Page 98 of No One But Us

“I figured you knew,” Iwhisper.

“People who knew him far better than I are shocked. How could I haveknown?”

“I also didn’t really think you’d care,” I admit, and my voice begins tobreak.

He pauses. “No matter what else is going on in my life,” he finally says, “you’re still my daughter, and I loveyou.”

As it turns out, the network has given him his job back. This, more than anything else, probably explains his sudden change of attitude and the fact that he’s finally invited me to his wedding. He’s already sold the wedding photos to a tabloid, so I have a feeling this is going to be a part of his image-rehabilitation campaign, which I really want nothing to dowith.

Then again, by November, an all-expenses-paid trip to Grand Cayman with my boyfriend might be prettyappealing.

It feels as if the world is finally beginning to shift the right way, that all the pieces are falling into place. Things looked so grim at the start of the summer—and they were grim—but I’d forgotten this: it only takes one bright thing to light up the darkness. And that thing, for me, was James. He more than makes up for anything I’velost.

Chapter 59

ELLE

“You’re going to chicken out,”James tells Ginny, saying what all of us think but aren’t brave enough to speakaloud.

She snorts. “You know a lot less than you think you do. I’m going upstairs to call him rightnow.”

Ginny decided to break up with Alex weeks ago, after she cheated on him the second time, but insisted she couldn’t do it until he was back in theUS.

“You just can’t do that to someone,” she said, as if he was a soldier deployed to Afghanistan instead of a Princeton sophomore hanging out in Barcelona on his parents’ dime. I think we all assumed it was Step One of a strategy tentatively titled “Don’t Ever Break Up withAlex.”

We wait, expecting her to come downstairs sheepish and excuse-laden. Instead she comes downenraged.

“He’s an asshole,” shehisses.

“What’s the matter?” Iask.

“He cheated on me!” she shouts. “He cheated on me with some bitch fromStanford!”

“Uh, Ginny, you cheated on him too,” I remindher.

“Yeah, but hesleptwith her!” she shouts. “That’s different! And I asked him if he would have told me if I hadn’t broken up with him, and he said, ‘Probably not.’ He could have given me adisease!”

“Uh, Ginny, you slept with someone else, too,” I say, trying not tolaugh.

Max steps forward with an odd, pinched look to his face. “You slept with someone?” he asksquietly.

She puts her hands on her hips, suddenly defensive. “So?”

“I can’t believe you’d do something like that,” hesays.

For a moment I assume he must be joking. But his voice isn’t teasing. It’s rife with disappointment, like she cheated onhim.

She rounds on him. “Seriously? You, the biggest whore in the tri-state area, are acting disappointed inme?”

“I thought you had more self-control than that,” he sayscoolly.

“You spent the whole summer buying me sex toys and talking about how I needed to ‘bloom’ sexually!” she protests. “So what’s with theattitude?”

“It was a joke! I didn’t think you were actually going to do it!” heseethes.

She laughs. “How unbelievably sexist. Why would you hold me to a different standard than you holdyourself?”

“Because Ithoughtyou were a better person than that!” he shouts. “Ithoughtyou were a better person thanme.”

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