Devil in Quarantine ~**FIRST HALF COMPLETE**~ Conclusion will be up in 3 days!

Chapter Three Day One

Clara

After hearing the shower turn on, I decide it's time for some reckoning or groveling from a certain somebody. Taking out my phone I ring up Eve, the instigator in all of this mess. After five rings she decides to answer me.

"Have I told you lately how much I love you?" Eve's words and tone are smooth, something I know she uses with the authors she works with to concede in her bidding.

"Cut the bullshit, Eve." Nobody else dares speak to Eve at our publishing house like this, even the authors. Eve is one of the publishers at her job, and I'm glad I don't have her job. She also handles book signings, events, reviews, hell, even awards, if you were any good. I don't know the whole logistics around her job description since I stick to my own, but she is a big deal. She's also a little over five feet but intimidating as hell to those who know her in Montreal.

Good thing I grew up with her and knew how she stuffed her bras until she was seventeen among other embarrassing things. We had been neighbors throughout our adolescence when I had moved to the farm to be with my grandmother and her parents still lived at the yellow house a mile from here. She had moved to Montreal for college and settled into her dream job before she encouraged me to do some freelance editing on the side for her. I was given steady work and although I am grateful for her help, I knew she set up Tristan to be here on purpose.

"Why is the devil here?" I whisper-shout in her ear and listen to the shower still running, thankful Tristan isn't around to hear, before going outside and starting up my BBQ, waiting for it to warm up.

"Well, about that," I hear some rustling on the other end, "Tristan's book is on a deadline and you haven't finished editing, and he has that writer's block, I am sure you're aware of."

"Yes, we are all aware of it, he's been moaning about it forever." I smack the veggie burgers on the BBQ with a bit too much force. "But what does that have to do with his being at my farm?"

"Well, you see, I mentioned how he should just get away from the city and go somewhere quiet, and perhaps he would unblock just for a weekend, you know? Maybe have a murder set in a small town, say like Stanbridge." My lips thin at her mention of our hometown and at my silence, she continues. "He asked me where the heck he could go to research small towns and maybe I mentioned his editor happened to live in one." At my groan, she hurries on, "Plus, think of the publicity? 'Big-time author on a little farm'. It will score points with our rural demographic."

I ignore her angle since I'm still stuck on her divulging where I lived. "You what? You pretty much invited the devil to my place without my permission. If that wasn't bad enough, now he's here for two weeks."

There's movement at the corner of my eye within the house and I am suddenly aware that Tristan is now out of the shower and probably heard what I just said with the open patio door. My face warms with embarrassment and I concentrate on my next words, trying to maintain some semblance of control.

"I am very upset with you Eve Lynne Dion. So upset that I might even mention to her mother the next time I see her how you have a man living at your--"

"You wouldn't!" Eve's voice rises in panic. "Clara Dushene, come on, in my defense, it was only going to be for an overnight stay. He was going to check out the town for a day then come back home, maybe take some selfies for his blog for publicity. I was trying to call you and ask if it was alright but you haven't been answering my calls. I know you're avoiding the deadline, by the way."

Guilt washes over me at her words, because I had been avoiding her, and the editing on Tristan's work. Regardless, there had been no missed calls on my phone. "Although you're right about me avoiding you, you're full of shit, I never saw any missed calls."