Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 109038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
“I’ll give all of the money to charity. One that supports people struggling with their mental health, but nothing that’s predatory. There are too many mismanaged nonprofits.”
Em nods at me. “We can get the team on it. Wow. I can also tap my contacts for the best photographers in the city.”
I shake my head. “No. I already have someone in mind.”
My newfound sense of control only lasts for a few hours, though.
Later that night I break.
I open my phone and right at the top of my notifications are a bunch of tags from a new video going around TikTok.
Not one of mine.
One of Caitlyn’s.
A video of her just surfaced. A fan took it on the street three weeks ago. It shows Caitlyn walking up to a restaurant, meeting a man, and leaning in to kiss him. It’s the same man from the premiere that I saw her with.
And the comments on the video are scathing.
Wow… guess you can take the girl out of the trailer park but not the trash out of the girl??
WTF???? Cait cheating? @LoganStone @LoganStone @LoganStone
She was with Logan Stone, wasn’t she? Cheating whore.
Fuck this. Not watching Bite Marks anymore. Team Logan @LoganStone
#TeamLogan Fuck this bitch!!! @LoganStone
Try again. Not going to be a fan of a cheater. Ughhhhh celebrities just keep getting worse.
I feel sorry for @LoganStone, like, damn dude. You deserve better.
I slam my phone down on the table and stand up, striding around the room. I pace back and forth, looking out over the city.
My hands are shaking as I pick my phone back up, then drop it again.
It was bad enough when my name was brought into this, but the way they’re treating an innocent, kind, newly famous woman that they know nothing about is enough to make me snap.
I lean my head over the couch and push into the cushion, screaming at the top of my lungs.
Blood rushes to my face, making it feel tight and wrong, and I ignore it, screaming again until my throat gives out.
I stand up.
Pace to one side of the room, then walk back.
I reach my fist back and swing it down to punch the top of the couch cushion, but it slips at the wrong time.
“Fuck,” I hiss as my knuckles clip the wooden corner of the table by the couch. My hand screams with pain, my skin tearing as it hits the corner of the wood.
I step back, reeling at the pain.
I feel like I’m about to watch it happen again.
Like I keep seeing the same speeding train hurtle toward a brick wall, over and over.
I can’t watch social media destroy someone who doesn’t deserve any of it, with completely fabricated, false stories. Caitlyn didn’t cheat on anyone. And I sure as fuck want no part in this burgeoning crusade against her.
I pick up my phone and message her immediately, telling her that I’m going to fix this. She’s probably under a barrage of messages and stress right now, and when I call her a moment later, she doesn’t answer.
I’m fucked if I do something.
And fucked if I don’t.
I could have told the world that I wasn’t dating Caitlyn weeks ago. Could have squashed the rumors, if I hadn’t been so closed off from speaking about my personal life.
She isn’t him, I tell myself.
Caitlyn isn’t Daniel.
And she is going to be okay.
Even as the thoughts race through my mind, I know they’re illogical. This type of media attention destroyed my best friend, but Caitlyn doesn’t have a drug problem, and I’m sure she will handle the harshness of fame better. But nothing about this feels logical.
This all could have been avoided.
But it wasn’t, because I’m me.
I didn’t do enough to save Daniel.
And that’s never going to fucking happen again.
I text my publicist saying to release a statement saying that we were never dating, and Caitlyn didn’t cheat on me. Some people will still believe the bullshit, to be sure. Not everyone will see the follow-up. But I have to try.
And I need to do the photoshoot. Sooner rather than later. I would take any attention if it means this will go away.
CHAPTER 16
CHASE
After leaving Logan’s suite earlier, the rest of my shift has been a prolonged kick to the teeth.
One of the regular servers is out sick tonight, which would have been fine if the restaurant didn’t also have a twelve-person bachelorette party scheduled for seven o’clock, followed by a corporate retreat at eight.
One of the walk-in fridges in the back kitchen broke ten minutes into the first massive reservation, too, and it’s been a shift from hell ever since.
“Fuck,” David roars at me and Ruby as he rushes past the line cooks, slamming a metal tray down on the counter. “We need the bachelorette desserts out now, and we have to move all of the creme brulee pots into the working walk-in. Both of you, go. Desserts.”