Page 16 of Obsession on Repeat
"No," I snapped, turning on him. "You’ll handle it. You’ve got a team for this. You’ll smile on late-night TV and joke about your ‘mysterious beach fling’ while I’m left to burn."
His jaw tightened. "That’s not fair."
"Isn’t it? Because that’s how this works, right? You get to move on while I get to be dissected, called desperate or a mistake."
"You think I’d let that happen?"
"I think you don’t get it! I’ve spent my whole life staying under the radar. I’m not built for cameras in my face or strangers digging through my past."
"I didn’t ask for this either," he fired back. "I didn’t plan for some photographer to catch us on the beach, but I’m here. I’m trying, and all you do is push."
"I push because people leave!"
He stared at me, something in his expression breaking. "Maybe you push so they have to."
I looked away, jaw tight, chest heaving.
With a sigh, he grabbed his keys off the counter.
"Sullivan—" I started, but he didn’t look back.
"Call me when you figure out if you actually want someone to stay."
The door slammed behind him. The silence left in his place was deafening.
6
TWODAYSLATER
My phone was vibrating before I opened my eyes. I groaned, dragging it out from under the pillow, half-blind as the screen lit up with a flood of notifications—texts, missed calls, social mentions. My heart dropped at the text message from Alice.
You need to check the news. Now.
I opened the browser with shaky fingers, already knowing it wouldn’t be good.
There was a photo of me leaving Venom the night before, face partially obscured by my hoodie, eyes down. Below it was a worse photo from the beach. His hand on my shoulder. My face tilted toward his.
Once something private. Intimate. Now, public property.
Sullivan Masters’ Secret Fling: Mystery DJ Exposed.
A quote followed, pulled from ‘an anonymous source close to the situation’:"She’s a girl he met in Sydney. It wasn’t serious. He’s headed back to LA."
I hadn’t spoken to anyone. He hadn’t called.
I barely finished reading the article before I was throwing on yesterday’s jeans and pulling my hoodie over my head. I grabbed my keys, calling Alice, as I exited my apartment.
"Rory?"
"Do you know who leaked it? Was it someone at the club?"
Silence.
"Alice?"
"One of the bouncers told me the paps got an anonymous tip. Said they were ‘invited’ to scope out Venom." She hesitated. "Do you think it was Sullivan? That he did it for publicity?"
I swallowed hard at the thought of such betrayal. My throat burned.
