Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 85135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
She sighs. “Because no one else knows, Beau. Just you, me, Felicity, Tommy and my producers. I’ve kept this such a secret because there’s so much at stake.”
“I know…I mean…who does Tommy think I’ve told? I wouldn’t even know how to leak something to the press. It’s not like I’ve got a number in my phone or something.”
“But Nathan—he has a PR team, right?”
Now I’m pissed off. “Vivian,” I say, my voice thick with irritation. “You know I didn’t leak anything.” I understand that Matt fucked her over. It doesn’t mean I will.
“Maybe you mentioned it to Nathan or Madison…the journalist.”
“She’s not that kind of journalist—”
“But her mother—”
“How the fuck do you know that? Have you been—?”
“She told me, Beau. In Norfolk.”
“That’s right. Norfolk. Where you stayed with my family and they treated you like you were one of us. No way have I or any member of my family, including Madison, betrayed you and gone to the press.”
I wait for her to respond, but she just stays quiet and presses the palms of her hands into her eyes, like she’s trying to reset.
“It doesn’t matter,” she says. “It doesn’t—”
“It matters to me,” I say. “You can’t accuse me of betraying you like that and then tell me it doesn’t matter.”
But does it matter? I’ll never see Vivian again after today.
“Forget that—you’re right. It doesn’t matter.” I stand. “This got more complicated than it should have,” I say.
I look up from the floor to find her staring past me.
“I have an opportunity for a week off from work and I’ve decided to go to Finland.” I pause. “I’m going to take it. It’s a win-win. I won’t be around to hear any insider information, so next time it happens, you’ll know it definitely wasn’t me.”
“I didn’t say I thought it was you.”
She didn’t say she didn’t think it was me, either.
It doesn’t matter either way. After today, I can get on with my life. It’s not like the last-minute husky mushing week is the most exciting thing I’d ever done. But I haven’t experienced it before and ironically, I’ve always found something comforting in the unfamiliar. In the new. I need to be making the most out of life rather than arguing in hotel rooms about things I haven’t done.
“So you’re leaving. Like, that’s it?” She frowns. Perhaps she was expecting me to beg her forgiveness or confess.
“Not because you’re accusing me of leaking stories or whatever, but…I don’t want to pass up this opportunity to go to Finland.”
“Right,” she says. “What about Everyone Adventures?”
I shrug. The business plan is finished. But now I’m not sure that’s what I’m looking for either.
She lets out a half-laugh. “Right. Running away from that too. Makes sense.”
I push my hands through my hair, trying to ignore the ache in my shoulder. “I’m not running away, Vivian. I’m running toward something. Life. Adventure. A good time.”
She nods. “Keep telling yourself that. So you want to be done with our arrangement. How convenient.”
“You haven’t told me of any events that you need more for, but if you want…” I haven’t really thought about her end of things—managing the PR fall out.
“It’s fine,” she snaps. “If you don’t mind, we’ll hold off announcing the split until after the publicity tour. We don’t need to be seen together again.”
My stomach twists itself into a knot. Even though I know it’s the right thing to do, the idea of not seeing her again still feels shitty, like a ten-ton weight has attached itself to my insides. “I didn’t leak anything. My brothers. Madison. They didn’t either.”
“I believe you,” she says.
Her statement takes me aback a little.
“Right. Good.” I’m not sure if she’s telling the truth or not, but it doesn’t matter. I know the truth.
She sighs. “I should never have let things cross a line between us.”
Her words hit me in the sternum so hard I actually cough. “Right,” I manage to say. I can’t help but wonder if she regrets the time we had together. I hope not. Because even though this is awkward and uncomfortable, I don’t wish I hadn’t met her.
“I had a blast with you,” I say and mean it. I just don’t want to create expectations in her. In the people around us. In myself. I don’t want her to think I’m going to change the way I live my life. Last time I even thought about a change, I got a dislocated shoulder.
She nods, but folds her arms in front of her like she’s trying to shield herself from something.
There’s nothing more to say.
“Have a good life,” I say and head to the door.
I mean it. I want her to heal from her shitty ex-boyfriend and have exactly the life she deserves—one filled with love and laughter and friends and family. One where she writes the songs she loves and plays them when and how she wants, on her terms. I want her to have the life she’s always dreamed of.