Chapter 16 #2
‘It matters to me! There must be a thousand resorts you could work at. But knowing about me and Julian, you came to Aetheria. That’s messed up, Tommy. You had to realise there was a chance we’d cross paths eventually.’
He nodded, seeming to accept that my rebuke was justified.
And all that talk before, about the wrath of Ally… Now I truly had something to be furious about, and I could barely muster even a morsel of rage. It’s hard to when you’re so consumed by hurt.
‘You need to leave,’ I said, my voice strangled.
‘Ally.’
‘No.’
He came around the coffee table and knelt before me, but I kept my gaze on my lap, refusing to look at him.
‘Ally, please.’ He reached out, capturing my hands in his and it was a thousand sensations at once. ‘I’m sorry I said that.’
‘Shouldn’t you get back to Elsa?’ I asked wanly, the fight having ebbed away. I really just wanted him to leave so I could lick my wounds. Again.
‘It’s not what you think.’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked, my head snapping up. ‘What’s not?’
He heaved out a sigh, then dropped my hands and sat back on his heels. ‘Elsa and me, we’re n—’
My ringtone cut him off and we both looked at my phone, which was face up on the table. It was Claude – only I’d just spoken to her. It must have been something important.
‘I need to get that,’ I said, reaching past Tommy. ‘Hi, what’s going on?’
‘Have you seen the Divorced Diva Insta account?’
‘Not since this morning. Why?’ I took the phone away from my ear and put it on speaker, then navigated to Instagram.
‘Check the tagged tab,’ she said wearily. ‘It’s not good, Al.’
For the typically stoic Queen of the Understatement Claudia to say that, it must have been bad. Very bad, and my hand started shaking so severely, I had to tap the screen three times before I got to the post she was talking about. Even then, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
‘Did you find it?’ asked Claude.
‘Oh my god.’
It was a photo of me and Julian at the restaurant on Friday night, looking very much like a couple in love – he was holding my hand and peering at me adoringly.
The photographer – whoever they were – had captured the exact moment before I’d told Julian no, so it seemed like I was just as enamoured with Julian as he was with me.
The caption read:
It seems like @TheDivorcedDiva may not be divorced for much longer. Seen this past weekend looking very cosy with her third husband Julian Cushing on his exclusive Greek Island resort. #SecondChanceLove #Reunited #LoveFindsAWay #AllyAndJulian4Eva
‘Yep. Maya got the alert about the account being tagged and called me as soon as she saw.’
I looked at the time stamp. The post had only been up for twenty minutes, and it already had more than two thousand likes.
I scrolled the comments, speed-reading to get the gist – everything from incredulity to very, very pissed off.
I tapped on the account that had posted it – zero followers and an avatar instead of a profile pic. Suspicious.
‘Maya is on it,’ said Claude. ‘She’s working on damage control.’
Tommy craned his neck to see and when I showed him my phone, his brows lifted then knitted together.
‘Okay. What do you want me to do?’ I asked Claude.
‘Talk to Julian. See if he knows anything about it. Maybe he can help get it taken down.’
‘Okay.’
‘And keep me up to date.’
‘Will do.’
I ended the call and stared numbly at the screen.
‘That’s not good, is it?’ asked Tommy.
I turned the phone upside down on the sofa. ‘It is decidedly not good.’ I got up and crossed to the window, scouring the sky for the falcon. I’d started to think of her as a talisman – a symbol of endurance and tenacity.
Sadly, she wasn’t about, and my focus shifted inwards, bringing more (fucking) questions: Who took the photo? What do they have to gain by posting it? Did Julian have anything to do with this? Would he really stoop so low?
And the biggie: Why the hell did I say yes to Julian in the first place?
‘Is there anything I can do?’
I dragged my eyes away from the view and turned towards Tommy. He probably didn’t realise he’d been playing leapfrog with Julian, each of them taking turns at the forefront of my mind. With this latest revelation, he’d been knocked to the number-two slot.
‘I don’t think so,’ I replied to his offer.
He stood, shaking out his legs, then jumping up and down.
‘Pins and needles?’ I asked.
‘Yeah.’ He stilled, staring at me. He opened his mouth to speak but stopped himself before anything came out.
‘Just say it.’
‘You’re beautiful, Ally.’
‘No, no, no, not that. We’re not doing that,’ I said, waving my hands in front of me.
‘Way too messy. Particularly now. All I need is a second photo to surface – “Ally Novak also spotted with her first ex-husband!” – and I’m completely fucking fucked.
The social-media hounds will eat me alive for being the biggest hypocrite on the planet! ’
This was not an exaggeration, even though hyperbolising was a favourite pastime of mine.
‘I should go,’ he said.
‘Yes, you should. I imagine Elsa is wondering where you got to,’ I added – couldn’t resist.
He gave me a lipless smile, his expression pained. There was a lot more for us to discuss, but all that could wait. Or I could use the same tactic I’d had since we split up and avoid him entirely. Avoidance was definitely one of my superpowers.
He left without another word, and it was only afterwards that I remembered what he’d said about Elsa. It’s not what you think.
What did I think? I didn’t like her. And more to the point, I didn’t like her for Tommy. But then again, I wouldn’t like anyone for Tommy besides me.
But I was not going to wish for something that would inevitably hurt me.
Besides, one catastrophe at a time.
Before I worried about Tommy or the European tech billionaire, I had to see Julian about this bloody Instagram post. But I couldn’t give the mystery photographer more ammunition, so I went into the bedroom and hunted through everything I’d brought with me, coming up with the perfect disguise.