Page 35 of Head Over Wheels

“Oh, thank goodness. What a horrible ordeal. I’m so sorry this happened to you.” Lisa's eyes are damp, a mix of worry and relief, I suspect.

“I’m really glad Jeff was arrested, but I don’t think it’s over yet. He still has all the pictures and he’s threatened to release them to social media. They make it look like Jace was cheating on Deb with me this whole weekend.”

CHAPTER 26

The silence at our table is noticeable after my statement. I rush to reassure my friends.

“I promise you, we weren’t doing anything wrong! Jace and Deb haven’t dated in months. I made sure of that before anything started.”

“Oh, of course, we believe you. Neither of you would do anything like that. I think we’re just stunned that he’s threatening you with blackmail.” Lisa looks at Tara for confirmation.

“Jace said he would take care of everything, and he went to talk to his management right before I got here. But now that TMZ is already releasing pictures, I’m not sure what we can do to make it go away quietly.” I fold my arms over my stomach.

The servers choose this moment to start delivering lunch. A beautiful salad is placed before each of us, but with the way my stomach is churning, I doubt I’ll be able to eat a bite. Taking a look around the room, I try to find Jace. Has he returned yet? I doubt he’d come over here if he had, he wouldn’t want to draw even more attention to us at this point. With a quick glance at my phone, I determine that he hasn’t texted me either. My mind is going immediately to the worst-case scenarios…is he getting in trouble from Elevate? Is Deb freaking out? Are the police reconsidering waiting for our statements and questioning him?

“Hey, earth to Ella. You’re a million miles away right now. Anything we can do to help?” Lisa is looking at me, her fork poised over her greens.

“I’m just worried about Jace now. He said he was going to take care of it but it’s been a while and I still don’t see him so…”

My friends take a look around the venue. It’s bright in here today, so we’d see him if he were here.

“Oh, I see Deb over there.” Tara points across the room where Deb is sitting with a table of members, smiling brightly.

“That’s good. It looks like she’s having fun. Hopefully she hasn’t seen the TMZ story yet.” She could just be hiding it, but her body language looks pretty relaxed.

“I’m pretty sure everyone saw the TMZ story, Ella. The whole room erupted when it came out. She must be okay with it. As you said, they were broken up for a while.”

Lisa’s right. The whole room saw the photo, so unless she came in after, she’s seen it. Hopefully Jace spoke to her this morning and things will be better with her now that it’s all out in the open.

“It looks like all the other Elevate instructors are accounted for, only Jace isn’t here. He’s probably just running damage control with his management team.” Tara’s words are definitely meant to reassure me.

“How did you leave it with him?” Lisa puts her fork down, giving up all pretense of eating.

“We made plans to go to the station after this event to give our statements. I assumed we’d both be here and leave together. I guess if he isn’t back by then…”

Tara cuts me off with a wave of her hand. “He’ll be here! This is totally normal. A whole thing went down, and police and other members were involved. He’s just taking care of all the paperwork, and then he’ll be here. We’ll wait with you until then.”

Lisa jumps in. “Or go to the station with you if he isn’t back in time.”

“That’s sweet. Actually that would be great. I’d hate to have to go alone.” My heart swells that even amongst all the drama this weekend, I’ve made some solid friends.

My phone suddenly starts blaring with Jess’ ringtone. “Oh, my gosh! I forgot to tell my bestie about what happened this morning, and I’m betting she’s just seen the TMZ post. I have to take this, sorry.”

I get up and walk quickly out of the room, swiping to answer the call.

“Girl, what is going on over there? I just saw your picture on TMZ.”

“My picture? They figured out who I was?” My breathing starts to get shallow. I really don’t need the whole world knowing about all this.

“No, it’s blurry and from a weird angle, but I’d recognize you anywhere. So what happened? Are you safe?”

Her words set my mind at ease. “I’m safe. It was a whole thing. It turns out Jeff, the guy I had coffee with this morning, was my stalker from this past summer. There’s lots for me to catch you up on, but I’m at an event right now. I promise I’ll call later with the story.”

Jess lets out a huge breath. “I’m really glad to hear that. Can’t wait to hear everything. Especially the part about Jace saving his new girlfriend.”

A laugh slips out and I shake my head. “Of course you’d pick up on that. I’m not actually his girlfriend, that was just the gossip site drawing conclusions.”

“Sure, sure. You know how they always say where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” She giggles at me.

---