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)
SIXTEEN
Vivian
For once, I’m alone in my hotel room—sort of. Tommy and Felicity are on my laptop on a video call, but there are no people present who I can’t make disappear with the touch of a button. I’ll take it.
“The press coverage has been excellent,” Felicity says. “Obviously all the main players covered it. TMZ, Daily Mail, Page Six, and it’s all over Instagram and Twitter. During the course of the day, we’ll leak Beau’s name. Probably tell one of the big fan sites who he is. Or we might Anon Please at DeuxMoi.”
“Okay then, if there’s nothing else, I’m going to grab a shower.” I need to distract myself from the fact that I haven’t heard from Beau. I received what has become a usual good morning text from him this morning, and he suggested we go to the zoo. I’d taken a couple of hours to respond, but in the end, I said no.
Partly because I’m not in the mood for a big outing—all that attention and security and stuff. I don’t think Beau realizes what a trip to the zoo would involve. At least I hope he doesn’t. That’s another reason I said no. I’ve asked Beau a few times about his thirst for adventure—and his answers are consistent, about making the most out of life. But something in my gut tells me he might be drawn to being with me because of the adventure of it—the adrenaline of being chased by paparazzi, or the thrill of being discovered somewhere we shouldn’t be.
I don’t know why I’m so bothered if Beau likes the attention. It’s not like this is going to turn into something. We aren’t really dating. If Beau was an actor, I wouldn’t think anything about it if he got some kind of kick out of the attention—because I wouldn’t care.
But for some reason, I care about Beau. He’s referred to us as friends, which feels…good, if slightly aspirational. I want him to be the man he seems to be. It would mean my instincts aren’t as fatally flawed as I thought they were.
“There’s just one thing I’d like to mention,” Tommy says.
My phone buzzes with an incoming message from Beau.
“Yup?” I say, distracted now, wanting to read the message but not wanting to read the message.
“You know I always want to be honest with you,” he says. His words capture my attention and I stare at the screen. “I’d forgotten about it until…”
“We’ve been notified about a story running in Celebrity Express tomorrow,” Felicity says.
I sighed. Celebrity Express has never liked me, but they seem to like Matt an awful lot. Most of the things he leaked about me had been through them.
“Is it from Matt?” I ask.
The fact that they don’t respond right away is all the answer I need.
“We don’t know for certain,” Felicity says.
I pause, trying to steel myself for what comes next. Did he plant a hidden camera to record us having sex? He always accused me of not trusting him when I said no to putting ourselves on film—“just for us,” Matt claimed—same when he asked for nudes when we were apart. And to think, it was never him I didn’t trust. I just didn’t want to be hacked or burgled. I never considered he would be the source of any leak.
“I don’t think it will catch on with other news outlets, but it’s pictures of him looking downcast.” Felicity rolls her eyes as she speaks. “It adds to the narrative that he was a maligned, put-down man who did everything you wanted and you were never happy, yada, yada, yada.”
I look away from the screen and try to blink away the tears. It’s so ludicrous. I did everything I could so he wouldn’t feel secondary to me or the celebrity that both is and isn’t me. I take a deep breath and look up at Felicity. From her expression, there’s something else. “And?”
“The photos are accompanied by ‘confirmed sources’ saying you had him on an allowance.”
I push out an incredulous laugh. Tommy used to beg me to do that and I always refused. Matt had access to all my accounts, same as I do. Thankfully, most of my money is invested through my financial advisor, and I was able to lock everything down when we broke up. Anyone who knows me—anyone who knew us—knows the idea of me keeping him on an allowance is absurd.
“They’re trying to portray you as a man-hating career woman,” Tommy says.
“Because obviously you can’t have a successful career without hating men,” Felicity deadpans.
“They’re also going to say he tried to get a reality show off the ground, but you said no, because you couldn’t bear to share the limelight,” Tommy says.
“What?” I pull the laptop onto my knees to get closer to the screen. I can’t have heard him properly.