“Scroll down,” Gia said. “There’s more.”
Dread felt like a boulder in my gut, but I dutifully scrolled down. Ugh. More pictures. One of me and Ellie coming out of the building with Ben. We were sweaty, soot-stained, and grateful to be alive. But what did the article point to? The fact that Ellie obviously wasn’t wearing a bra.
“Who’s publishing this?” I demanded.
“A bullshit tabloid website.”
“Then—”
“Read the article.”
Like hell I would. I didn’t want to dignify it with my time or attention. But I had to, because I needed to know what was being said about me and Ellie. Three sentences in, I was groaning. It was all about how Ellie, the old-fashioned girl, was actually Nurse Sexpot. That she’d made a big deal in front of her family about being a good girl when the truth was that she had jumped me the first moment we’d been alone. It even went on to slyly suggest that maybe she’d set the fire herself, just for the dramatic rescue.
“It’s a lie,” I said. All of it, from beginning to end. I tossed the phone back at Gia. “Total bullshit lies.” Then I added a few more choice words about the paparazzi.
Gia let me rant, nodding all the while. And when I’d finally run out of steam, she pierced my bubble.
“Here’s the thing. This website is the worst, but they’re not alone. We made a big deal about it being an old-fashioned date. Your words. Her words. I created the press.”
“But—”
“And now they’re turning on Ellie. You’re the hero who rescued a kid from a burning building. But they need a villain and they’ve picked her.”
“That doesn’t make sense!”
“Of course not! And I’m sure whatever you were doing up there on your platonic date had nothing to do with sex. But that’s not what it looks like. The regular media isn’t going to make a big deal about this, but the internet is going crazy. Social media has tagged her as the slut who tempted you into a burning building.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
She didn’t answer at first, but just thumbed through her phone, then showed me an animated GIF that made my gut clench. It was horrible, and I couldn’t imagine what Ellie would do when she saw it.
“How do I stop this? We can’t— This can’t—” I glared at Gia. “I’ll sue them. I’ll—”
“You can’t stop the internet.” She sighed as she put her phone away. “Look, like I said, you’re going to meet the press downstairs.”
“I won’t go down. I’ll sneak out the basement.”
“And at the ballpark?”
I groaned. I was going there. Even if I wasn’t going to play, I had to be there. And it would look really strange if I didn’t show up at the pregame press conference.
“I’ll tell them…” My voice trailed away. What could I tell them? That I’d seduced Ellie? That we had just been two people caught up in each other? That would put her on equal footing with all the other baseball babes I’d taken back to my room, the scores of women I’d slept with, then abandoned after a hot night. The idea of sweet Ellie being compared to all the other women who’d graced my arm over the years made me sick. They were entirely different. They were overblown women with big tits and big mouths. I’d purposely picked them that way, so no one would confuse my spending time with them as anything but a one-night stand.
But Ellie was different. And I couldn’t put her in the same class with those women. I just couldn’t.
“I’m waiting, Jake. What are you going to say?”
I swallowed. “The truth, I guess.”
She cocked her head. “And that is…?”
“That we’ve been dating for months now. In secret.” The words were out before I could think them through. There was no way I could get away with this. The logic just wasn’t there.
“Come again?” Gia asked.
But I was committed. So I stumbled through an explanation I made up on the fly. “Well, you know Connor. He, um, is really protective.”
“Yeah. And no way in hell was he going to let a player like you date his cousin.”
