Keaton #2
“You!” All four of us swung our heads to the exit Olly and I had taken to get here.
Ace was framed in the doorway and glaring at Brody with absolute fury.
His hair had been neatly tied back earlier, but now strands were working their way loose, framing his face.
He was alone; whatever he had done, he must have managed to distract or delay the press.
“You fucker! This was you?!” His tone was less surprised than hurt, which struck an odd note in my head.
“It was her,” Olly said coldly. He pointed right at Helen. “Call the police and tell the security guards to lock down the office so she can’t have anyone remove the evidence. I’ve got to get out of here before the cameras catch up with us.”
Olly turned and put his hand on my back, gently urging me towards the car, and this time I didn’t resist. I got into the passenger seat as he walked around to drive. Through the window, I watched Ace stalk right up to Brody and start shouting at him.
The parking lot exit was set up in such a way that we had to drive away from them and then circle back around, coming almost past them again; I wound the window down as we made the exit onto the road, getting one last glimpse of them.
Ace was talking into his phone, pointing at Helen who stood primly with one hand clutching her purse against her shoulder; Brody was walking away from him; Ace lifted the phone away from his ear to shout something I couldn’t make out after him.
Brody walked back and pushed Ace right in the chest, and I opened my mouth to say something.
Then I caught Olly’s reflection in the glass beside me as we entered a brief tunnel out to the street, and I closed it again.
Ace was an adult and he had security on the way.
Not only that, but I’d already seen with my own eyes that he could handle Brody in a fight, even if only to hold his own until help arrived. They weren’t going to kill each other.
In fact, as I thought back to that strange note in Ace’s voice, maybe something was going on there above all of this other stuff – something none of us knew about.
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” Olly said. His tone was full of regret.
“I wouldn’t have believed it if you’d explained it to me later,” I said. I shook my head. “I’m glad I was there. I’m glad I was able to stand by your side through it.”
“Not that,” Olly said. He shot me a sideways glance. “I mean – Ace and Brody.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“They were fighting.”
“Okay,” I said. I shrugged. “I’ve seen them fight before.”
“That must be difficult for you,” Olly said. His voice was oddly strained.
Was I missing something?
“Um, why?” I asked. I knew I was going to have to ask direct questions to get the full story out of Olly. He was back to his normal, stoic self.
“Because of Jordan.”
That took some real mental gymnastics to figure out.
In fact, try as I might, I just couldn’t get it to make sense.
“Huh?” I managed.
“Because he hit you,” Olly said. Another sideways glance. Now he seemed less sure of himself. “Right?"
I burst out a short laugh. “No!”
“Oh,” Olly said. He frowned. “But someone…”
The realization of what he had, somehow, picked up on was instantly sobering.
How had he guessed? Had I flinched at the wrong moment? Was there something in my eyes that told him I’d grown up afraid?
I cleared my throat.
“My dad,” I said. “He was… Clara and I left as soon as I was old enough to take her with me and get an apartment.”
There was silence for a moment. Olly switched lanes.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
But talking about my dad had made me remember something else.
“I have to call Clara,” I said. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket as Olly sped us along the road; looking at the direction we were going, I realized we weren’t headed for the office.
Was he taking me to his house?
I could think about that later. I had to make sure my sister was okay.
It took two rings only for the line to connect.
“Clar,” I gasped as soon as she answered. “I have something to tell you. It’s about Fernando. Are you with him right now?”
“No,” she said. Her voice came out as a sob. “Keat, do you know what’s going on? I just got this weird text from him out of the blue. He says it’s over. He doesn’t want me anymore.”
“Oh, god.” I covered my face with my hands. “It’s not you, Clara. He’s a louse. He’s been playing everyone here. He even used me. He… I can’t believe he did it, Clara, but he outed Olly and me today. In, like, the worst possible way.”
“He did that to you?” Clara’s sobbing intensified. “Did he even really like me…?”
“Oh, Clar,” I said. My heart was breaking for her, and for the fact that I couldn’t just hug her right there and then. I looked over at Olly. “Um, can we…?”
Olly nodded, glancing in the rearview mirror and indicating to the right. “Already turning around,” he said. “I’ll take you home.”
