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“Or if Preston had kept his pants zipped outside an event filled with hundreds of guests, maybe this wouldn’t have happened,” Gavin said, and the room went quiet. “Don’t look at me like that—I’m just stating the obvious here. What the hell were you thinking, man?”
“Obviously, he wasn’t,” Serena said. “And can you put the photo away? You of all people should know what it’s like to see a family member getting too…handsy.”
When I finally felt in control of my breathing again, I lifted my head and rested my elbows on my knees.
Serena gave my arm a squeeze.“You okay?”
I shook my head. “I should be asking you that question.”
“I’m fine.” Her tight–lipped smile didn’t agree with her words, though. “People are assholes. It’s not like we didn’t know that.”
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have…” I gestured toward the now-blank screen of Gavin’s phone. “I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t realize.” And now Serena would have to pay in humiliation for something we’d hoped to be able to control on our time.
“Preston, seriously, don’t worry about the rumors. They’ll pass whenever the next person fucks up.”
“They think I cheated on you.”
She shrugged. “You and I know the truth. Your friends know the truth. Who gives a shit what those morons think? Besides”—she flipped her hair over her shoulder—“they’ve all said worse about me before, and those thingsweretrue.”
There was a knock on the door, and West opened it to find a frazzled Harry, the tech guy we referred to as Harry the Hacker for his ability to make things disappear online, standing there holding on to the straps of his backpack.
“Do you want me to set up in here?” he asked, as West ushered him inside and shut the door.
“Yes,” West said, the same time I answered, “No.”
West shot me a look. “What do you mean, no? There’s a photo of you and Carrington in a pretty compromising position, and it’s only spreading. You want to keep that out there, or can Harry do his job and erase the image of Carrington’s hand down your pants?”
I blanched.That’swhat the photo was? I’d assumed it was just us kissing, nothing more than that. This was even worse.
When I didn’t answer, West nodded. “That’s what I thought.”
Harry took a seat and began to set up as I rubbed my hands over my face.
Sure, he could get rid of anything online, but the damage was done. People had already seen it, were already talking about it. It would get around now, filter through the ranks of the Upper East Side…
It wasn’t the thought of my parents finding out the news that had my chest tightening.
It was what would happen to Archer when his colleagues found out.
Cursing under my breath, I pulled my phone out of my pants pocket, my hand shaking as I brought up Archer’s number and hit call. It went straight to voicemail, though, and I ended the call before leaving a message and sent him a text instead.
Please call me as soon as you get this.
“Um.” Harry looked at me nervously as he pushed his glasses up his nose. He always looked nervous around us, so that was nothing new. I got the feeling he wanted to ask me a question, though.
“Yes?” I said.
“Did you want to make a statement or anything? Set the record straight or deny it? AI’s gotten better with deep fakes, so we could say the photo’s been manipulated and didn’t actually happen.”
I was tempted to deny it. Oh so very tempted. Not to save myself the embarrassment of what was happening, but to make the situation better for Archer and Serena.
But then I thought about waking up beside him yesterday, only hours after he’d told me he loved me. That he wanted to bewith me. And it made my heart swell with feelings bigger than hate for whoever had outed us.
“No,” I said, getting to my feet. “I’m not denying anything. And I’m not putting out some statement to give people an insight to my private life. We’re consenting fucking adults.”
“Emphasis on the fucking,” Travis said, causing Serena to slap him upside the head.
Donovan came to stand beside me and squeezed my shoulder. “Are you sure? Because we’ve got your back no matter what. Hell, if you need a Van Talk before you decide, I can have Scotty bring the Sprinter to the back entrance.”
