Page 121 of Yellow
CHAPTER 18
Back in LA
Six weeks later
Chloe
“I don’t want to,” I said for the third time.
“Cleo, sweetie, you can’t hide in your house forever.” Jane, who had entered my house ten minutes ago, wasn’t going to give up. “I talked to Liam’s agent and he’s willing to take you out on a date, and we already tipped off the media.”
“I’m really not in the mood.”
“Look, it’s Valentine’s Day and you need this.”
“Why?… I’ve gotten tons of exposure over the last few months.”
“True, but consider this damage control.”
I sighed. “I’ve met Liam and he’s not very interesting.”
“What do you mean? He’s very successful.”
“Yeah, but he’s kind of boring. You know, a bit dusty and socially awkward.”
“So, he’s shy. Lots of actors are shy.” Jane came to sit down in front of me and placed magazines on the table. “I brought these to remind you why you’re doing this.”
I only glanced at them before I turned my head away, my pulse starting to race faster.
“I know you don’t like to see them but you’re not an ostrich, and sticking your head in the sand won’t make your problems disappear.” Jane began reading aloud the headlines.
“Cleo’s Spinning Out of Control.
“Promiscuous and Slutty.
“Cleo in Shocking Threesome on New Year’s Eve.
“Cleo’s Wild Night in the Woods.” Jane cleared her throat. “Do you want me to continue?”
I rubbed my face and pulled the thin throw-over high up to cover me more. “It’s all lies.”
“People buy it anyway, and it doesn’t help that there are pictures on these covers.”
Angry, I picked up one of the covers and looked at a photo of me in the middle of Andrew and Derek. “It’s an innocent selfie of three drunken people at a party. I did not kiss them or have sex with them. Those are just mean rumors, and both guys said so themselves.”
“True, but who’s going to believe them when the next day another guy writes a blog about his spending a night with you and Adam alone in a cabin,” Jane argued and pointed to the picture of me and Nigel, taken only minutes after we had cleared the road from the fallen tree. “And why would you letanyonetake a picture of you without make-up to begin with? Have I taught you nothing?”
“I hate that picture too,” I grumped. “But did you even read his blog? Nigel never said he had sex with me, he just said that he slept in the cabin and that there was only one bed.”
“Which hints at you three sharing a bed,” Jane concluded and rolled her eyes as if to say “Duh.”
I raised my voice. “We didn’t. He just made it sound more interesting than it really was.”
“Nevertheless, the gossip magazines took what they wanted from that blog and he didn’t deny it, did he?”
“People can think what they want, but I didn’t sleep with Nigel, Andrew, or Derek. I only slept with Adam.”
“It doesn’t matter. To the public you’ve gone berserk and Disney already pulled back their offer for the Joanna part.”
