She stormed up to me, curlers in her hair and her makeup half done, with straight-up crazy eyes.
“This,” she hissed, holding her phone in my face, showing me the photographs of Landon and me almost kissing in front of the yoga studio. There were also pictures of me leaving his hotel multiple times.
My heart sank.
Sarah’s nostrils flared. “I told you to get close to him so you could report back to me with information, Shay. Then I see this! How could you? I trusted you.”
“To be fair, I told you I wasn’t very comfortable doing that for you. I didn’t want to get involved.”
“Yes, well, it looks like you wiggled your way straight into his good graces. I’m going to have to let you go.”
Wait, what?
“Are you serious? I need this job, Sarah.”
Sarah shrugged and waved me off as if I were nothing. “Yes, well, you should’ve thought about that before betraying me.”
“I didn’t betray you,” I grumbled. “I just didn’t do exactly what you wanted me to do. Besides, I’m not Cyrano deBergerac. I’m not going to push you into the arms of someone I care about.”
“So it’s true?” she asked. “You do care about him?”
Of course I cared. How could I not? He was my Satan, and I was his Chick. I’d always care for him even if we never received our happily ever after. The last thing I wanted to do was push him straight into the arms of a low-key crazy person.
“None of that matters,” I said.
“You’re right, because you don’t matter. Do you really think you have a chance with Landon when I’m in the picture? You’re nothing in the grand scheme of things. You’re as replaceable as a pair of shoes. Sure, maybe you came around and reminded Landon of his past, but you’re not his future, and you never will be. You’re a worthless piece of junk.”
I narrowed my eyes at the grown woman standing in front of me, completely baffled by her actions. “Oh, give me a fucking break,” I groaned.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re so entitled! You think you are so perfect that you can bully people into acting a certain way because you think you have power. But you know what? I’m not intimidated by you. So go ahead. Fire me. But at the end of the day, I’m still going to win, because I refused to let a woman who carries around thousand-dollar rocks call me worthless. And news flash! I got the same damn stones from Amazon for nine bucks!”
54Landon
It looked like my weekly trip to Maria’s yoga studio was going to be a no-go after the articles about Shay and me were leaked. The minute I walked around the corner and saw the line of people standing outside the building, I knew word had gotten out about my appearance there weeks prior. But business was booming for Maria, which was excellent.
I just hated that once again, something special that I truly enjoyed was being taken away by fame. I couldn’t even go breathe in peace.
“You’re really good at drawing a crowd,” a voice said. I turned to see Shay standing there, and she smiled at first, but then it faltered to a frown. “Are you OK?”
I shrugged. “I just wanted to have something that was mine for a little while. Maria’s classes were that for me.”
She moved in closer, and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly. “I can’t imagine how annoying it must be—having people follow you all the time. I can’t imagine having that kind of attention on me at all times.”
“It can be a lot.” Truthfully, it was becoming more and more of a bother ever since Shay came back into my life. There were so many things I wanted to do with her. I wanted to take her out to dinner and be able to sit across from her and have a friendly conversation. I wanted to walk into a coffee shop and not have to worry about people pulling out a camera and filming our interactions.
“Want to take a walk with me?” she offered.
“I’d like that more than anything.”
Shay gave me her smile, and I gave her mine as we began walking in the opposite direction of the crowd. She rubbed the back of her neck. “I was hoping I could talk to you anyway. I figured I should give you a heads-up. It’s about Sarah.”
“Yeah? What about her?”
“Well.” Shay sighed and tilted her head toward me. “She’s kind of batshit crazy.”
I laughed out loud. “That’s the complete opposite of what I expected you to say to me.”