Page 22 of (Un)Expected

“Then I guess I’m in.”

I always believedCalla was the most energetic person I knew, but I was very wrong. She was practically comatose compared to the pacing man in front of me. Theo stood slightly shorter than Adam, his frame much slenderer, but he commanded every single inch of the villa. As he stood in the center of the room in his three-piece designer suit, he looked like the villain out of a Bond movie, and his not-so-sunny reaction to my arrival didn’t do much to sway me in his favor.

When Adam picked me up after my shift, he spent the walk to his room trying to prepare me for Theo, but no amount of prep could have readied me for this meeting. The entire surface of the dining table was covered in papers, different printouts of articles and social media pages covering our impromptu photoshoot. Did I mention the spreadsheets and charts? Oh yeah, because he had those too. Overall, it felt more like an investor’s pitch than a discussion about a man’s personal life.

As Theo waxed on about the colossal mistake Adam made with me (thanks, buddy), he sat there silently, staring out into space. It struck me that Adam had heard this whole speech many times, and my heart cracked a little more. Without thinking, I reached out, taking his hand under the table.

He jumped a little at the contact before squeezing my hand back. He needed my support, whether he’d asked or not. It was odd that Cole wasn’t here, but it shouldn’t have been. Adam said earlier that he tried to keep his friend away from these meetings because he hated them so much. Apparently, Cole tended to tell Theo to shut the fuck up.

At that moment, I didn’t see the problem.

Theo suddenly stopped moving, ending his tirade mid-sentence as he snapped his attention back to Adam. “Have you heard anything else from Ivy?”

He glanced over at me quickly before answering. “She called a couple of times, but I didn’t answer.”

Theo nodded. “Good, good. We don’t need this being spun into her next single.”

Wait.

“Holy shit, Ivy Abrams is your ex?” I said, connecting the dots in their conversation to my past ones with Adam. He nods. “That’s crazy,” I continued. “I love her new song—you know the one. Crap, how does it go?”

He grimaced, “Please don’t."

My eyes practically bugged out of my head as I turned to him. “No! Please tell me that’s not about you.”

“Yup. Most of the songs on her new album are.”

Yikes.I’d only heard a couple on the radio, but those songs cut deep. Calla and I had had car sing-a-longs to a few of them. I remembered wishing I was the one throwing the hurtful words into my ex’s face. They embodied female rage in a way I could never dream.

But the man featured in her lyrics was so different than the Adam I was starting to know. He was gracious and kind, even thoughtful, not the guy a song called “Narcissist” would be penned after.

He ran his hand over his face. “We didn’t date for long, but she thought it was a lot more serious than I did. When I tried to end things, she didn’t take it well. I can’t lie, I didn’t do a great job with the whole break-up, but I also never set out to hurt her. Apparently, she disagrees.”

“And now, she’s making a goddamn fortune painting our golden boy as a jerk who uses women,” Theo said, finally dropping into the chair across from us. “We’ve been working for months to try to repair his image with no luck, but I think we might have caught an unexpected break.”

“What do you mean?” Adam asked.

“We’ve been watching the coverage around your photos. While we still have the usual trolls, most of the press has been positive,especially about Alex. They like the idea of Adam dating someone outside Hollywood.”

“But we’re not dating,” I interrupted. “It was one date, and that was it.”

“Are you sure?”

Adam and I glanced at each other, probably both thinking of the mangled kiss that got us into this mess. He nodded first. “Positive. Just friendship here.”

“Too bad,” Theo tutted, “but not a complete deal breaker.”

Adam started shaking his head before Theo even finished his thought. “No way, man. I told you—neveragain.”

“What happened with Everly isn’t going to happen again. We won’t make that mistake twice.”

“Absolutely not.”

I leaned forward, raising my hand in the air. “Hey, I’m still here. Do either of you want to fill me in on what you’re talking about?”

“No,” Adam said at the same time as Theo nodded his head.

Theo pointed a sharp glare at Adam. “Let’s at least discuss it. You pay me way too much money for this exact reason: I get results. This will help your image. You know it’s true.” He leaned back in his chair. “Let’s at least run it by Alex and see if she would be game.”

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