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I oblige, confused as to what’s going on.
He closes the blinds and draws all the drapes shut.
“Turn off your phone,” he says.
I obey and watch him walk to his hidden liquor cabinet.
He pulls out a bottle of scotch and pours two glasses.
I hold out my hand for one, but he downs them both back to back.
“I could’ve sworn your doctor told you not to drink more than once a week,” I say. “Do I need to call him?”
“I’m beingextorted, Liam.” He sounds like he’s on the verge of tears.
“What?” I sit up. “By who?”
“Someone who better be lying to me.”
“Is it about my parents? One of their fellow inmates?”
“No, that’s something I can handle on my own.” He picks up a folder and tosses it to me.“This, though? I’m in unchartered waters.”
I flip the folder open and immediately sigh.
It’s full of pictures of me and Genevieve in New York. Me kissing her outside our hotel, us holding hands outside a Broadway show. Her looking into my eyes as we argue over a book in a coffee shop.
“Please tell me that these are photoshopped images and I can sue this asshole for threatening me with extortion.”
I flip through more of the photos. Her sitting on my lap on the Amtrak train, us being reckless and kissing in the bushes late at night.
“Allow me to repeat myself, Liam,” he says, glaring at me. “Tell me that these are photoshopped. Preferably between now and right the hell now.”
“They’re not photoshopped.”
He sets down his glass. “I see.”
“They’re real.” I don’t give him the chance to ask if I’m sure. “Every single one.”
Silence suffocates the room, and his eyes grow colder with every passing second.
“In that case,” he says. “I just have one question for you.”
“I’m listening.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“It’s not what you think.”
“Okay.” He crosses his arms. “What exactly am I thinking?”
I don’t really know, so I simply sigh.
“Exactly.” He nods. “Let metell youwhat I’m thinking. You’re sleeping with a high school student, and now there’s someone who is out for blood, demanding that I pay one hundred thousand dollars to keep this quiet. I clearly have to pay it because I have two moreyears left on my contract, and I want to waltz into a retirement paradise without a single scandal.”
“I don’t know how this happened,” he continued, “or if this is you healing some type of divorce trauma, but you will resign as soon as possible and when I retire, I’llconsiderforgiving you for nearly costing me my legacy.”
“You’re being dramatic.”
