Crossroads/Borrowed Lives—2026-04-02 (Patreon)

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Chapter 70: LOOKING FORWARD by Shay Ryder

When Habitat Housing hired someone to take my place—a lovely woman named Melissa Gaines—I was a little discouraged, but I’m sure it’s for the best. Meanwhile, the decoy company my family set up is exploding.

The plan was to have an online dropshipping company called Best Price Office that all of the Ryder companies would buy from. The income would cover Olivia’s salary. Conner got added to that later. I also get money from the decoy company, except…

It has a legitimate website and other companies—lots of them—have found it. Olivia, Conner, and I are actually busy just running things and doing customer support.

However, that is not what I wanted to post about. I wanted to—with her permission—talk a little about Olivia. I was open-minded about her as a roommate, even though she’s my personal security guard. I know social matters are weird for me, but I really think we’re friends.

Today, we were taking a break and I decided to ask her how she felt following us learning that Merritt and Hannah started dating.

“I’m okay with it,” she said. “Really.”

“I thought you were a little fond of him.”

She nodded. “He’s great, but let’s be honest… I’m not his type. I think we both knew all along it was just dates—if you want to call them that—just to fill time and hang out with you and Devon.”

“What do you mean you’re not his type?”

Olivia sipped her tea. “It’s pretty obvious… Hannah is his type. Hannah and I get along, but we’re so not alike. I’m feelings, intuition, and gut instinct. She’s logic, data, facts, reason… She and I would make a good team on a field operation.”

“So you’re not sad?”

She shook her head. “I mean, I’ll miss pizza nights with the four of us… I thought maybe he could be for me, and even said I wouldn’t be mad if feelings grew. But they didn’t. Not for me… And obviously not for him.”

That was mostly the end of the discussion. I’m glad she’s not sad about it. If I stop and think about it, I’m sure she’s right about Merritt and Hannah being right for each other, too.

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All characters in this story are fictional characters, their images generated with AI for AGI Stories. They do not represent any real person, nor is their appearance based on any real human.

Chapter 71: GO TO GROUND REDUX by Evan Calder

We got the call from Chicago—go to ground. Get off the grid, disappear, turn your burner phones back on Sunday.

The overly-cautious idea is that for a few days, Evan and Mara disappear. Their next debit card transactions will be in Brooklyn when Shay and Devon resume using our IDs (if needed) and debit cards. Shortly thereafter, we will resume using theirs.

We found a place here near Mt. Airy, Georgia, called Farmers Bottom that is off Red Boot Road—and calling it a road suggests a status well in excess of its actual condition. Following Donald Donaldson’s instructions, we rolled the bikes off the road and out of sight, chained them to each other and to a tree, and covered them with a dark gray tarp.

So camping begins—again.

This time, we’re better prepared, both logistically and emotionally. We’re not ignoring the temptations presented by being isolated and alone. We’re planning for them.

Two tents…

Distance between them…

Campfire, cooking, and hang-out area in the middle…

Books and magazines…

Lots of breakfast bars, protein bars, trail mix, etc.…

Wet-wipes…

Reprise: Two tents pitched with distance between them. We’re going to live our morals and values, and we’re being premeditated and intentional about things to make sure we do.

Cuddles and kisses will be around the campfire area only. We’re staying out of each other’s tents.

You might recall that we hit the road on February 15. It might seem longer, but that’s it.

Mara and I believe that, after a month and a half, we’re in the early stages of something good. We want to see what comes of this. And we want to make sure we keep things in an order that aligns with our beliefs—in an order that doesn’t make things complicated if our feelings change but the job doesn’t end.

Honestly, we’ve played out different twelve-month plans. One includes rings. Another allows for us hating each other. Mostly, they look like us doing different versions of this.

We don’t know what will happen, but we think we have a good plan for finding out.

The next step in the plan is to find a campsite…

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