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Back This Is All Your Fault
Chapters (47)
  1. Copyright Notice
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. TUESDAY EVENING
  5. PROLOGUE
  6. WEDNESDAY MORNING
  7. 1
  8. 2
  9. 3
  10. 4
  11. 5
  12. 6
  13. 7
  14. 8
  15. 9
  16. 10
  17. 11
  18. 12
  19. 13
  20. MIDDAY
  21. 14
  22. 15
  23. 16
  24. 17
  25. 18
  26. 19
  27. 20
  28. 21
  29. 22
  30. 23
  31. 24
  32. 25
  33. EVENING
  34. 26
  35. 27
  36. 28
  37. 29
  38. 30
  39. 31
  40. SUNDAY
  41. EPILOGUE
  42. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  43. GoFish: Questions for the Author
  44. Excerpt: Travelers Along the Way
  45. CHAPTER ONE
  46. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  47. Newsletter Sign-up

NINE HOURS BEFORE BREAKING GROUND ON THE NEW WEST GARDEN LIVING-DINING-SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

EPILOGUE

A Book of Myths (In Which Our Names Do Not Appear)

10:00 P.M., Sunday

Eli

There were no rules to watching any of Rinn’s videos on her account, but, for some reason, Eli felt like there should be some anyway.

  1. Watch the whole live video all the way through. No skipping, no pausing.
  2. Get all snacks and beverages ready ahead of time.
  3. Don’t continuously message hi just to get Danny’s attention.

Eli did still miss Jo’s weird bag of vape pens. But he was learning to live without it. Learning to live without a few things, ever since Wild Nights Bookstore had closed. Jo was looking for spaces in Pilsen or Bridgeport. She said she’d recently gotten a tip on a spot in Greektown from the old French Tunisian lady who was storing their books. But the live video was about to start, and Eli didn’t have time to consider much else. He sat there, waiting for the notification to go up. It wasn’t like Eli could have forgotten about the event today, considering Danny had reminded him all week that they were going live at 6:00 P.M. and not to miss the video.

Eli knew she wasn’t going to let it slide if he didn’t watch.

bookishbruja is going live. The notification pinged his phone right on time.

And there she was. Rinn smiling at the front-facing camera. “Hey, guys, guess what?”

“What?” asked Eli all alone in the room to himself.

Rinn had been gracious enough to pause for a moment, and Eli felt like responding out loud was what he ought to do. It wasn’t like he was actually going to type into the feed and pop up along with all of those other mentions, all of them telling Rinn how wonderful and amazing she was.

That was definitely not for Eli.

“I am here,” said Rinn on an excited, breathless tone, “with two of my friends.”

Rinn panned the camera over to Danny, who was smiling, and Imogen, who was, well, not frowning for once. Eli had almost gotten used to Imogen’s shaved head. “And we are going to do something we’ve only ever read about in old books.”

“Movies,” said Danny, because she couldn’t let Rinn get in the last word. “We’ve watched it in movies.”

Rinn stuck her tongue out at Danny.

Imogen gave a playful elbow shove to Rinn. “Don’t fight. Tell them.”

“We are going to bury a time capsule.” Rinn was positively bursting with joy and information. “We’re going to do it like—what was the story?”

Danny crossed her arms over her chest. Eli tried to not ogle her. It was a half-hearted effort, and he failed at it, but at least he had tried, you know.