Chapter 32
The morning after the nutrition contest, everything is in flux. Stone and I walk through the conference center, making sure the new security is good to go, as the crew packs up for the move.
“Looks like they understand the assignment,” Stone says. “Let’s go get our stuff.”
My cell dings, and I pull it out on autopilot.
I read the text and stop dead.
Stone pulls up beside me as I scroll through a series of pictures of me and Yolanda from the beach. In one, though it’s dark and we’re in silhouette, I know what’s happening: I’m kissing Yolanda. It’s not a great angle or shot, but this is the moment before I rolled her in the sand.
Under the picture, it reads, Pay up. Or prepare to pay a higher price.
I look at Stone. His eyes are wide and shocked, like someone just tossed a ball at his head. He stares at the pictures then at me. “What the fuck, East? You didn’t.”
“Not here,” I breathe, as I start forward with my heart pounding. I open a nearby door and find it set up for some kind of small lecture, but currently empty. We enter.
Stone is instantly in my face in a way that only a best friend who’s known you forever can do without it feeling like a threat. “What the fuck? Tell me you didn’t get with Yolanda. Tell me you didn’t fuck up your one chance at keeping your company after forcing me to back off and back down when I wanted to fight.”
Shit. He could tell who was in the photo. I was hoping it was less obvious. “I kissed her.”
He throws his arms out, spins on his heel, and walks away.
I watch him pace for a few minutes, mumbling about how I’m the biggest pain in his ass—no, the biggest pain in the ass of the entire universe, before he stalks back to me.
The struggle for calm on his face is real enough to send a wave of guilt roiling into my stomach. It sucks that I fucked myself over, but what I’ve done to him and Yolanda? I can’t even think about it.
Stone takes several deep breaths before saying, “Okay. Tell me what happened.”
I start, and he stops me with a raised finger. “I’m not fucking around here, East. You tell me every detail. If your tongue traced one of her molars, I want to fucking know about it.”
That’s a lot of cursing from my lawyer, who I rarely hear curse. No, Stone has a tendency to use bigger, fancier words when backed into a corner. Sometimes, I have to do an internet search to understand him.
Though I’m usually not one to kiss and tell, I do.
I tell him about the kiss, the more than kiss, about what we shared about my dad’s suicide. I tell him how we connect. How she gets me in a way I’ve never experienced before. I tell him that she can’t drop out from the show because her cousin wants to sell her half of the resort. I tell him that I told Yolanda about why I can’t drop out.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he says, interrupting what had been one hell of an unburdening. “You told her that you need to stay on the show in order to keep your company?”
“Yeah.” I don’t like the accusation in his tone or the raise of his eyebrows. “So?”
His face is a combination of disbelief and anger. “Think about it, East. Right after you tell her how much you have riding on this show, you get this threatening text.”
That’s a stretch, a big one. “You’re suggesting Yolanda set me up?”
Seeing the fury on my face, he raises his hands. “You have to at least consider the possibility.”
“No, Stone. No. She’s…” Better than that, a good person, caring. “That makes no sense. Those pictures were taken while I was telling her the truth about my company. She wouldn’t have known in advance to have someone on the beach to snap our photos.”
“Unless she planned to blackmail you from the start, and you revealing your self-made situation only solidified her decision. Who suggested the walk on the beach?”
She did. I’m starting to feel a twinge of unease. Cecily was so good at making me believe her.
“Where was her brother when you were on the beach?”
“You think Mateo snapped the pictures?”
“That or the cousin. It was obviously a drone of some kind, judging by the angle. You said Haydée was into fashion. I’m sure she knows a photographer or two.”
“No. Whoever sent this is obviously the person trying to get Yolanda off the show.”
“Unless she set that up, too. She could be playing at the damsel in distress. It sure did get her a lot of attention from you and support online.”
“And a bunch of shit, too.”
My thoughts are buzzing. It’s too complex and so wrong, and yet… Cecily claimed to have been sexually harassed and kept me from talking to anyone at her old company by playing on my sympathies. She got me to give her a job… and a ring.
A twisted, angry cold gnaws my gut. It took me two weeks, with the evidence right in front of me, before I believed Cecily had done it. But Yolanda? “She wants to win fair and square.” Even I can hear the growing doubt in my voice. “We’re waiting until after the show to be together.”
“If I were a super cynic,” Stone says, “I’d say, ‘Who else could’ve known about that walk on the beach?’ I’d say, ‘Who else would’ve had a drone ready to take photos?’ I’d say, ‘She got you in a compromising position, took the photos, then had you agree to wait until after the show to be together, so it wouldn’t go any further.’”
“That’s bullshit.”
A sick, sad expression crosses Stone’s face. He rubs a hand along his jaw. “Look, East, I have to say it. Your judgment when it comes to women has been suspect for most of the time I’ve known you. Remember Wendy from the mall in seventh grade? She had you cover for her while she shoplifted, then blamed you.”
I cringe. I was a dumb and reckless kid in desperate need of attention. That stunt got me attention from a girl—she let me feel her boobs in the dressing room—and my dad, who had to pick me up from mall security. “I’m not the same idiot that made that idiot mistake, or the one with Cecily.”
Stone rolls his eyes. “Yolanda’s on the show for a reason: money. So why would she want to take a chance on a maybe payday when she can try for a surer thing—a blackmail payday? And you walked into it because it’s in your nature to help.”
I feel heat creep up my neck. Damn it, is Stone right? Could I have done it again? Could I have let emotion and my need to protect someone I care about cloud my judgment?
Maybe.