Page 75 of One Last Verse

You’re out, it read.

Frazzled, I clicked the link he included.

There they were, the photos of me and Frank from the Ventura gas station. No faces. But then there were other photos of him with Isabella, screenshots from her Instagram with me in the background.

Ready for the worst, I drew a deep breath through my teeth and looked at the headline.

“The rumors are true: Frankie Blade is dating”

“Secret relationship isn’t that secret anymore: Former Hall Affinity singer Frankie Blade is seeing music reporter Cassy Evans”

The time stamp indicated the post had gone live thirty minutes ago.

I dialed Levi.

“Is that what it takes to make you return my calls?”

“Sorry, I was on the phone with Linda and I just…needed some alone time.”

“We don’t have the luxury of alone time, Cass. Margerie Helm just emailed me back. She wants to meet.”

“Really?” My heart sputtered in my chest. “You’re not kidding me?” The woman had been so hard to pin down, I was about to scratch Melrose Cinema from our venue list.

“No. I’m not. Something tells me you would hate me forever.” He paused. “You wanna let me in on what happened to Frank yesterday?”

“You know I can’t.”

“I assume he’s off the project for good?”

“Yeah. I wouldn’t count on him. Let’s move forward with the editing. I’m not sure he’s up for anything at the moment.”

“Is there something you’re not telling me, Cass?”

“Let’s not talk about him, huh?”

“Okay, okay,” Levi agreed. “I’m just going to pretend your face isn’t all over TMZ next to the face of the man who fucked us over.”

I moved my gaze down the screen of my computer. “Hey, at least they got my name right. Already better than Starbucks.”

“You should see the numbers. Your interview has been getting tons of hits.”

Sometimes Levi’s obsession with numbers infuriated me. My soul was torn apart and all he cared about was the magazine’s traffic.

“A lot of trolls?” I asked, pulling upRewired’s front page to search for my interview with Frank.

“I suggest you don’t look.”

I scrolled to the bottom of the post and skimmed through the latest comments while Levi continued to talk.

I wonder if she sucked him before or after.

She should find another job…

I bet she got that interview because she gives good head.

Dante probably watched, bwahaha.

My stomach knotted. I minimized the window and began to pace my room. This was expected, yet the online remarks hurt.

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