nods. “I’m every star circling around you. You need a spark, I’m there.” He says it like a promise.
His lip rises like a little wiseass. And his eyes ping to the condom wrapper and bottle of lube on the high-table.
They’re trying to get him fired. It’s a hard kick to my gut, and this has to be a hundred times more painful for Jack. This is his career. The dream he’s been chasing, the ladder he’s been climbing, his life. It’s starting to crumble around him.
Like everyone on SFO, I made an oath the day I signed up to be a bodyguard. To put someone else above Charlie’s safety breaks that soul-bound promise.
For one, I know way too much about Charlie’s sex life. He’s told me countless times, “I cum on women. Not in them.”
Half my paycheck. Probably the first grossly large expense I’ve made at a time when I should be saving more. What I would’ve called a bad financial decision in the past, but damn is it worth every penny.
A Secret about Akara Kitsuwon: my college-friend raved about Akara for four weeks after they hooked up. He restrained her to a headboard with rope and made her come five times.
Since Sulli also wears formalwear—a green sequined romper—the two of them almost look like a couple next to each other. I’ve always thought Akara was into her, but he’s adamantly said, no.
A Secret about Charlie Cobalt: He told me that he’s the one who introduced Beckett to cocaine, and he’s regretted it ever since.
FYI: I have never been in this position. This is my boyfriend’s baby sister. Yes, baby sister. I have seen her name in Oscar’s phone and heard him call her “baby sis” way too many times. I know he considers her almost like a daughter, and the fact that he hates—no, he loathes—the idea of Beckett and Joana together has my pulse on an adrenaline rush.
Beckett frowns and gracefully one-eighties to face her. “What are you doing?” He has that iconic what the fuck face that has been meme’d to death on Reddit. “Oh sorry,” Joana says like she’s not sorry at all. “I was looking for the mattress that’s always attached to your back.” Charlie chokes on his champagne.
I don’t care if it’s in fucking golf-cart-sized form. I never wanted to come up on another crash. That was one of the worst days of my life. And I’d bet a solid grand most in Alpha, Epsilon, and Omega would say the same.
“Oh—fuck,” Eliot curses, causing us to look back. His gaze is latched to the clubhouse’s deck where their parents are descending in a fury. “Is that Mom?” Tom squints and holds a hand above his eyes. “Brother, see you in the afterlife,” Eliot says.
Highland is good. He knows as long as I’m Charlie’s bodyguard, I might as well be tenured in the position.
Donnelly crunches on a chip. “Been sayin’ all along Cobalts are invincible. Eliot and Tom have what—a cut? And Luna’s arm is probably broken.”
I didn’t love college because I never saw them, but being on my own did help me figure out what I wanted for myself.
“Tell me a secret that you’ve never told anyone else.” We have a short window of time. Joana is at the door, but I take advantage of every single second. Holding his waist, I lean in and whisper, “Estou apaixonado por voçê.” I translate, “I’m in love with you.”
It’s worthy of the spotlight. He’s not background. Neither am I. And we should be the favorite ship online. Fans should be making cupcakes with our mother-effing names and hoisting up posters that say, Oscar & Jack for All Time.
Jack sent the money to Donnelly. And when we showed up to crash on the couch tonight, he was pissed in the way that Donnelly gets pissed at friends. He sighed really hard. And then he let it go. He even offered Jack a beer.
Jack and I exchange a confused look. Why is my best friend muttering Luna Hale’s name in his sleepwalking haze?
Out of everyone in the families, I thought Jane’s fourteen-year-old sister would be the most upset that Oscar Oliveira is no longer single. She had an enormous crush on him, but she was one of the first to post her support on social media.
“Don’t compare yourself to other people to minimize what that is.” He points towards my shelf. “Give yourself more credit.”
Though we’re not her own age or women, Kinney created the Rainbow Brigade to feel included among trusted family members and bodyguards who are LGBTQ. What better space for her to come to in a crisis than the one she built?
