Crossroads/Borrowed Lives—2026-06-09 (Patreon)

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Chapter 136: AROUND THE BLOCK ONCE, BACK TO THE PLAN by Evan Calder

Mara and I are at Caspersen Beach, which is near Venice, Florida. Per recent ops procedures, once we’re no longer here, we’ll leak a social media post saying we were.

Until yesterday afternoon, today was supposed to be the end of our leisurely, no-destination meander north. After breakfast on Monday, we got pulled into a series of conference calls.

“Shay has a plan,” Eric Marten, head of the Brooklyn team, reported.

I’ll skip a ton of details. Shay has two friends in Brooklyn who need to move to Memphis. They are planning a wedding on the 20th. I’ll also skip the part about the double wedding and the Gulfstream.

Shay is making the trip to the wedding a gift to everyone who lives in Crossroads Apartments.

The hitch in the plan is that there is one person living there and going to Memphis who hasn’t been read in on the decoy plan—Liza McDuffy. She thinks Shay is Mara, but knows that Shay (who she believes is in Florida) is treating everyone to the trip.

“I think,” Ronald Regent said, “you two need to get to Memphis for the wedding.”

That was around 9:00 a.m.

By 9:30, Eric had brought up some big issues. “If the decoys come to the wedding, we’ll need to act like we’re guarding them, not the real protectee. And if we put Mara and Shay in the same room, it’s going to be hard to deny the fact that they could pass as twins. If that leaks to social media…”

The call ended—to be reconvened.

The afternoon call included the possibility of reading Liza in on the decoy op, then arranging some clandestine airport rendezvous where Mara and I would swap places with the protectees.

Eric again: “Look, Liza seems really nice, but we can’t be sure she won’t leak the decoy plan. Maybe she’s fine, but what about her mom? Or her aunt? We’ve never considered reading her in, and we can’t know what would happen.”

In the end, Eric’s position prevailed. Shay and Devon (the real Mara and I) are staying in Florida sending love and well-wishes.

Pass the sunscreen. We’re not going anywhere fast.

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There was one additional version of the plan that lasted only a few minutes. For sequencing purposes, this was before the idea for us to swap places with both Shay and Devon.

It went something like this…

“We’ll read Liza in on the decoy situation, then Mara and Evan go to the wedding.”

The idea was that only Shay and Mara would swap places. That meant I would still be acting like Devon—Shay’s boyfriend—but the person I was pretending to date would actually be Shay Ryder herself.

“Hold on,” I said, “you’re talking about a very social gathering with one person who doesn’t think she’s ever met Shay or Devon. Ms. Ryder and I would have to sell the idea that we were dating.”

Eric stepped up again. “It’s a nuance, for sure. Liza is smart and observant. It would be easier to sell if we swapped both decoys with both protectees.”

Then there was a strange off-topic discussion about whether Devon was a protectee or one of the bodyguards. Then someone brought up that Tennessee is a Constitutional Carry state, so all of the body guards—and anyone else—could carry concealed in most places.

Mr. Regent brought the conversation back to the point, and that’s when Eric added one more important concern.

“If we are trying to hide Shay from unknown, unexpected threats, bringing her into a wedding is the opposite of what we want to do. And we still don’t know how Liza would react or what she might accidentally let slip.”

The plan changed, as I said before.

I’ll add that I think Eric should get a raise.

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Chapter 137: MEMPHIS CONNECTIONS by Hannah Madison

There are two parts to this check in. The first is me explaining the pictures.

If you missed my post yesterday… You’ll catch on, I think.

I finished my last site visit just a few minutes ago, so instead of going back to the office, I stopped at the store to pick up a few things. I saw this cart full of Ruffles.

I had to…

The stocker, a middle-aged woman, helped out after I explained Emma’s whole situation and her Ruffles analogy, then added, “So my boyfriend, Merritt, changed my name in his contacts to ‘Hannah Ruffles M.’ I thought this would be cute.”

“Oh my gosh!” she gushed. “Give him something to remember! Show me some Marilyn Monroe! He’s a keeper!”

I sent the text: “See anything you like?”

I think he liked it: “Yes please.”

The second part of this post is to recount a conversation I had with Merritt earlier today over lunch.

So, before you came to New York, you worked in Memphis… Met the girl and her boss.

Merritt nodded. “Jordan and Michael. We haven’t communicated since a few weeks after I moved.”

“What do you think about reaching out? Telling them that Emma and Noah are moving there. Make a connection. Couldn’t hurt, right?”

We talked about that, and Merritt admitted that, even if it was awkward and out of the blue, it could give Noah and Emma at least the name of someone they could contact in an emergency.

The wedding is going to be on the 20th. The plan is to make something happen later this week, after we go over the idea with Emma and Noah first.

By the way, I absolutely grabbed a bag of Ruffles to take home to Merritt.

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