“Thanks,” I said, though there was a sinking feeling in my chest about how we wouldn’t get a chance to talk this through. “I’ll be there really soon, sis, okay?”
She was sobbing so much that all she could do was hang up. My heart was in my mouth, and I looked anxiously at the road signs we were passing to try and estimate in my head how long it would take us to get there.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I know we need to talk…”
Olly shook his head without taking his eyes off the road. “Not as much as you need to be there for her. I’ll wait. It’s probably safer at your place than mine right now.” He hesitated. “If you don’t mind me sitting on your couch for the rest of the day.”
“You can sit in my bed all night if you want,” I blurted out. I immediately regretted it. “I mean, if that’s still the kind of thing you would even be interested in doing – I don’t want to assume –”
“I would very much like to share your bed with you tonight,” Olly intoned solemnly.
“Good,” I said. In spite of everything, a grin and a warm flush spread across my face. “Great.”
“And… Keaton Dunbar.”
“Yes?”
“This isn’t what I would have chosen.” He took a deep breath. “But I’m glad. I didn’t want to hurt you. I didn’t want to make you feel like you were nothing because I was in the closet.”
I could only smile.
He’d heard me. He’d listened when I talked about Jordan, and he had heard me.
And even though all of this was awful, and Fernando shouldn’t have done any of it, and it was going to take a long time to fix all of the damage he had left behind…
Now I knew, just by the solemn look on his face when he told me he was glad, that everything was going to be okay.
We were almost there when Olly’s phone began to ring.
He ignored the first one and the second, letting them ring out. The phone was connected to the car’s dash and it seemed like the whole vehicle was completely filled by the sound of ringing, endless and maddening. On the third number, Olly grunted and hit the button to answer it.
“Mr. Harvey!” Someone’s voice heralded us from the car’s speakers. “I’m so glad to get hold of you. Your phone must be ringing off the hook.”
“You could say that,” Olly replied. His tone was dripping in wariness.
“Congratulations,” whoever it was continued. “I’m so pleased for Ridley. That was a hell of a way to win a game.”
We exchanged a quick glance. “Uh, I’m sorry,” Olly said. “I actually left the game at half-time. I’m not in the loop yet.”
“It was the performance of a lifetime,” the man on the line gushed.
“I just wanted to let you know that we’re thrilled with his latest results.
I’m sure this will give our brand a chance to shine in the headlines again once he shares the posts we have planned this week.
And, you know, ah… I wanted to let you know a message of personal support. ”
“You’re happy with your sponsorship,” Olly said carefully as if he was trying to figure out some hidden meaning behind the sponsor’s words.
“Very happy,” he assured us. “I’m not going anywhere, you mark my words. Well, I’ll let you go – I imagine you must have a lot of calls to get to!”
“Right,” Olly agreed slowly before hanging up.
The phone started to ring again.
I put a hand over my mouth to keep myself quiet as he answered it.
The calls were all the same. One by one, sponsor after sponsor and client after client called just to let Olly know that they were still on his side. That the leaked footage meant nothing to them. That they were happy for him to remain their agent of choice.
By the time we pulled up outside of the apartment, he seemed to be completely at a loss for words.
“If you don’t want to come up right now…” I suggested.
He shook his head quickly. “Is it okay if I take calls in your living room?”
I nodded. “Of course.”
And so I led him upstairs to my home.
I knew there was a lot to get through right now.
I had a long day, night, and who knew how long after that of comforting Clara ahead of me.
Then there was work and figuring out what we should do now that everyone knew about us.
It would probably be better for the company if we put out some kind of official statement – and there would be a police investigation because what Helen had done was both criminally and morally wrong.
We had a lot to talk about with our relationship and how we went forward from here.
The one thing I was sure of was that we would go forward together – the rest was just detail.
I thought maybe once the shock wore off and Olly realized what had really happened here today, he would need my comfort as well. We had a lot to get through.
But for now, just for a moment, I could enjoy this sensation:
Leading my boyfriend up to my house for the first time, so he could meet my sister and see where I lived.
It was the first step of many.
And I would take them all happily with Oliver Harvey by my side.