Page 93 of Sebastian's Baby

“Not a problem, Mr. Fox.” He nods at me.

It isn’t Lita that appears to let me into the apartment building, though. It’s Becky.

“Hey, Becky,” I tell her with a smile.

“Hello,” she says as she holds the door open for me to enter.

Daryl waits until the door to the apartment building is shut behind me before he heads back toward the rental car.

“How is Lita?” I ask as I follow Becky upstairs.

“Upset. I’ve been trying to keep her off the internet,” she says, sounding stressed.

“Yeah, the news articles aren’t particularly kind.” I cringe.

Becky snorts and mutters, “It’s not the news articles I’m worried about.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, frowning at her back.

She doesn’t answer, just uses a key to open the door to what I assume is Lita’s apartment. I walk inside and see Lita sitting on the sofa, staring down at her phone. Her body is tense and from what I can see, she has a frown on her face.

I drop my bag by the door, then stride over to her and sit next to her before pulling her into my arms and hugging her tightly. At once, she begins to cry, and I hate that she’s upset. I hold her while she cries and when she stops, I don’t say anything, just wanting her to feel safe and secure.

I turn my head to rest my right cheek on her head, and as I do, I catch sight of a picture displayed on the phone that’s sitting on her lap. It’s a picture of me and the blonde woman from Friday night. My blood runs cold at the sight of it. I was completely unaware that this picture was taken. I also feel guilty for some reason.

“What the hell is that?” I ask her.

“This, Sebastian?” Lita laughs bitterly. “This is a timeline of all the women you’ve slept with since we met. Isn’t that lovely? I’m fine with our arrangement, but I won’t lie, it’s kind of humiliating to have people worldwide reading about all the women you’ve slept with since me.”

A timeline of every woman I’ve slept with? Lita feels humiliated? My guilt intensifies as well as my horror at what she’s saying.

“I was kind of hoping you wouldn’t see that thread,” Becky sighs, and I realize this must be what she was trying to keep Lita away from.

I pick up the phone and look at it. Sure enough, Lita is correct. It starts with a picture of her with me from the night we met and ends with the blonde from Friday night and a promise to keep the thread updated.

As I scroll through the list, there are dates and times. Pictures of me with every woman I slept with and even some that I didn’t. The brunette from the club, the blonde from the movie premiere, the redhead I picked up at a charity function. But there’s also the black-haired fan who I just had a photo with one night. Even Samantha, Cooper’s receptionist, has made the list because I was in a photo with her at one of the events in Chicago.

I’ve always known that people watched our every move, but I never thought it was like this. Documented for the world to see with dates and times and speculation on things I did. I always found the rumors funny, but this…it’s intense and weird. The only things they’re missing are my visits to Lita here in Seattle and when she came to see me.

“Holy shit,” I breathe out when I reach the bottom of the list again.

“Yeah, you get a lot of action, Sebastian,” Becky says in an icy voice.

I look up at her, and it’s clear that she’s pissed at me.

“I didn’t sleep with all those women,” I say in my defense.

“But I bet you slept with a lot of them,” Becky bites back.

Lita sits up and turns to look at Becky. “Chill, dude. Sebastian can sleep with whomever he wants. You know this, we’ve talked about it on numerous occasions.”

“Yeah, but did you know it wasthatmany?” She looks incredulous.

“Well, no, because Heather was wrong the first time we talked, apparently.” I wonder what Heather told her the first time they talked, but don’t get a chance to ask as Lita continues, “It doesn’t matter, because it doesn’t change what we agreed to. Sebastian has never told me about any of the other women he’s slept with. From the looks of that timeline, he has never slept with another woman when we’ve been in the same city either. That was our agreement.”

Becky breathes heavily for a moment before she glares at me. “You’re disgusting. I hope you know that.”

She’s not wrong. Guilt and shame flood through me, not so much at having slept with the women I slept with, but because I’ve dragged Lita into the spotlight. I could have mitigated some of this damage, but instead I wanted to continue fucking whoever I wanted without giving a thought to how it might affect her.

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