AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“One last little thing,” Jessie says, and from the tone of her voice, I’m not going to like this. “I’m helping Mina with her underwear business, and our model pulled out. We’ve already booked this gorgeous penthouse suite for the set—would you step in? We can have this meeting in the hotel, and do the shoot after. It’ll only take thirty minutes and you can have the room for the night if you need someplace to stay.”
A free penthouse suite for the night sounds good, but I’m not feeling up to modeling. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I should.”
There’s a moment of silence, then Jessie’s voice drops. “You tried to steal my husband on my wedding day. I need you to do this.”
So much for no hard feelings. Although, I guess I can’t blame her. If she’d tried that with Gabe, I think I’d always carry a little grudge. “Fine, I’ll do it.”
I haven’t modeled in years, but I like Mina’s brand. Wild Things is more about comfort and saving fabric from going to landfills than luxury, but maybe she’s working on something new if her set is a penthouse. If she wants to attach her brand to me, that’s her mistake.
I eat dinner and pull Gabe’s shirt over my head before I climb into bed. The shirt smells more like me, but I’m glad I had it with me and it didn’t fall victim to that SuperVan’s sour milk.
I feel closer to him wearing it.
Which is pathetic and I should know better by now. But this thing with Gabe—it’s real. It’s going to take time, even after the things he said to me and the way he treated me. So I’ll let myself be pathetic tonight.
I watch the interview on my phone in my dark room. I cry the moment I see him. He’s haggard and haunted, his face sharper, the hollows deeper. He’s hurting. He talks about his childhood and his uncle and aunt, and his eyes are swimming with emotion. Laying himself bare like this for the world must be hard, but I’m proud of him for doing this. Taking control of how his life is being told.
I knew it had to be coming, but I’m still startled when Julia Spencer brings me up.
“It sounds like you still care about her.”
I hold my breath. He doesn’t answer it directly, but the things he says about me are kind. I search his face on the screen for any sign that he means what he’s saying, that this isn’t him whitewashing our relationship with words he doesn’t believe.
“But he also rides a motorcycle and vandalizes public restrooms and loves a reality TV villain?”
I gasp—not because she called me a villain but because she asked him if he loves me. I can see the muscle in his jaw twitch.
“She’s not a villain.”
“But you love her?”
“That’s not something you tell someone for the first time on TV,”he says.
Christ, what does that mean? I watch the rest of the interview and I still can’t tell what’s real, but my heart feels like it ran a marathon and jumped into a blender.
It takes a while to pull myself together again. That interview could mean everything or nothing. Odds are he’s doing this for his image, and making it seem like I meant something to him goes a long way toward explaining some of his choices.
He apologized though, for not believing me, for blaming me for spilling his secrets to the press, and if that’s all I’ll ever get from him, I’ll take it.
The meeting with my family and a couple of my aunt’s lawyers is chaotic and somehow I walk out with a newly formed production company. Well, the start of one. I’ll have to recruit a few more people because Wendy and I can’t do this on our own. Timothy has a list of names, all people he thinks would be interested and might be a good match. Kate Van Sandt’s on there, but when I laugh, he merely shrugs and tells me I should meet her.
Maybe I will.
“Hey, Ashley, can I have a minute?” Timothy asks as everyone else files out of the hotel’s conference room.
I slip my newly purchased notebook and pen into my bag along with Wendy’s script and wait. Considering his change in attitude toward me, I can guess where this is going and I’ll take this apology.
“I’m sorry for the way I’ve treated you,” he says, once we’re alone. “My parents’ scandal was hard on all of us. I blamed you for it, and even though you were a kid, I thought you were just like your parents. I didn’t want you messing with Nic’s head, so I kept you away.”
I hold his gaze for a long moment. “Nic was my emotional support crush for years,” I find myself saying. “When I was a kid, I felt like no one understood me or accepted me, and the fact that he’d been kind to me gave me hope that someday, he could love me. Thatsomeonecould. I leaned on it so hard I thought I loved him. I think, if I’d managed to get past you years ago, I would’ve woken up pretty quickly to the fact that he’s not right for me.”
Timothy nods. “I should’ve minded my own business. I’ve been told I have a tendency to meddle in other people’s lives, and in this case, I may have gone overboard.”
I shrug. “You’re a Foley. Of course, you went overboard. And I’m not paying back the money you gave me to stay away.”
“Fair enough.” He laughs and pulls me into a quick hug. “Here’s the key. Mina’s up there already, getting set up. Thanks for helping her out, by the way.”
“Thanks for the luxury penthouse suite.”
