Chapter 18 #2
People hurried to get their things and line up to disembark.
Thea wished she drove, which would be silly but would give her a way to avoid waiting in line to leave the ferry.
Groups of people stood in circles talking to each other, checking their phones, and taking pictures as the ferry docked and let the cars leave first.
When she finally got off the ferry, it didn’t take long to realize there was a crowd hanging out at her store. As she walked up the sidewalk, she noticed Johnny pointing her out to a guy with a television camera.
“How the heck did they get here before me?” she said out loud as the guys and girl came running toward her.
She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, watching them come closer, not truly believing what was happening.
“Are you Thea Manus?” one of the guys said, pushing a tiny microphone he held between two fingers into her face.
“Excuse me, who are you?”
“We’re from TLQ Sports News, where you can get sports news day and night,” plugged the woman standing in front of the camera. She thrusted a larger microphone out in front of Thea’s mouth. “You’re the sister-in-law of Scott Gagnon, is that right?”
Scott’s name made her stomach turn. “You need to step aside.”
She pushed past the cameraman, but he shifted his camera sitting on his shoulder in front of her like a barrier, blocking her from getting around him, the picket fence, and the parked cars.
“Excuse me,” she said, glaring at the camera guy. “You need to let me through.”
She wasn’t going to play nice with strangers who were there to get a story.
“What’s your relationship with Ryan Mathers?” the woman said. “Are you in love with him? Will you forgive him after reading the letter?”
“Letter?” Thea turned around. “What letter?”
The woman pulled out her phone. “This letter.”
She pulled up a social media site and showed a video of a woman with her daughter holding a letter.
“We saw them when they first got together, days ago,” they said.
It was the mother-daughter duo from the store, when she’d first met Ryan. When he’d bought her surfboards.
“See.” The daughter held up a photo of them with Ryan standing in her store. The date was on the bottom of the screen.
“Did Ainsley Perry know about you two before she broke up with him?” one of the guys shouted at her, completely unnecessarily.
She could feel a hot flash coming on, the heat rolling from her face down her chest to her lower body like a wave crashing over her. She looked up at her store—more people gathered at the door, more strangers who didn’t look like tourists wanting to buy a sweatshirt.
“When exactly did you start seeing each other?” the woman asked. “Did you know he was dating someone else?”
Thea pushed through and kept walking as they fired off more and more personal questions.
“Is Ryan Mathers the reason you ended your ten-year relationship?”
She felt like she might get sick as she hurried up the stairs to her apartment. Even more outlandish claims in the form of questions came from the people outside her shop. She didn’t recognize anyone but felt like they knew everything about her.
“Are you a homewrecker?”
She shut the door behind her, falling to the floor, covering her ears so she wouldn’t hear any more of the questions. How did things get so out of control?
And how was she going to go to a wedding with them following her every move?
She rested her head against the wood, wishing she could somehow escape to the beach. She reached down for her phone and went to social media. She searched up Ryan Mathers, letter, and Isabel Island.
There, on her screen, was a video of a gossip television show covering the events from last night.
It started with a handwritten letter being held by the mother-daughter pair.
“We were just coming to get another sweatshirt when we ran into Ryan, who had dropped this letter,” the mother said into the camera, holding up the handwritten note.
She could see Dear Thea written at the top, but she couldn’t make out the rest of the words as the mother waved the letter in the air.
The video jumped to another woman, who overlayed herself into the video and said, “I don’t know who this Thea woman is, but man, talk about romantic.
I feel for Miss Wisconsin losing her man and all, but some things aren’t meant to be.
Over at She’s Ahhh!mazing, we wish Ryan Mathers good luck.
We sincerely hope you find the woman you’re destined to be with.
“I totally think he should go for the shop owner,” said one of the hosts of the show.
“Nah, she seems like a recluse,” said a guy in a bean bag chair. “I mean, look at her hiding in her apartment.”
The video switched to a scene of her closing her drapes from the street.
“She kind of looks evil,” the guy doubled down. “You can do better, Ryan!”
She closed her screen as the guy looked into the camera.
“I look evil?” she said to Salty, who sauntered over to her spot against the door. She would stay hidden until the last of the camera crew left the island forever.
She thought about unblocking Ryan. Telling him to get the paparazzi to leave. Have them go to his stupid house, not hers.
She heard men shouting her name.
“If you step on one of these stairs, I will call the police for trespassing,” she heard a voice say.
“We’re just here for the story,” another man’s voice said.
“I’m afraid the only story I’ve got for you gentlemen is that I didn’t catch a fish this morning,” said Ryan.
“Is that a metaphor, Ryan?” asked another voice, this time a female.
“Nah, just the truth. I’m not a very good fisherman,” Ryan said back.
She could hear footsteps climbing up the steps to the back door to her apartment.
When she heard the knock, she unlocked the dead bolt but stayed on the floor. She turned the knob and opened the door but hid as she heard the clicking of cameras outside.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” she said back.
He closed the door quickly and got down on the floor next to her, not even asking why she was sitting there.
“How are you doing?” he asked.
She made eye contact with him, keeping his eyes locked with hers.
She wanted to embrace him, hold him against her, go out there in front of all those stupid people and kiss him.
That’s what her heart was saying, but her mind told Thea she needed to stop the cycle.
The drama effect with guys she picked. She had to stop falling for men who brought this kind of drama.
“Not good.” She was more than not good; she was literally falling apart. “I think it’s best if you leave.”
“Talk to me,” he said. “Please.”
“Are you having a baby?” she asked, still not sure if she wanted to know the answer.
He shook his head. “No.”