It had taken me too long and too much pain—both to myself and others—to finally see what I was about to say. “I can’t have the relationship I want with my parents until I give us a fresh slate to start from. I’ve been too afraid of there being no slate after I tell them the truth—which is still a possibility—but I can’t live in between anymore. I know you get that.”

“I do,” he said quietly.

“And I can’t let you go. Not unless that’s what you want.” My nose burned and tears pooled—happy tears this time. “I choose you, Drew. And me. I want to fight for us. If you’re willing, I want to try this, just us, and see where it goes. The long distance won’t be easy, but I’ll visit when I can, and we can text and call. When we’re both ready, I’m going to tell my parents about us. Not right now, only because I think we owe it to ourselves to give the relationship a chance to grow without that kind of pressure. But one day, maybe even soon. Bottom line, we’re in this together. If you want.”

I heard a muffled sniff, which made me sniff.

I almost dropped the phone when Drew suddenly raised his voice to exclaim, “So we’re really fucking doing this?”

“We’re really fucking doing this!” I yelled back, laughing with him.

The happy tears were falling falling falling. I caught them myself.

January 14, 11:01 p.m. CST

<Chloe>

I just deleted my Rent for Your ’Rents app!

<Drew>

Woohoo!

Well it served its intended purpose

Good riddance, Hongbo!

Ding dong!

Why didn’t you delete it sooner?

They just did an update and I think there’s a bug in there

The nonstop ba-boop-boops have been worse than talking to Hongbo

Oh wait did you figure out a way to shut it off? Please share!

No

I hadn’t deleted it yet because it was the one place I had a connection to you and some of your info

That’s so sweet!

Hey, are you going to tell the company about us?

Because they can advertise that too. Like, hey, rent a boyfriend for your parents, and maybe even you too, if you’re lucky

Ha! That’s not a bad idea

I’ve got a million of them

Rent for Your ’Rents has a lot of untapped potential

Well good thing you know someone who can put you in touch with someone

Yeah?

If you want

They might want to hire you

Yeah, all right

I think there’s a lot of good to be done

For the clients

Goodnight

Sleep loose

Sleep loose like a golden goose

I think you mean duck

Huh? That doesn’t rhyme

I’ll explain next time we talk

Can’t wait

Drew CHAPTER 59 ABOUT TIME

January 15