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"At first, he didn't say anything. I think he was in shock. But when he came to, he said that he was glad he'd disowned me, that he'd rather give his fortune to a pet shelter or a distant third cousin than to me."
"I'm so sorry, Kyle."
"Don't be. I'm a fucking prostitute, Lo. All the bad choices I've made have led to this."
"You lost all your money. You had no education. It's not like you had a lot of options," she said, trying to console me.
I snorted. "I was a drunk-driving party boy until my dad took my inheritance away. But you want to know how I ended up here? I was giving surfing lessons, and a woman I was teaching asked me out. She was older, and I wasn't interested, but I was hungry. So I let her buy me dinner. No big deal, right?" I stopped and stared at my hands, feeling sick.
"Are you okay?" Lowell asked.
"Not really. I slept with her afterward, because she seemed to expect it. And then she offered to buy me breakfast the next day. Are you getting the picture?"
She nodded.
"She asked me stay with her, so I did. For a weekend. That turned into a week. And then a month. I was like her little… pet. I ate her food and lived in her house and did what I was told. Because it was… easy."
"It doesn't sound easy," Lo said. She sounded as if she felt sorry for me.
"It was easy until I got so disgusted with myself that I couldn't stand it anymore. After I left and Elena asked me to come work for her, I didn't even hesitate. I knew it would be better than what I'd had with that woman. Cleaner. I have a contract with my clients. They pay me in exchange for my services. That's it. No one's pretending it's anything else."
"Just because you made bad choices doesn't make you a bad person." She patted my shoulder. "At least, I hope that's true—for my sake too."
"Thanks." I smiled at her. "But I made my own bed where my father's concerned. I lost his respect a long time ago, and I've only gone downhill from there."
"Well… I'm sorry about your father. And I'm sorry I yelled at you."
"S'okay."
"Did he say anything else?"
I sighed. "No. But I don't think he's done with this yet. He sounded like he was thinking about what options he had. Which is unfortunate, 'cause he's a brilliant guy. So if he's thinking about ways to sabotage us, he'll probably come up with one sooner rather than later. And it'll probably be pretty good."
"Great," Lowell said. "That's just great." She took a swig of her beer. "Speaking of great, my mother called today too. She threatened to cut her trip short to come back and 'help' me. I talked her out of it, but I'm worried she's gonna pop up."
"Great."
"You can say that again. And again," Lo mumbled.
* * *
Only a handful of photographers were left at her house when we got back.
"Lindsay Lohan just got back in town," one of them explained, shrugging. "But we thought we'd wait for you guys."
I pushed thoughts of our parents aside and flashed him a megawatt smile. "You have excellent taste." I threw my arm around Lo and beamed. "I approve."
"How about that exclusive interview?" the other photographer asked.
"We'll make an announcement soon," Lo said. I looked at her in surprise, and she shrugged and mumbled, "I want to keep them on their toes."
We fina
lly made it into the house, and I could tell Lo was tired.
"Do you want to do an exclusive interview?" I asked. I couldn't really picture her sitting down with Katie from XYZ and, er, spilling her guts. Again.
"I have to eventually. Gigi's apparently working on it. Lucas said he has to approve everything I say though. He wants a representative from the movie to be there."
