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Axel’s hand settled over my phone and he gently pulled it away from my ear.
“Beth, sweetheart. Stop.”
“But I—”
“No,” he cut in, firmly this time. “It doesn’t matter what your mother—or anyone else—thinks of you. Last night, you stood up for yourself. You should be proud of that.”
I didn’t feel proud. I felt…confused. Scattered.
Axel set my phone on the bedside table. I stared at it, tempted to scoop it up and finish listening to my mother’s messages. He squeezed my hip.
“Come on. Since we’re both awake, we might as well take a shower, brew some coffee, and get the day started.”
I nodded but didn’t say anything, preoccupied with the sting of the words on my phone. Axel propped himself up on one elbow and leaned down, pressing a kiss to my forehead. Watching him walk naked to the bathroom—skin, muscles, and tattoos on glorious display—should have made me hurry after him in two seconds flat.
Instead, I felt weighed down by what I’d seen online. Watching everything explode was not as satisfying as I’d hoped it would be. In fact, it was unnerving and twisted my stomach into knots.
Maybe I’d taken it too far…
I knew better than to check my phone again. And yet I found it in my hand anyway, scrolling and scrolling down a dark hole of seething comments.
Then Axel was crouched in front of me as I sat on the edge of his bed. His hair was damp and combed back, but he was fully dressed in jeans, a snug gray t-shirt, and his club vest. He curved his fingers around my wrist with an imploring look. In his other hand was a plate of scrambled eggs and toast.
How long had I been sitting here?
My gaze flicked to the clock. Nearly thirty minutes had passed and I hadn’t even noticed.
“You need to stay off your phone, Beth,” Axel said. “It’s just going to fuck with your head. Give everything a chance to cool down. Have some breakfast and then I’ll take you for a ride, okay?”
I nodded, accepting the plate of food that Axel placed on my lap. He touched my hair gently as he opened the nightstand drawer and tossed my phone inside. I took a half-hearted bite of eggs but it was nearly impossible to swallow.
“I never imagined people would be so mean,” I muttered.
Axel sat on the bed beside me, his shoulder pressed to mine.
“I think you knew it would be a little rough. You needed to make some drastic changes. And that’s going to rattle a few cages.”
I scrubbed at my nose, feeling a lump welling in my throat.
“I’m not…a bad person though, right?”
Axel cupped my cheek in his palm with a faintly pained sound.
“No, baby girl. There’s nothing bad about you. I promise.”
I leaned against him, my heart overflowing with gratitude that I had him by my side.
***
For the next hour or two, I did my best to steer clear of my phone. Axel and I went for a long, winding ride on his motorcycle, weaving down back roads and losing ourselves in the landscape. When we stopped for lunch at a roadside diner a few miles outside of Merry Field, I felt lighter, relieved to escape reality for a little while.
Until Axel and I stepped into the diner. A battered old television perched in an upper corner of the room. A picture of me at the gallery facing off with my mother was on the screen. Along the bottom, a ribbon read:Bethany Golde has gone off the rails. Will she ditch the high life her mother worked so hard to give her? Or will she finally see the error of her ways and leave her boyfriend of the week for the sexy, handsome, and wealthy Lionel Holmes?
A loud roaring echoed in my ears. My vision narrowed on that television, locked onto the damning text. My feeling of relief vanished like a popped balloon and I deflated, weighed down all over again.
Immediately, Axel moved to the counter and pointed at the television.
“Turn that off.”
