Chapter 28 – Braelyn
brAELYN
The sound of our phones ringing wakes us from a dead sleep with a jolt.
It’s the second time I’ve been startled awake in the last five hours, and it’s not a fun way to wake up.
The minute one stops ringing, it instantly starts again, as does the other.
Roman and I exchange panicked looks and dive for our phones to answer.
“Hello?”
“You’re married to Roman, and you didn’t tell me?!” my mother screeches into the phone.
Her words don’t fully register. “What?”
“Don’t what me, Braelyn. It’s all over the damn internet. A copy of your marriage license from Vegas a week ago as well as pictures of the two of you kissing on the beach.”
“Oh shit.” Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.
My head flips over to Roman, who has an equally impressive oh shit look on his face.
“Yes,” he says to whomever he’s on the phone with. “Stop. I can’t change that. Do we know who leaked it?”
“Braelyn!” my mother yells, calling my attention back to her.
I jolt. “Crap. Sorry.”
“Tell us what’s going on.”
I rub a hand up and down my face, trying to calm myself and gather my thoughts.
Because my oh shit is turning into a lot more than that as my mind goes wild.
“We got drunk in Vegas and his friends dared us to get married. I don’t know.
I don’t remember everything, but I’m pretty sure I talked Roman into it.
Something I’m sure he regrets right now. It wasn’t our finest moment.”
“And the kissing?” she presses.
I close my eyes and rest my forehead in my palm. “Um, well, Roman and I are, well, we’re…” I trail off. God, what a mess. “We haven’t figured that out yet.”
“Jesus Christ, Braelyn. You’re sleeping with your best friend, who happens to be your accidental husband? Are we living out our best Days of Our Lives self?”
“Ha. You’re very funny.”
“Don’t listen to her, Brae. I think it’s awesome,” my dad calls out from the background. “You and Roman are like your mother and I were. It’s all going to be fine. Are you okay, though?”
I blink and stare down at the white blanket resting on my lap, swarming with unease. “I have no idea what I am. You said this was all over the internet?”
“Yes, it’s—”
She gets cut off when a call comes in. I pull the phone away to see that it’s Skylar.
“Mom, Sky is calling.”
“Fine. Go rally the Fritzes, but this conversation isn’t over. You were engaged to Adam and now you’re married to Roman. This is a very big deal and the Boston media as well as the world are now interested in it.”
“Fabulous. I’ll call you back.”
I rub a weary hand over my forehead as I flip over to Sky. “Oh my god!” she screams into the phone before I can so much as say hi. “What on earth is going on?”
“I don’t know what’s going on yet,” I admit, my voice tremulous.
“I woke up to a zillion phone calls and my mother screaming in my ear. Sort of like how you are.” I climb out of bed because Roman is still talking to whoever the hell he’s talking to, locate my robe, and go to the living room where there’s a coffee maker I can use because I need serious caffeine stat.
“Are you married to Roman? Is this true or some messed-up AI thing?”
I sigh as I fill the coffee maker with water and set in the large pod. “Yes, it’s true.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” She’s hurt, and I hate that. Skylar trusted me with her biggest secret, and I didn’t do that in return. I should have. I just… I never wanted anyone to get hurt with anything, but now it seems that’s how it’s going to be for everyone. I told Quinn overnight but not her.
My eyes close in regret. “I’m sorry. I should have.
We didn’t tell anyone, but that was my decision.
I called Quinn overnight and told her, but I didn’t want to wake you.
Roman and I got drunk in Vegas, and I don’t know.
We just did it. We didn’t think much about it until the next morning when we woke up with hangovers and rings on our fingers.
Our plan was to get a quickie divorce and have no one be the wiser. ”
I hit start, and the coffee maker makes a loud bubbling and churning noise as it fills the mug with magic.
“Okay, well, that’s a bullshit notion and I’m pissed you didn’t tell me.”
I sag my hip into the counter. “I know. You have every right to be. It was shitty. It wasn’t meant to be, though. I just felt like it was something we didn’t want a lot of voices on at the moment given everything.”
She releases a heavy breath into the phone. “Fine. I get that. But I’m even more pissed that I had to learn that you’re making out with your bestie on a freaking Mexican beach through the internet. Are you sleeping together? I mean, I had a feeling you were.”
“Your intuition is as good as mine.”
“Only about other people and not myself.”
“Truth. That’s so fair.” I add sugar to my coffee and stir it in as I reply. “Yes, we’re sleeping together. But we weren’t when we got married. The sex part started here.”
