Chapter 12
Avery
My eyes blinked rapidly as I stared at the post. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
After over three years, Ali had logged into his personal Facebook page and posted.
He didn’t just post. He posted a picture of us from last night and tagged me with the caption, MINE.
I hadn’t even bothered to look and see why I had so many notifications until Jessica called and texted me.
When she first called, I ignored it. Then, she texted me and said she was wrong, and that’s the only reason I called to see what the hell she was talking about.
She told me what he’d posted, and I didn’t believe her, so I went to look for myself .
. . and there it was. He hadn’t just posted, but he’d posted me, him, us.
And speaking of the man of her dreams, mine had already let me know he was showering and to let myself in.
Apparently, he spent all night writing after our date was over, which I loved.
I was about to be a little bummed about not ending the night in his arms, but I didn’t care too much about waiting if it meant he was going to be able to write.
As usual, Gremlin jumped all over me and followed me into the kitchen.
I put the coffees down and gave him some love before washing my hands and pulling out what I needed to make us breakfast. Before I did, I decided to shoot Laya a quick email.
If she was watching his socials, there was no doubt in my mind she’d see that picture and swear I was here on personal time instead of trying to do my job.
Ali’s laptop was on the kitchen island, so I opened it to see if it was password protected.
To my surprise, it wasn’t. I guess that made sense since he never really let anyone into his home.
His manuscript was pulled up, and as much as I wanted to sneak a peek, I didn’t.
Instead, I logged into my Gmail account to email Laya.
Hey Laya,
I’ll call you later in the day, but it’s still super early, and I’m sure you have quite a bit of work to do. Ali and I are dating. We don’t have an official title yet, but we’ve gotten close, and I think it’s time for me to officially pull myself off this project.
He’s unyielding when it comes to the interview, and I don’t think I’m going to be able to get him to change his mind.
I’d prefer to focus on our personal relationship going forward.
Please give me until the end of today to get checked out of the hotel, and I’ll cover the rest of my expenses going forward.
If you want me to come back to Memphis at the start of next week for a new project, just let me know.
If you want to fire me, I understand that too. This probably looks pretty bad. Breach of ethics and all that jazz. Me here on the company dime developing a relationship with him.
Even if he did give me an interview, people would probably question the validity of it when they found out we were dating.
Oh God. The more I type, the worse I feel.
I hope you know I didn’t come to Jasper Lane under false pretenses, and I really had every intention of getting the interview done.
One thing led to another, and our previous feelings for each other resurfaced.
Thanks for your understanding,
Avery
Just as I minimized Gmail, I heard Ali’s voice.
“You’re reading my shit?”
I jumped and turned to face him, clutching my chest. “What? No. I was just—”
“Don’t lie to me, Avery.” He moved me to the side gently and pointed toward the Microsoft document. “Did you read it? Did you send it to yourself? To your editor?”
Scoffing, my mouth hung open, but I was speechless. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Yes, I knew he’d been betrayed before, but I couldn’t believe he thought I was capable of doing anything like that.
“Avery!” he almost yelled.
“It’s not what it looks like. The document was already open.”
“And that makes it okay for you to read it without my permission? I told you I didn’t want anyone reading the book until it was published.”
“I didn’t read it, Ali. I was sending an email.”
“To who? Of my book?”
“No!” I yelled, feeling my irritation grow.
More than anything, I was offended that he’d even think I could do that.
As hard as I was trying to be calm and understanding and explain the situation, a part of me wanted to just leave.
I was hurt that we were even having this conversation. “How could you accuse me of that?”
“I told you what Tiffany did, and I trusted you anyway.” A quick bark of laughter escaped him as he took a step back.
“I should have known I couldn’t trust you.
I should have known all you wanted was the interview.
You literally said you didn’t want anything personal.
Why did I think you’d changed your mind? You’re just like everybody else.”
Ouch.
That physically hurt.
No longer caring if he allowed me to explain the situation or not, I smiled and bobbed my head.
Licking the corner of my mouth, I lifted my hands in surrender.
“Goodbye, Ali.”
I felt his eyes on me as I walked away, but he didn’t follow after me, and for some reason, that made me feel worse.
By the time I made it to my car, the tears had started to fall. My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I groaned as I pulled it out. At the sight of Laya’s name, I wiped my face and rested my head on the steering wheel. Sure this day couldn’t get any worse, I answered the call with, “Hey, Laya.”
“Avery? How soon can you get back to Memphis? We really need to talk.”