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“You’re not mad?”
She shakes her head and plays with the pearl necklace around her neck, no doubt worth a fortune. “I’m not mad. But I do feel bad that you’re going to be in the public eye again. Let me tell you, those first sex photos will haunt you for the rest of your life. I should know—I had quite a few back in my day, before I met Eddie, of course.” A wicked smile flits across her lips. “Hell, maybe just enjoy it. After all, how many people can say that they had sex in a lake with Harrison Cole? You know he’s become quite the fan fiction hero.”
A knowing look passes between us, and I have a feeling I’m not the only one who has read them.
Monica goes out to the deck, but I excuse myself to use the washroom.
To be fair, I just want to look at the pictures in private.
I sit on the toilet, pull them up on TMZ, and flip through them.
They aren’t that bad. I mean, it does look like we’re having sex, even though the shots are a little grainy and shaky, obviously taken from far away. My top stays on in these pictures, thank god, since I know my breasts were exposed on a few occasions. It seems they caught us at the end of the act.
And then there’s the final picture, just as Eddie predicted, the both of us walking onto shore, Harrison completely naked, tattoos and bare butt on display. I have no doubt that if I checked Perez Hilton, I’d see him fawning all over Harrison’s gorgeous body right now. I have to say, it makes me feel uneasy to know that he’s being exploited, more so than I am.
The article is typical TMZ style, giving as much detail on who I am as possible. A local schoolteacher and next-door neighbor. Thankfully they don’t say anything shitty, though I’m sure that’s happening elsewhere in the world.
I exhale loudly and exit the page. It’s a gross feeling to know that the world knows your business, and this is a giant leap from my mention in the ShoreLine. The only thing I can do is hold my head high and not let it bother me. I knew Amy Mischky would throw me under the bus the first chance she got.
But if this is the worst she can do, then I can handle the worst.
I decide to check my email while I’m at it.
And that’s when I see a message from the school board.
My heart stops as I catch the subject line:
“You are under review.”
Twenty
I stumble out of the bathroom, my phone clutched in my hand, and run right into Harrison in the hallway.
He immediately grabs me by the arms, holding me, his eyes anxiously searching mine. “Piper,” he says gruffly. “I am so sorry.”
I blink at him, unable to get my head on straight.
“I didn’t know if I should have said anything about the pictures or not,” he goes on. “I certainly didn’t want to spoil your dinner. But I thought it would be best that we came clean. They’d find out sooner or later.” He peers at me closer. “You’ve seen the pictures, haven’t you?”
I nod, my lips moving, but it feels like forever before words come out, like everything is moving in slow motion. “I saw the pictures. But I don’t care about the pictures. I don’t care about what they wrote. I . . . I just got an email from the school board.”
“The school board?”
“Yes. They said I’m under review.”
“What?!” he exclaims, his eyes wide. “Because of the pictures.”
“Yes. No. Here.”
I pull up the email on my phone and give it to him, my hand trembling.
He reads it over, his frown deepening, his eyes blazing as he goes.
I’m in deep shit.
According to the email, someone filed a private complaint about me and my personal “hobbies,” saying that I’m unfit to be a schoolteacher and that they don’t feel comfortable with someone like me teaching at the school. The school board has to take the complaint seriously, so they’ve set up a meeting on Monday for me to state my case in front of everyone.
The reason?
It’s not just the pictures. I could understand a little if it were the pictures. Even though it was a private moment, I was in an area where I shouldn’t have been, and the press is painting me as a little wanton, which definitely doesn’t help with the next part.
The next part being that my podcast is out in the open.
Whenever my mother did that interview today, the news got printed really fast. Romancing the Podcast, though not the subject of the article that I believe is in the Daily Mail (which is much worse than TMZ), was mentioned.
A romance podcast shouldn’t be a big deal.
