Page 106 of Keeper
Tanner”
I must’ve read his note five times before I finally stashed it away in my backpack for safekeeping. Something told me I’d want to keep it forever—somehow, I knew I’d want to look back on it someday, when I wanted to fondly remember all the ‘magical little details’ of our story, as Emma put it.
Before I dove into breakfast, I snapped a picture of the lovely arrangement and sent it in a text to Tanner:
“SO DECADANT. How did you know blueberry pancakes are my fav?! Everything looks amazing. Thank you so much!!!”
A few bites into my delicious breakfast later, my phone buzzed with his reply:
“Awesome. I didn’t know—it was just a good guess. I’m going dark in a few, but I’ll call you after the game, okay? If you want anything while you’re at the hotel, just charge it to the room. Have a great day babe.”
“Can’t wait to see you! Good luck tonight, goalie!!! You’re the best.”
“Don’t need luck, I’ve got you.”
Aw,I thought. He really was the sweetest boy I’d ever met.
***
After a breakfast that nourished my heart and soul, I had the courage to pick up my phone and do the thing I’d been mildly dreading: call Tanner’s lawyer to talk about my pictures. He answered and right off the bat, he impressed me—he’d been expecting my call ever since he’d talked to Tanner that morning, and he said he already had a plan of attack and wanted to get the ball rolling. Wanting to get me into his office as soon as possible, we made an appointment to meet in an hour.
I went in, expecting to be ashamed and embarrassed,but Tanner’s lawyer wasincredible.I couldn’t believe how easy he made the whole process seem. He was sensitive about what I’d been through, but also managed to talk about my incident in a professional, no-nonsense kind of way, which really helped me open up about it without holding back details out of shame. As a result, I was comfortable telling him everything I could.
In the course of our meeting, he got the information he needed to file DMCA takedown requests to any website that posted my photos. He promised to aggressively go after any site or any person who uploaded my pictures and keep me updated. He even said he was hiring a digital forensic investigator to try to track down where my pictures first leaked. If he was able to find the original source, we might be able to pursue charges if we really wanted to.
I shouldn’t have been surprised—ofcourseTanner would get the best lawyer money could buy—but this guy wason it.Mere hours after walking out of his office, he emailed me the first update: a list of the websites that had already complied with our demands to remove my pictures.
Things were starting to look up. Wayup.
I headed back to the hotel and enjoyed some downtime until it was time to go meet up with the girls.
37
Tanner
I navigated the tight twists and turns of the VIP parking garage. I parked and hopped out, entering the arena through the players’ entrance. On my way to the locker room, I pulled my phone out of my pocket—it was time to turn it off and go dark.
But as I glanced at my phone, I noticed I’d just gotten a text from my agent.
“TV33, what exactly went down during that photo shoot yesterday? Give me a call ASAP.”
Instead of leaving Pete hanging until after the game, I called him back. He answered on the first ring. “Hello?”
“What’s up, Pete,” I said, nodding at the arena workers I walked past.
“Tanner, my man, you’ve got to help me out here. I just got off the phone with a very beautiful, butverypissed off, Instagram model. You wanna tell me what happened yesterday?”
I prefaced the story with a warning. “That chick you hooked me up with is a fuckin’ mess, Pete.” As I made my way to the locker room, I filled Pete in on the rest of the details: I met a girl at the club, I liked her, and that same girl turned out to be Marta’s friend and photographer. Marta found out, caught us making out in my car during the photo shoot and flipped her shit. Now she’s all jealous and pissed off at her friend, and she’s angrily demanding the photos from both Ainsley and me, but neither of us want to give them to her.
He let out a sigh. “Hoo, boy. What a clusterfuck.”
“Not really,” I said. “It’s pretty straight forward if you ask me. She doesn’t own the photos and I don’t want them posted anyway. That shoot was ajoke,Pete. She was all over me, trying to kiss me, grabbing at my crotch. That’s really not the kind of thing I want out there in the first place.”
Pete sighed. “Can’t you just send her the photos and make her happy?”
“Why would I do that?”
“Well,” he stammered. “Because. No reason. It’s just … uh …”
