Page 106 of Slumming It
I wasn't quite sure what she meant – him supposedly leaving her for me? Or something else? To keep it simple, I replied, "No, what?"
"He ditched her on the side of the road." Vivian's eyes were as troubled as I'd ever seen. "I just don't want to see that happening to you."
I tried to laugh. "Uh, yeah. Me neither."
Well, not again, anyway.
Chapter 39
Reese
When I answered my cell, Slade got right to the point. "So who's the trailer chick?"
The lack of a hello didn't surprise me, but the trailer bit made no sense. "What trailer chick?"
"The one you're fucking."
The only person I'd "fucked" was Emily, and for some reason, I wasn't liking the way that sounded. "If I fucked a trailer chick, I think I'd remember."
Slade made a sound that might've been a sigh. "You really don't look at the news, do you?"
"Not if I can help it." It was true that I followed news about business, but even this was provided by a service that sent me daily updates in a nice, concise list. And as far as celebrity gossip, I'd seen more than enough already thanks to that scene with Cassandra.
On the phone, Slade said, "Hang on. I'm gonna text you a link."
True to his word, the link arrived a moment later. The link's preview included a picture of me and Emily getting hot and heavy on the dance floor.
My fingers flexed around the phone, not at the image, but at the way she was described in the link's headline. More to myself than to Slade, I said, "Trailer waitress?"
"That's just one of the stories," he said. "She's also been called trailer trash, pancake pussy, and other names you're not gonna like."
Fuck.
I didn't like any of those.
I'd warned Emily this would happen. At the time, I hadn't much cared. If anything, I'd thought it would be funny, adding a good laugh or two to the payback I'd had in mind.
But now I wasn't laughing.
Slade's voice interrupted my thoughts. "So, who is she?"
"Nobody."
"Bullshit."
Yeah. It was.But Slade didn't need to know that. At this point, I wasn't even sure whatIknew – except that nothing was going the way I'd planned.
When I didn't respond, he hit me with an accusation. "You were smiling."
I was still thinking of Emily.Had she seen the news? If so, how was she taking it?Absently, I replied, "Smiling when?"
"In the pictures."
I didn't see the point. "Yeah, so?"
"So you never smile."
"That's not true," I said. "You've seen me smile."
