Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
TALLY
Pounding on the bedroom door jarred me from a pleasant dream about all the things Alec liked to do with his tongue.
I sat up and brushed my hair off my face. “What’s going on?”
Beside me, Alec already had his legs off the side of the bed. He bent, snatched up a shirt and tossed it to me. “Put that on.”
I slipped the shirt over my head, self-conscious because I was well-endowed, so the fact I wasn’t wearing a bra was exceedingly obvious. I crossed my arms and hoped that whoever was bashing the door down had come to the wrong room.
I glanced at the clock. It was only 7:30 a.m. Check out wasn’t for another couple of hours. There was no reason for anyone to be hassling us.
Alec pulled on a pair of shorts and went to the door. “What?” he growled as he opened it.
Three people spilled into the room. First was Coral, her face a mess of tears and snot, a tablet clutched in her hands. Second was Mom, her expression uncharacteristically somber. In the rear, Dad entered wearing the same glower I imagined he used to make the opposition tremble in court.
Coral pushed past Alec, stumbling over one of our suitcases, and dropped onto the edge of the bed. She thrust the tablet at me. “You need to see this.”
Startled, and more than a little confused, I took the tablet from her and studied the screen.
Immediately, I jolted awake. Taking up the upper two thirds of the screen was a photograph of me wrapped in Alec’s arms on the beach.
We were wearing our outfits from the wedding ceremony yesterday and, if I looked carefully at the blurred out backgrounds, I thought I could make out the silhouettes of other wedding guests.
My gaze dropped to the headline beneath the photograph.
Alec Wright’s Sham Relationship.
I blinked, praying to whatever god might be listening that I’d read it wrong, but the words didn’t change.
“Oh, God,” I whimpered.
Alec reached for the tablet and took it from me.
Everyone knew the truth. Or, if they didn’t, they soon would.
What had we done?
Alec swore.
I needed to know exactly what the article said. I plucked the tablet from Alec’s grasp and scrolled down the page. My horror grew as I read more. Somehow, they knew everything—or at least, enough to humiliate us completely.
Although…contrary to how it looked at first glance, the writer hadn’t been totally negative where Alec was concerned. She emphasized how swoony it was for the famous NHL wing to step up and help his best friend in her time of need, even if his actions were misguided.
Somehow, the article managed to present him as a white knight while making me out to be completely pathetic. A woman who couldn’t keep her boyfriend happy.
She identified me as the owner of Coco Luxe and went on to scathingly question what kind of self-respecting businesswoman would stoop low enough to bat her eyelashes at a man and ask him to solve her problems.
She called my professional reputation into question.
It was awful.
“How did this happen?” I asked numbly.
“I’m sorry!” Coral buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking. “I didn’t realize he’d actually do it.”
Alec scowled. “Who?”
His tone made it clear that he knew exactly who was responsible for this.
“Thad.” She dropped her hands and grabbed mine, knocking the tablet onto the bed. “He told me that he overheard you guys talking at the bakery. He seemed so angry, and I don’t understand why, but honestly, I wasn’t really listening because I was just so sick of his bullshit.”
I pulled my hands away and closed my eyes. “He probably hoped that telling you what he’d overheard would make us look bad, so you’d take him back, thinking him a victim in some way. It’s twisted, but it’s the sort of logic he’d believe in.”
She snorted wetly. “Yeah, instead it only made me feel even worse. I mean, the fact that you’d feel the need to do whatever it was that you did because you were so scared about seeing us. That’s really crappy.”
“So, did he do this out of spite?” Mom asked, obviously trying her best to follow the conversation even though she’d gotten lost a few turns back.
Coral grimaced. “Maybe partly, but he lost his job too, so he probably thought he could cash in on it, since Alec is kinda famous and all.”
My mouth fell open. “He lost his job? When?”
Her forehead creased. “Maybe six weeks ago.”
Before we’d broken up. Perhaps that was why he’d seemed so unsatisfied and desperate for me to spend more time with him. Maybe, in a way, it was even why he’d cheated. It would have been a balm for his ego to be able to have two women at once.
“I don’t give a fucking shit if his whole family died,” Alec growled, stalking the length of the room. “It doesn’t give him the right to do this. Especially since he didn’t even get the facts right.”
I watched his feet as he stomped across the floor.
I got the feeling that any omission from Thad had likely been out of pettiness rather than simply being wrong.
If he’d overheard our conversation at the bakery then he had to have known that we’re together for real now.
He left that part out when he’d spoken to the reporter because it would have made me look less pathetic.
He was aiming for maximum humiliation, and potentially threatening the reputation of the business I’d worked so hard to build—the one he’d resented for getting between us.
Oh, God, would this mean fewer customers for Coco Luxe?
Did my customers actually read this trash? And if so, how should I even start doing damage control?
I didn’t have a plan for this. I’d never thought I’d need to. I wasn’t famous. Just a woman who loved making chocolates.
“I never want to see that man again,” I said.
“You won’t,” Coral rushed to assure me. “At least, not because of me. I’ve already blocked him on everything. I hope you have too.”
“Actually, no.” My voice was small. “He never tried to contact me, so it didn’t occur to me.”
Alec cleared his throat. “Uh, about that. I might have blocked his number on your phone while you were asleep the night after the breakup. Coral’s too.”
“Oh.” And here I’d just thought he hadn’t cared enough to reach out.
