Page 19 of Rise

One of the students must have taken it. Megan had stopped him from messing up her no-camera rules only for him to blow it by touching her in front of a crowd of phone-wielding kids.

He had to call her. He hadn’t wanted this.Shehadn’t wanted this.

He clicked onto another link, putting a hand over one eye as though that would help block it out. The photos of him with the girls in the gymnasium had all been posted. They were normal pictures—electronic squeals of joy at meeting a real-life movie star.

“I told you to stay in your hotel room!” Yasmin said.

“I couldn’t. I told you this fundraiser was coming up. Megan was just helping me—”

“Megan? Megan who? You know better than this, Alessandro.”

As soon as he told her Megan who, he would change Megan’s life no matter his best efforts. He’d known since his coffee shop days that Megan Fielding’s brother was the Kane Fielding made famous for dating several A-list actresses while Alessandro was still in Italy. She’d filled in the rest of the story this morning, and it made him glad he’d never asked.

“Can I… not tell you that right now?” he asked. Useless question.

“If you don’t tell me, someone else is going to find out and tell the press, and you won’t be able to control the narrative,” she said as though teaching kindergarten. “You know that.”

He sighed, and in the brief silence while he readied himself to tell her, she added, “Well, you look fucking amazing. Both of you.”

“That’s not the point.”

“It’s always the point, Mr. Sexiest Man Alive. Don’t be naïve.”

“I don’t want to bring her into this. Her family has bad history with publicity.”

“Well, now you really have to tell me who she is.”

He imagined Yasmin at her desk, despite it being midnight in LA, pushing her glasses back up her nose.

“Her name is Megan Fielding,” he said, as though at the top of a roller-coaster dip. “She is Kane Fielding’s sister.”

He heard tapping on keys. Looking up Kane’s name, he assumed. Then “Oh.”

Alessandro didn’t like that knowingoh. “So can you understand why I do not want her name to get out there?”

She was silent for a moment. probably scrolling through pages. Or Megan’s Instagram account. The photos of her sister’s wedding—yes, he’d looked at them, too—were right there for everyone to see, showing her handsome brother and her equally stunning sisters.

“Alessandro,” Yasmin said. “I sometimes forget how few years you’ve been in this industry. This is already out there. Don’t you see the reposts on their wedding photos? TMZ even took the shots for their site. Not front page news, sure. Kane Fielding hasn’t been important for years.”

Alessandro winced. Yasmin’s version of important was always so mercenary. He remembered how Megan’s face softened when she talked about her brother. Kane was important to a lot of people.

“But it’s out there nonetheless,” Yasmin went on. “By morning, they’ll know who she is. Andyou,” she paused dramatically, “are supposed to be dating Nicola.”

“I know,” he said. “I was going to—”

“And Papier just asked me if you’re planning on breaking your no-controversy clause more than twice before shooting starts.”

Papier was the production company behind his next movie. He’d fucked this up good. Just because he couldn’t stop himself from touching her.

“Hold on,” Yasmin said. “Here’s Donna. I’ll patch her in.”

“No, don’t!” He didnotneed to hear about it from his publicist as well. Unfortunately, Donna worked for Yasmin or at least answered to her more than to Alessandro, given his relative newbie status in the business.

“How many times,” Donna said once she was on the call, “have I told you to tell me before you make any big decisions—bigpublicdecisions?”

“I did not make a decision!” he protested. “I was just trying to stop her from getting churro sugar on her hair!”

The women on the other end of the phone treated him to a heavy silence. He scrubbed his hand over his stubble and walked over to the window. Boston was as quiet as it was ever going to be. If he craned his neck, he could see the Custom House clock illuminating the night. Boston hadn’t changed in five years, but his responsibilities had. And he’d pulled Megan into them without thinking through the consequences to her.

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