Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
My gift.
Inspiring worlds into existence.
Everyone around me always thinks so much higher of me than I do. Ironically, the exact opposite notion is what made me successful: everyone’s constant underestimation of my abilities, writing me off, dismissing my talent.
Maybe this moment is no different.
Finn needs me.
“You’re right,” I finally say, rising off the floor with Anya’s help. I lower my phone. “Absolutely right.”
“So you’ll make some calls?” she asks, lighting up.
“I’m gonna go out there and find Finn.”
Her face drops. “Uh … no. Not the advice I was giving you.”
“I need to find him before they do.” I pocket my phone and head for the back door.
Anya’s on my heels. “Uh, Riv, hold your dick. No, no, no. I did not mean for you to go out here into that madness in search of your boy t—of Finn,” she corrects herself. I’m not even mad about it. She can call him whatever she likes. “I was firing you up to make phone calls. To speak to your asshole agent. Not to … fucking kamikaze into a street full of reporters and rabid teenage influencers.”
“You told me to choose between my career or the boy toy,” I remind her, swiping my jacket, hat, and shades off the back of the wobbly chair. “I choose the boy toy.”
Then I’m out the door.
Chapter 18 - Finn
There Theo stands in the flesh.
In El Amado’s storage room, standing next to a stack of boxes full of decorations from last weekend’s Leather Daddy club night, a riding crop poking out of the top.
Theo looks like such a far cry from who he was when we were together. We used to look exactly the same. Like twins, people would tease us, with the two tiny exceptions of his eyebrow and lip rings. But now his whole vibe is like a rebellion against what we once were. Unshaven face and messy hair with a mixture of bleached and hot pink tips. Loose mesh tank top, ripped-up black shorts, and a chain hanging from the pocket.
Maybe I was holding him back when he was with me. This could be the real Theo standing before me, desperate over all these years to be set free.
But he’s proven himself to be such a chameleon, who can say this is even his true self?
I keep my voice low. “What do you want, Theo?”
He leans against the stack of boxes like it’s the only thing holding him up. “I needed to make sure you’re okay.”
“I thought you were gone. Out of town. Couldn’t care less about me.”
He can barely look me in the eye. “I was. But I had to come back because … I hate that this is happening to you.”
“Was it you?” I ask him, cutting right to the chase. “Is my ‘super illicit affair’ all over the internet because of you and your inability to let the fuck go of me?”
“No.” He rubs at his jaw, as if trying to scrub the guilt off. “Not … not exactly.”
I fold my arms over my chest. “For fuck’s sake, Theo, what did you do?”
“It wasn’t me. It was my stupid f-fucking boyfriend.”
I laugh, sharp and humorless. “Your boyfriend?”
“Ex,” he corrects with a bite. “As of this morning. And yeah, I didn’t know what he’d done until it was too late. He must’ve been stalking you, I don’t know for how long.” He slowly starts pacing. “I thought he was just letting me vent about you. I’ll admit, I … had a difficult time getting over our breakup. I was a mess. I know I didn’t seem that way when we last spoke, but … but I kept it in. He let me vent to him every night, hours at a time. I … just didn’t know he was keeping tabs.” He stops. “On you.”
“So that’s your big revelation?” I ask. It’s difficult to keep my voice down. My blood pressure rises so quickly in his presence—not for the fun reasons. “You got yourself a psycho minion for a boyfriend?”
“Ex.”
“And he wandered here to Dreamwood on his own and snapped shots of me leaving my family’s bungalow? Then later in Cottonwood Cove? Did he snap any other shots of me I should be worried about, climbing up to my bedroom window while I’m asleep? I don’t sleep naked anymore, by the way, so his shots would be depressingly PG …”
“No. I took his phone away. Deleted everything, every last pic.” He’s suddenly on the verge of tears. “He told me he wanted to see ‘the guy I wouldn’t shut up about’. I had no idea what he was doing until this morning when he … he bragged that he helped ‘us’ get even.” He chokes. “I … I ended it. Immediately. But I should’ve seen it coming. I am not blameless. I didn’t realize I’d been talking about you so much. I thought I was just moving on. Processing it all. But … guess I was keeping you alive in his head, too.”