Honestly, I was grateful I hadn’t had to deal with that, so I supposed Alec had done me a favor.
Actually, he’d done me several, and all I’d brought into his life was drama.
If this could damage my business, I hated to think what it might mean for him.
“I’m so sorry for dragging you into my mess. ”
He cocked his head. “You’re not mad?”
I shrugged. I was too busy feeling defeated. I didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to be angry too.
“Also, you have nothing to apologize for.” He ushered Coral out of the way and sat beside me. “This was my idea. It’s my fault it’s happened. I’m the one who’s sorry.”
A sigh escaped me. “You were trying to help.”
Dad circled around in front of us and knelt so he could look me in the eyes. “Whatever is going on, we’re here for you. Do you want me to sue the guy for slander? I could keep him tied up in courtrooms for the next year.”
A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. “No, but thank you for offering.”
“If you change your mind, I’ll be here. In the meantime, what do you need from us?”
“I don’t know…” Everything had happened so quickly. Only a few minutes ago, I’d been sleeping peacefully, and now my life had been turned upside down.
Did all the wedding guests know? What about the hotel staff? Were they gossiping even now?
“Do you think you could find out whether everyone is talking about it?” I asked quietly.
His face softened. “Sure thing.”
He and Mom turned to leave.
Alec wrapped his arms around me. “You’ll be okay. We’ll get through this. We know we’re really together, and soon enough, everyone else will realize it too.”
Mom scoffed. “Of course you are. No one who sees you together could ever think it’s fake.”
Dad tugged her arm and they stepped outside and closed the door softly behind them.
I dragged in a deep breath and let it out in one go. “Thank you, Coral. I appreciate you letting us all know about this, so I wasn’t ambushed.”
Coral frowned. “It’s literally the least I could do after all the pain I caused you.”
I nodded. I didn’t have the energy to discuss the matter further, and I wasn’t really sure I wanted to either. “Could Alec and I have a little time alone?”
“Sure.” She scuttled to the door and hesitated before waving awkwardly and letting herself out.
I felt Alec’s gaze on the side of my face and turned.
“You’re really not angry with me?” he asked. “This is my fault. It was my idea to pretend to be together. You said no, but I talked you into it. Then there’s the fact that no one would have even cared about the truth if I wasn’t semi-famous just because I chase a puck down the ice for a living.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” My nerves were scraped too raw for me to mince words.
“I agreed to the plan, and you can’t help the fact that some people find you interesting.
You didn’t ask for that. I’m not angry at you.
I’m just…upset, and scared about what might happen now.
This article makes me look really bad. Will my business suffer? ”
He nuzzled the side of my head. “We’ll make sure it doesn’t. Somehow. I promise. I’ll stand by your side for every second and we’ll get through this. Coco Luxe will too. I’m so sorry, Tally. I never meant for this to happen.”
“You’ve said that already.” I sighed. “I’ll survive.” I wasn’t about to say that it was okay, because it wasn’t. It sucked. This whole fake relationship had started out because I wanted to keep my dignity intact, and now it was not only cracked but completely shattered, along with my reputation.
On the nightstand, Alec’s phone rang. He ignored it, holding me close and murmuring nonsense in my ear.
It rang again.
“You’d better get that.”
He looked over. “It’s my agent. He can wait.”
“Maybe he’ll have some ideas about how to make the most of this.” Not that it necessarily painted Alec in a bad light, but I couldn’t imagine his agent was pleased that he’d gotten himself embroiled in a scandal like this.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Yeah. Answer it.”
He released me for long enough to grab the phone and then held onto it with one hand while he kept me close with the other. I shut my eyes and tried not to think about what might be going on outside or what the world thought of me.
I was tempted to open my social media—or perhaps Coco Luxe’s—to see if it had been flooded by unpleasant comments and messages but decided I couldn’t handle that.
Instead, I grabbed my phone and sent Keysha a message to warn her about what had happened, so she’d be prepared for whatever she might face at the shop, then I laid back and listened to Alec and his agent talk damage control strategies.
Guilt churned in my gut. I knew it was hypocritical of me to feel guilty considering he felt guilty too and I’d assured him he had no reason to. The fact remained that if not for me, neither of us would be in this mess. If I hadn’t dated such a terrible guy, none of this would have happened.
Although that would mean that Alec and I wouldn’t have gotten together either, and I could never wish that undone, so I supposed we just had to deal with the consequences.
There was a knock at the door. I pulled away from Alec and went to open it. Mom and Dad stood on the other side. Mom glanced past me, noticing that Alec was on the phone.
“We didn’t hear anyone discussing it yet,” she said quietly. “If you leave here soon, you might be able to get home before too many people read the article.”
A little of the tightness in my chest eased.
“Thanks.” I held the door wide, so they could enter. “I’m going to pack.”
Behind me, Alec ended his call.
“I’m going to find that good-for-nothing asshole,” he growled, stomping past Dad and out the door. I doubted he’d find Thad. My ex was probably on his way back to the mainland by now, or perhaps he’d even flown out last night.
Mom helped me pack while Dad hovered awkwardly near the door. When Alec came back, he’d deflated a little and muttered something about not having been able to track Thad down. It was probably for the best. I didn’t want him to do anything that might get him into trouble.
“I don’t care about Thad.” I rested my head on his chest and closed my eyes, emotionally exhausted even though the day had only just begun. “Can we just go home?”