Page 83 of Make The Cut

I stand in front of Poppy. “She didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Except choose ourGrammysperformance to reveal that the two of you are, what, secretly hooking up?”

“It’s not a hook-up.” My pulse throbs in my skull, stinging in the heat of the bruise I’m undoubtedly going to have on my jaw. I tear off my wired microphone. “I love her.”

“You two… How long have you even known each other? How long has this been going on?”

Poppy interrupts. “This isn’t the time—“

“You should have thought of that before you walked out here and kissed him!” Ryder shouts. He grabs me by the shoulder, but this time I’m ready, and I dodge his fists, responding with a knee of my own to his nose. He winces, but doesn’t let go.

On stage, the music has stopped and the security guards are running up to separate us. Poppy has tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“God. I can’t believe I trusted either of you,” Ryder snaps.

“Mr. Black, Mr. Sugawa, please follow us,” a beefy security guard says, a wire disappearing behind his bald head into the collar of his shirt. “Or we’ll have to escort both of you off the premises.”

“Wait,” Poppy says. “Where are you taking them?”

The security guard jerks his head toward a side exit. Poppy follows us out, her expression contrite, horrified, like she’s in a daze and can’t believe what she’s done.

I want to reach for her hand, to tell her that everything will be okay and that she didn’t do anything wrong.

But the security guards are holding both of us so tightly that I might lose circulation in my wrists.

Ryder tries to rub a trickle of blood off of his face. Poppy awkwardly clears her throat.

“I’m really sorry,” she whispers.

My head pounds from the force of Ryder’s fist to my face and it hurts to smile. But I do it anyway.

Because the girl who wanted to keep us a secret may have outed our relationship in the worst way possible. But at least she wasn’t afraid to show the world—and her brother—that we’re together.

“How long has this been happening?” Ryder hisses as one of the security guards opens the door and leads us through it, Poppy trailing behind. I wonder what’s happening onstage.

“What’s ‘this’? You’ll have to be a little more specific than that. If you mean my ability to beat you up, I’d say forever. If you mean—“

“You. Kissing my sister and doing God knows what else with her. Weren’t you just dating some supermodel?”

“Rose and I were together years ago. I can’t help it if the tabloids made it seem like we were together now, but that’s not the case.”

“Oh, great, so you were sneaking around with my sister behind your fake girlfriend’s back. That’s just how I want my little sister to be treated.”

“Don’t act like you care about her when you guys hadn’t even spoken for months when Poppy started working for me.”

“Guys—“ Poppy gets past the security guards and puts a hand on my shoulder. “Can you do this later?”

“Please,” one of the security guards mumbles, sarcasm dripping from his tone. “You gonna call a cab for them, miss?”

“Sure,” she says, punching something into her phone. “Taxi’s on its way.”

The security guards nod, and we all stand there for a few minutes until the car arrives. It’s only when the security guards have shoved me into the backseat and Ryder into the passenger seat that I ask…

“Where are we going?”

“Your house.” Poppy shrugs. “It’s the closest to here and you both look like you could use an ice pack. And maybe a dip in the pool to cool down.”

Ryder groans, tugging at the door handle. “No, thanks. I’ll walk to my apartment and get mugged if I have to.”

---