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“I’m calling to find out whether you’ve seen that video your… friend posted.”
“What friend?” I ask, looking around for my laptop. It’s around here somewhere. “What video?”
“That Lawson boy,” she says. “Honestly, Bailey, if I’d known he was going to air his dirty laundry on the internet, I’d never have agreed to that meeting.”
I stop looking for the laptop and pull the phone away to stare at it.
“Mom, I’m going to need you to start over,” I say slowly, bringing the phone back up to my ear. “You met Cooper?”
She sighs. “Pay attention, please. Yes, I met Cooper Lawson. He called me a few days ago and asked if we could meet to discuss some things.”
Cooper called my mother. My mother.
“What things?”
“Ugh, all manner of things,” she says, her voice heavy with disgust. “Including a great deal about your personal life that I did not need to know, thank you very much.” My face goes hot. Evie picks that precise moment to come through the door, loaded down with enough takeout bags to feed the pair of us for at least a week. I shake my head at her questioning look, holding up a finger.
“He made it clear that the three of you are seriously involved in a committed relationship,” says Mom. “Mr. and Mrs. Hicks were not pleased, let me tell you.”
“Drew’s parents were there?”
“Bring your voice down, young lady,” says Mom. “There’s no need to shriek at me. Yes, Alan’s parents were there. I expect your former fiancé probably has some things to say about your little arrangement with his brother and his boyfriend.”
I don’t doubt she’s right, but I can’t spare mental energy for Alan right now.
“You said Cooper posted a video?”
“Yes,” says Mom. “I still get alerts about your cooking competition. I was so proud to see you competing, dear, before all this distasteful… Anyway. I still get alerts, and since the show was tagged in this morning’s video, I watched it.”
For once my silence seems to register and my mother doesn’t try to fill it.
“Well?” I ask, my heart in my throat.
“I can’t believe you haven’t seen it yet,” she says, sighing again. “It’s all very romantic, I’m sure, though that sort of gesture never appealed to me personally. He goes on and on about you and Andrew and how much he loves you. There’s a great deal about an apology for denying your relationship when that nasty tabloid piece came out a few weeks ago.”
Cooper made a video. About us? An apology.
“Mom,” I say, trying to get a word in. “Mom. Thanks for letting me know about the video. I have to go now.”
“Why—”
“Bye, Mom.” I feel a twinge of guilt for hanging up on her but this is more important. “Have you seen my laptop?” I ask Evie, already running back to my bedroom to check for it there.
“Kitchen counter,” she calls. Thank God.
Evie’s setting out styrofoam containers on the coffee table when I retrieve the computer and sit on the couch to get it booted up, pulling up a browser and cursing every long second it doesn’t load.
“Come on, come on, come on,” I mutter.
“I think maybe you’ve officially lost it,” says Evie. She sits down next to me, fork in one hand, kung pao chicken in the other. “What’s going on?”
“That was my mother on the phone,” I tell her, clicking through Cooper’s website until I find a video with today’s date on it. “Apparently Cooper posted a video about us.”
“Huh,” says Evie. Something in her voice has me looking up.
“What?”
“Um, that’s actually why I’m here,” she says, sounding slightly apologetic.
