She knew Dallas had read it, too, when he said, “It’s working.”
Emery wrote:
I saw you on TV. You got your job back, huh?
Dallas nodded. “Yeah, lead him there. That should be good.”
I went in and pled my case to Heidi. You could do the same. I’ll put in a good word for you.
“After getting me fired he’s trying to play the hero?” she muttered. “Unbelievable.”
“Bastard,” Dallas concurred.
I doubt it will help. There has to be a scapegoat, right? Some casualty to appease viewers who were angered by that video. So if the station has already rehired you, they can’t rehire me.
Her phone started to buzz while they were waiting for Ethan’s response. “He’s calling!” she announced, and came to her feet.
Dallas jumped off the bed, too. “Wait. Don’t answer it yet.”
“I don’t know if I dare answer it at all,” she said. “What if I can’t fake being nice?”
“You have to. He’ll find out about the suit soon. This could be your only chance.” Dallas grabbed his phone from where it was charging on the nightstand. “Remember, just let him do most of the talking. I’ll record the whole thing.”
“No, I got it. I downloaded an app that will allow me to record an incoming call—but I have to answer it first.” After taking a deep breath, she hit Talk. “Hello?”
“It’s me.”
“I know,” she said, and put him on speaker while searching for the IntCall app she’d installed, hoping for this opportunity.
“Are you okay?” Ethan asked when she didn’t speak right away.
His tone was conciliatory, beseeching. She decided he was a much better actor than she was, because he couldn’t really care about her. “Barely,” she admitted. She figured there was no reason to pretend when it came to that. He had to know what a devastating blow he’d dealt her.
“I can’t believe everything that’s happened,” he said as though he’d somehow been a victim, too.
She had the recording going. Giving Dallas a little nod to let him know, she breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s been crazy,” she said into the phone, fighting to get those three words—such a gross understatement—through a throat that was already threatening to close off with anger and frustration.
She hoped she wasn’t about to burst into tears; it suddenly felt like it.
“We should never have let it come to this,” he said.
Let it come to this? We? He’d caused it! Or was he saying—you should never have left me. Let this be a lesson to you. “I never saw it coming,” she admitted.
“That Tommy would load that video... It’s unconscionable. I still can’t believe it.”
Her mouth dropped open and her gaze jerked to Dallas. There was no way Tommy had filmed them and put that video on the internet. She liked Tommy and knew Tommy liked her. It was Ethan who’d done it. But he was determined to pass the blame. “Why would Tommy do it?” she asked.
“I tried to tell you before. He was pissed at me. You know I asked him to move out, right?”
Only because he was anxious for her to move in. But once they’d broken up, he didn’t need Tommy to move out. At that point, the problem had been solved. So even if Tommy were the type to do something vengeful, he wouldn’t do it once he knew he could stay, would he?
Before she could respond, Ethan said, “I think he has a thing for me, if you want the truth.”
“A thing for you?” She’d thought Ethan couldn’t surprise her any more than he had, but this proved her wrong. She’d never seen any sign of interest from Tommy and she’d never heard Ethan make such an assertion before.
“He’s gay, you know. I think he was jealous of you the whole time, and this was his way of getting you out of the picture.”
But Tommy had a boyfriend. They seemed content with each other. And she’d already stepped out of the picture by the time that video was loaded.
Ethan’s story wasn’t making sense, but he was doing his best to sell it.
Mentally harnessing her emotions, she fought to keep her voice steady. “Have you talked to him?”
“I have. I told him I could never trust him again and that he had to get the hell out of my apartment. I kept worrying that the little bastard was filming me in the shower or getting dressed or whatever. It’s creepy.”
Poor Tommy. Beyond a cursory hello or goodbye, she didn’t know him that well, had only spoken to him a handful of times. But her impression of him was so different from the picture Ethan was painting. She wished she had Tommy’s phone number. He might be able to tell her something that would disprove Ethan’s version of events. “And he said...”
“He claims he didn’t do it—swears on his life. But who else could it be?”
You! It was you! Emery wanted to scream into the phone, but she felt Dallas touch her arm—a reminder not to lose her composure.
“Do you have his number?” she said. “I’d really like to give him a piece of my mind.”
“No, I deleted his contact information from my phone as soon as he moved out. I don’t ever want to talk to him again.”
That was convenient. The expression on Dallas’s face suggested he was thinking the same thing. “That anyone could do that... Well, you’re right,” she said. “It’s unconscionable, and I hope whoever recorded and posted that video burns in hell.”
“So where are you?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been by your place a hundred times. Your car is never there.”
She heard Dallas swear under his breath and pulled the phone away so that Ethan wouldn’t realize she was with someone. “I’m visiting a friend,” she said. “I couldn’t stay in LA, not with everyone watching that video.”
“Then where are you?”
“Silver Springs.”
“Even though your parents are in Boston these days?”
“I have friends here.”
“Who?”
“No one you’d know.”
“Are you looking for another job?”
“Right before Christmas? No.”
“When will you