Farrow is amused as fuck too. The famous ones bring endless entertainment, which always softens and lightens the raw, heavy parts.
It knocks me back for no other reason than it being tame. I just rode a fucking merry-go-round at a hundred miles per hour and jumped off. I’m gonna puke. Legitimately.
I’m about to ask Charlie another question when he lies down flat on the marble tile. Legs and arms spread out like he’s creating a snow angel and stopped midway through. His eyes fasten on the mural like he’s studying each brush stroke.
Hazily, I remember Oscar at the jewelry store, saying drunkenly, “Three diamonds to express three classic words from a couple classic gentlemen…” He teed up with a long pause. “I. Love. You.”
“You can speak fluent German,” I say to him, brows raised. “Really well, I might add.” I flash a smile. “It’s impressive. So that’s English, French, German, and Portuguese. Any other secrets up your sleeve?”
“He said ‘what’s not to love?’ And that is a prime example of a non-answer from our man Charlie Keating Cobalt.”
He gasps air. Silent tears slide down his cheek. His eyes flit from me to Oscar and back to me. “What does love feel like?”
After filming Charlie for so long, I’ve realized he calls his dad any time he’s feeling off. Like someone would call a therapist. It’s almost a daily phone call.
Oscar nods. “If intelligence is a ladder,” he tells me softly, “Charlie’s trapped at the top. And it’s a frustrating place to be.”
“The deal was dope, too. Some girl offered to give it to me. All I had to do was spit in her mouth.” Ugh. I drop the funnel cake piece back on the plate. “That’s disgusting.”
“Thatcher to SFO, has anyone had eyes on Akara, Banks, or Sulli in the past twenty?” What in the ever-loving hell? My mind can’t wrap around those three.
If anyone asks, I’d say Jane Cobalt is a saint for her patience and kindness towards Charlie. She tries to take care of him, even when he actively pulls away from the family.
He’s told me that he doesn’t deserve his sister’s love, but there are many times where he proves his own belief wrong.
I’m standing here thinking, give me the tea. What’s the drama? But also, protect these ones.
“I opened my big fucking mouth. That’s why. I told Kits and Banks they’re really fucking hot and they make me feel safe and comfortable, and that if I never have another boyfriend in my entire life, then it’d be cool to lose my virginity to one of them.” She nods vigorously. “Yep, and I thought they’d take it like pals, you know like buddies. But they were fucking silent!” She waves a hand around. “So I ran, but then I ended up in the mirrors and I got lost and they were looking for me…and oh my fuck.” Her gaze beelines to the funhouse exit where Akara and Banks are jogging out.
“Uh…yeah, I have heard someone railing on him tonight.” Jesse makes a confused face. “Why would you want to hear that? Did you guys get in a fight…I thought you two were cool now?”
This is why Charlie wanted to do the docuseries. Besides set me up with Highland, this is the answer we’ve been waiting for all along. “Is it an older man?” Charlie asks. “He’d only be at charity events like this one. And he’d have a proclivity for hating my cousin.” “Yeah,” Jesse nods. “That sounds like him.” Ernest Mangold, the CEO of H.M.C. Philanthropies. Charlie wanted his head on a spike.
“And I’m still your 24/7 bodyguard, Charlie. That’s not changing, okay?” He frowns for a second. “Are you still my friend?”
Honestly, I love playing chess against Charlie. He’s the only person who’s ever been able to beat me.
Fan sites popped up with headers and banners of orange juice. O & J—our initials.
The young ballerina quickly rises to her feet. We’re close enough to see embarrassment shade her face. Hurrying, she continues the dance like nothing happened. She looks shorter than the girls next to her. Charlie careens back to whisper to us, “Who is that?”
Oscar finds her first. He leans forward and whispers, “Roxanne Ruiz. She’s eighteen.” Charlie just turns forward, but I catch his smile.
