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Chapter Twelve
Kalista turned in her sleep, but as she stretched her limbs, she was immediately made aware of all the unusual places in her body that ached.
Her eyes flickered open, and then her brain became bombarded with vividly erotic images that made her blush. She sat up and hugged the sheet to her naked body.
Okay, so that definitely happened.
She didn’t know how to feel about the emptiness inside her and all around her, piercing her heart with dagger-sharp pokes. She might as well get accustomed to that feeling since it was bound to become second nature for her.
Sometime early that morning, before dawn, and after they had made love to her again, they showered, got dressed in their fresh bespoke suits—which had been delivered to her house because that’s how billionaires roll—then left. But even as they kissed her deeply, touching her soul as they caressed her lips, then telling her they had some business to take care of in the city, she knew she had lost them.
Last night had been both an epic disaster and the best night of her life.
Except …
Oh god.
Had last night been a case of plain old pity sex? They felt sorry for her; they pitied her, hence the sex. Was that what had happened?
How pathetic must she have looked standing up on that stage with half of it falling around her, three soundtracks playing in the background, the choir singing at the top of their lungs to be heard over the music. And what was she doing while all that was happening? Pretending to be Celeste in some misguided attempt to save the show.
In retrospect, she must have appeared so awful that she would have engaged in pity sex with herself.
Covering her face with her pillow, she screamed into it, put the pillow back in its place, and rose from the bed. It was just as well she was never going to see them again. She couldn’t imagine how awkward it would be if they ran into each other again.
Nope.
They lived very different lives. The chances of accidentally running into them were zero. The only way to handle this was for her to be an adult and put it behind her. She had a town to govern and constituents who depended on her.
First, she had to check on Celeste, opting to message her first in case she was asleep.
Celeste texted back, saying she was still feeling crappy but asked how everything had gone with the play. Because she was a recluse, she had no idea of the catastrophe that occurred last night.
Kalista gave her the watered-down version. She told her the judges asked everyone to leave and then brought her home only because of the secondhand embarrassment they were experiencing. She also told her friend that they figured she wasn’t Celeste from the start, which probably explained why they stopped everything as well.
Of course, they figured that out. They only have their eyes set on you, Kally. Didn’t you see that?
Kalista frowned. Wait, what did Celeste mean? But then her phone rang, and she answered it immediately since it was Jennifer. She knew she had to make a public apology soon, but she also wanted to know the general vibe of her people after the shitshow last night.
She’d let them down epically. She sold them the idea, and they humored her, then almost broke their backs trying to get everything done, and it was all for nothing. She should have just declined the invitation to participate in the TITS contest—that would have been the sensible thing to do.
“Jenny?”
“Oh my gosh, Mayor Kalista. It’s everywhere. You and the judges. Every single person in the two towns is talking about it.”
“Jenny, slow down. What are you talking about?”
“Mayor Kalista,” Jennifer said, taking a deep breath. “Apparently there was a photo taken by a spy from Hopeturns Spring. The snake was in plain sight, and we didn’t even know it.”
“Jenny, I need you to start from the beginning, please.” But cold dread had already started to settle in her bones.
“Okay. Mayor Mike Springs had a spy taking photos of us during our play. He wanted to see what he was up against. But then he took a picture of you being carried off the stage by one of the judges, and now Mayor Mike Springs says you forfeited because you slept with the judges, and that makes him the automatic winner.”
She felt as if she had swallowed a whole iceberg and then started quivering as if she truly had swallowed a whole iceberg. Oh, this was bad. So very, very bad. She started to pace the floor.
“We’ll defend you until the day we die, Mayor Kalista,” Jennifer said fiercely. “And everyone is saying that Hopeturns Spring doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about. You just say the word, and we will TP that whole town until it looks like that city in Japan. JT is ready to go.”
“Jenny, can you call a meeting with E&R, please? In thirty minutes?”
