Page 101 of Rebooting Conor Flynn

Holding onto Tomo’s pumped-up bicep, Ashley bent her knee and slipped the shoe onto her foot. “Although I honestly wouldn’t put it past you to sacrifice your career to save Con’s. The two of you don’t seem to possess one cell for PR hype between you.”

“I take that as a compliment.” I picked up my guitar. “Because if you expect me to start bad mouthing you on stage in retaliation, that ain’t gonna happen. I’m ready to get on with this concert and deliver a good show.”

“Easy for you to say now that public opinion is swaying back to your side.” Ashley whipped out her phone and tapped the screen. “Oh, look. Here we go already: Can you believe Ashley was doing a dancer before Conor even kissed that publicist? Ashley hasn’t changed one bit. She made Conor look so bad when she was the one cheating.”

She held up one perfectly manicured fingernail. “Here it is. Here’s my favorite. Ashley’s such a bitch.”

I slid a sideways glance at Noelle, her hand covering her mouth. She looked like every one of those comments was aimed at her. They might as well have been.

“Here’s a good one.” Tomo bent over this phone. “At least the guy she cheated with is a hot dancer.”

“Yeah, that’s my saving grace.” Ashley pushed Tomo’s shoulder. “I have good taste in boytoys.”

I rolled my lips inward to stop them stretching into a smile. “You are a pro, Ash.”

“Just because I’m laughing on the outside, don’t for a minute think I’m gonna forget that someone betrayed me.” She pointed two fingers at her eyes and then turned them on the remaining crew members still swiping through their phones.

“I guess we both got played, Noelle. And Conor Flynn comes out on top—as usual.” She grabbed Tomo’s arm. “Get me outta here, hot dancer.”

Draping my guitar strap over my body, I turned to Noelle. “I’m sorry.”

“I mean, at least it wasn’t you.” She glanced at her phone once before shoving it into the side pocket of her bag. “Why did you delete the pictures?”

“I don’t know.” I took two steps toward her and hauled her bag over my other shoulder. “What are you going to do? Did Dina fire you already?”

“Not yet. Big meeting tomorrow.” She pinched her bottom lip between her fingers, smearing her pretty pink lipstick. “There has to be a way to frame this. Ashley was spiraling after what happened with Nico...”

“Do you hear yourself right now?” I cupped her elbow with my hand.

She jerked away from me. “It’s my literal job, Conor. Ashley is in a worse place now than when she started this tour I was supposed to manage.”

“That’s on her, Noelle. She took a risk with her own PR stunt, and it backfired on her. You didn’t tell her to start a pity party on stage. We all could’ve ignored those pictures of you and me and played up the connection between me and Ashley—although that was a grind, I tell ya. Our anonymous donor never would’ve gone public with those other photos of her and Tomo.” I peered around the mostly empty backstage area—just a few stagehands packing up the set. “Who do you think posted those pics? The same person who took them and sent them to me?”

“I have no idea. Someone with a grudge against Ashley...and me.”

I nudged her back. “Let’s go. At least we don’t have to try to stay away from each other in public. I’m Conor Flynn, the Teflon prince again.”

“Is that why I didn’t see you all day? Honestly, when those pictures of Ashley dropped, your involvement crossed my mind.”

“Hey. I thought you believed me.”

“I did...I do, but for a second it made sense. You were hiding from me this afternoon, and then the pictures appeared.”

“I was hiding from you...” I placed my hand on the small of her back and guided her off the stage “...because I decided to go all in on convincing everyone that Ashley and I were still a thing—until she pulled her shite on stage again.”

“You saved that song. You and Ji-yoon save the show every night.”

“I know, which is a bigger problem than Ashley’s image.” A driver jumped from one of the waiting Escalades and loaded my guitar and Noelle’s bag in the back. “What in the bloody hell is Ashley going to do about her voice?”

“I guess she was relying on PR to pull her through.” Noelle climbed into the back seat of the car. “Or she plans to lip sync.”

“She wouldn’t have the balls.”

Noelle poked me in the arm when I landed beside her on the soft leather seat. “She had the balls to call you out on stage. Don’t underestimate her. She may still get ahead of this latest disaster.”

“I hope she does.” I toyed with Noelle’s fingers on the seat beside me. “For you.”

“She wouldn’t do it for me.”