“Well, first, we need to talk about Cement. He reached out to our handsy friend, arranged for a meeting and everything. A nice face-to-face. I’m not going to be there, too many other affiliations, but Handsy might invite you. He’ll pay you, of course. Make sure to gouge him.”

“I-I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Emily said.

Melanie shrugged one shoulder. “Up to you. The other thing I want to talk about is your future. Or your lack of it. You kinda made a small splash, you and teddy bear here. I was thinking that maybe it would be a good time to show you around.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

A Mouthful

Emily looked at the menu with eyes that weren’t quite focused. She wasn’t paying it any attention. Rather, she concentrated on other things.

Most notable was Melanie’s offer.

Emily had to think of which potential path would lead to her and her summons seeming the least suspicious. That, and which path would take up the least time. She already had a lot more on her plate than she’d expected to.

Her plans had been to lead a quiet college life, get a degree that could help her find a nice quiet job, and then live as a lone bachelorette with about eight very cuddly, quiet cats.

Those dreams had collapsed a while ago. Her quiet college life was in shambles. She hadn’t even done all the homework due in a few days!

Emily shifted her grip on the menu, then carefully turned the page. She kind of wished that she was looking at images of kittens instead of pasta and steak. Those would at least calm her beating heart.

She had to refocus.

Melanie’s offer would put them in the spotlight. That . . . might not be the greatest thing there was, but it had potential. They could come out as Heroes, then slink back out of the limelight. People would assume the pressure was too much or something.

Maybe they could do a few nice acts, cement themselves as good people in the community?

She nodded. That made sense.

The problem was joining a corporate team or anything like that would mean placing themselves in a position where they’d be asked a whole lot of questions, some of them uncomfortable.

What were her other concerns?

Handshake’s . . . thing. He wanted her for something. Backup, maybe? Some sort of intimidation thing when meeting with Cement? That made some sense. She herself wasn’t very intimidating, but Teddy could be. Especially when she was in her bear form.

Was she strong enough to take on someone who could move cement around with his mind?

Emily would rather not find out. Even in the best-case scenario, Teddy would complain a lot if she got wet cement caught in her fur.