After several long hours of promoting my comic, I should have been exhausted, but for the first time in days, I was completely awake.

“Are you trying to alienate yourself?” Harriet asked while we walked the Vegas strip.

“I’m sorry. I was out of line,” I apologized, though it must have been empty after how I’d behaved.

“You need to think about what you’ll do next. Ten books may feel like a career, but they’ll come and go like seasons. Partnering with someone like Liam could do big things for you.”

The author in question was one of significantly few writing niche stories and maintaining a worth wild fan base.

“I’ll talk to him again,” I said.

“It’s important to have friends. Sometimes, who you know, who you’re friends with, can get you a gig regardless of what’s in your portfolio,” my editor went on until I told her, “I’ll be nice. I’ll do better.”

When we returned to the hotel, I noticed Dill Weed hanging around the lobby. Everyone wanted to nag me that evening. There was no use trying to avoid him. He walked up the moment he saw me and asked, “Have you heard from Tom?”

“He called you again?” I asked.

Harriet left us before she could hear anything she didn’t want to. Our relationship had already grown too unprofessional for comfort, so I didn’t blame her for wanting to avoid more of my personal life. Though, the way she all but vanished was blunt in a way I hadn’t expected. One moment, she was right beside me, then I turned my head to address Dill for only a second, and she had already moved several feet away. By the time I noticed, she had already gone too far for me to tell her, “See you later,” but I mumbled it to myself.

“His kid... your kid... Malcolm called,” Dill explained nervously.

“Malcolm called you?”

Little M had gotten a hold of Tom’s phone somehow, and he called at least a dozen numbers in it. Paula, Rick, even Tom’s dad answered. The only person who hadn’t picked up when a call came through was me. Why would I have answered when I was trying my hardest to avoid Meathead?

But I wasn’t only avoiding Tom. In shutting him out, I had abandoned his son. Was it for the better? Should I have kept my distance?

“Tomorrow afternoon,” I told Dill.

“Tomorrow?”

“We can go back to Seattle,” I said, but I doubt he believed me.

I didn’t believe myself. No matter how I felt, I couldn’t stay in Vegas forever. My problems wouldn’t evaporate with time. Tom had decisions to make, but so did I. Whether I’d be a part of his family with his ex and his son was something I had to choose or let go of.

Did I want that kind of drama?

It got me thinking. Meathead had family showing up out of nowhere. Who did I have? If I left, if I left Tom, who would I call that I could trust? No parents. No siblings.

There was my grandmother, but considering how long it had been since we last talked, I wasn’t sure if she was still breathing. Did I care, though? Sure, that woman took me in, but she never loved me. She never gave me anything the state didn’t require. Old or not, that woman was a bitch.

But she was my grandmother..., and I left her. She took me in after my parents died, and I left her. Without a second thought, I left that woman, discarded her like a nameless stranger.

I didn’t want to run away from Tom, his brother, his son, not even his ex... ok, I could do without his ex, but I didn’t want to throw people away anymore. Maybe it was selfish of me, but I wanted more than distance. It wouldn’t be easy, but I’d had my break.