“Holy crap! Braelyn, you’re having sex with Roman! I can’t believe it and yet I can.”
“You sound like my mother.”
“I already spoke to your mother. She called me at first light. This is huge. Oh, hold on. Quinn is calling, I’ll merge her in.”
“Girl, I’m on twenty-something hours of no sleep and now this? How am I supposed to go home and sleep when this is all over my phone?”
“Uh, yeah, I’m not helpful with that. I’m waking up to this, so my day is just about to start.”
“I’m about to get on the T to head home, but I keep getting alerts on my phone.”
“Lovely,” I mutter.
Roman saunters out of the bedroom wearing boxer briefs and a scowl. I lift the coffee to my lips and take a sip before I hand him the mug.
“Who is that?” he mouths.
“Quinn and Sky,” I reply silently.
He nods and blows off some of the steam so he can take a sip.
“Brae, are you even listening?” Quinn asks.
“What do you want me to say?” I reply, leaning against the buffet and turning out toward the water so I don’t have to look at Roman. “I don’t know what to say. I haven’t seen the pictures yet, and I’m not excited to.”
“You realize someone has been following us,” Roman jumps in, and my head flips back to him, my eyes wide. Because shit. He’s right. How did I miss that?
He takes the phone from my hand and sets it to speakerphone.
“Yes,” Quinn agrees. “That’s exactly what it means. That’s seriously scary stuff.”
I blink at Roman, my suddenly trembling hand covering my lips. He draws me into his side and kisses the top of my head. “Hey, it’s okay,” he whispers, but it’s not okay. Not even close.
“The kissing pictures look like they were shot from far away,” Skylar notes and Roman pulls out his phone for me to see what we’re dealing with. “Like, I don’t think someone is there beside you getting these.”
He hands me his phone and I scroll through the article.
“Likely from one of the boats we saw offshore,” Roman agrees.
“Roman Fritz!” Skylar yells at her cousin. “I cannot believe you married my best friend. Your best friend. You’d better be good to her or you’ll have to deal with me and I’m pregnant, so you know my hormones are not to be trifled with.”
He chuckles. “Promise.”
“Good. Now back to this. They knew exactly where you were and when you were going to be there or at the very least, they were stalking the beach.”
I flip through photos on various sites before I can’t handle it anymore and hand it back to him. “It’s the beach right in front of our villa,” I whisper, completely shaken by this. “That’s where we were. Do we know who it is? Who started this? The pics I just saw were on freaking IG and TikTok.”
“Intertainment and shortly after Boston Nine posted it,” Quinn informs me, her voice the equivalent of a grimace.
Boston Nine. As in Adam’s company.
“Fuck,” I hiss, momentarily closing my eyes. I look up at Roman. “I’m so sorry,” I tell him.
“Listen, you know Forest is already on this,” Sky states. “I don’t want to know how, but he’ll dig and get you info, and in the meantime, you two have stuff to figure out.”
“Thank you, ladies. I love you, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. Don’t be mad at Roman. That was all me. I’ll call you later, okay. He and I need to talk.”
“Bye. Love you!” they sing out, and I disconnect the call and set my phone down just as it rings again. Adam. Naturally. I decline the call and take my coffee back from Roman, who is quietly observing me.
“Freak-out on a scale of one to ten?”
I laugh. “Oh, you know, about ten thousand. Tell me how bad this is?” I ask.
“Depends on your definition of bad. Forest is looking into it, but someone obtained our marriage license. Either it was leaked from them or someone found it since it’s a public record.
They somehow knew where we were and followed us here.
That’s the fucked-up part, but it’s not uncommon.
My name is all over this place with my restaurant being here and us meeting with that other chef the first night.
I don’t know if they’re at the resort or offshore in a boat or what, but it seems like they were offshore, going by the pictures. ”
“Fabulous. But Adam’s company got it right after Intertainment?”
“Yes. He called me too, but I was on with my assistant and my PR staff.”
I scrunch my nose. “You have PR staff?”
“For the restaurants, yeah.”
“Right. Of course.” I blow out a breath. “This is all my fault. I plunged you into a scandal all because I was stupid and drunk and thought it would be so funny if we got married.”
He shrugs. “I don’t care that much. Not my first scandal and definitely not the first time people are talking about me. I never cared about what people thought of me, and I doubt it’ll impact my restaurants. Scandal brings people in, actually.”
I take a sip of coffee, wishing it were spiked with something stronger. “I suppose that’s good. Don’t they say there’s no such thing as bad PR?”