Jacob’s heart skipped several beats. “Oh?”
Rasul nodded. “Part-time only. But yeah. I want to keep teaching. I like it.” He drew a breath. “And… I want to stay. If I can.”
Jacob listened to the tick of the clock several seconds, memorizing the moment. “Of course you can stay.”
Rasul sat up more. “I mean that I want to stay with you. In this apartment. I want to move in. Can I do that?”
Jacob couldn’t stop his smile. “Yes. Yes, you can.”
After that, Jacob lost all interest in baiting people on Instagram. He focused on moving Rasul’s things over to his place, on renewing his campaign for president, not because he thought he would win but because it was still important to try to draw people toward the future. Even if Clark was president until he died, Jacob could still do good work.
He had even less thought for who was saying what online when Rasul started getting critical feedback for his book. An indie literary magazine did a feature, calling it groundbreaking. The magazine wouldn’t be out for a few months, but Elizabeth had gotten an advance of the article copy. Several other journals planned features on Veil of Stars.
Rasul was also heavily involved in crafting the Moore Books raffle basket. It had several books in it, yes, including both Rasul’s published works and a just-off-the-press advance review copy of Veil of Stars, so fresh it didn’t even have a final cover. It also had a copy of Moana on Blu-ray, I Capture the Castle in paperback, and several of both Rasul and Jacob’s favorite films and novels. There was also a tea set, Earl Grey tea, and an IOU for homemade hummus and pita made by Rasul.
Rasul was also already talking about his next book. It was untitled and still in the formative stage, but it involved a teenager from the Midwest discovering something mysterious in the lake outside of town. He hadn’t brought it up to Elizabeth, he said, because he wasn’t letting anyone else have it until he knew he could protect it properly.
Jacob began to think things were good and couldn’t get better. Despite his resignation over the election, Rebecca still thought he had a shot. Rasul had moved in the last of his things, and they teased each other over whether or not they’d repeat their wild dancing at the chamber ball. (Rasul said yes, Jacob said no.) According to Elizabeth, the internet had calmed down. Jacob wouldn’t know—he’d removed the app from his phone. But according to Rasul’s agent, the book world salivated for Rasul’s new title. They couldn’t care less who he was dating.
Then, two days before the ball, Gus came bursting into the bookstore, face white, phone in his hand.
“Did you see it? No, look at you, so calm. You haven’t seen it.” He pulled something up on his phone and shoved it in Jacob’s face.
Jacob braced himself for some wild new Adina Instagram post. Instead, the page Gus showed him was from one of the worst gossip sites on the internet. An all-caps, mega-point font headline read SHOCKING RASUL YOUSSEF/ADINA HANIN SEX TAPE REVEALED. Below it was a still from a video with parts of it pixilated out. Not Rasul’s face, though, or Adina’s. Those were clear as day.
Jacob gasped.
Jodie, who had been putting away books left out by patrons, turned to look at them.
Gus pulled the phone away. “It was posted thirty minutes ago. Everyone in the shop is talking about it.”
Jacob felt sick. “Is it fake?”
“I mean, who knows? Maybe? Maybe not? You’d have to ask Rasul. Only he would know whether or not he made a sex tape.”
Jodie dropped the book she was holding and covered her mouth.
Jacob pulled Gus into his office and shut the door. “This is going to destroy Rasul. He’s worked so hard to get beyond his past, and now here it comes back to bite him. Right when he’s doing all these interviews with big-time reviewers. He was on the phone with The New York Times Review of Books the other day. What if this makes them pull all their press?”
“I don’t know. I honestly have no idea about any of this. And really, neither do you. Where’s Rasul? I assume his agent has already called him?”
“Probably not—he’s in a meeting at the college. It should be getting out soon, but he always shuts off his phone when he’s on campus. The particular phone he has is difficult to silence, so he turns it off when he knows he can’t answer it.” Jacob’s gut twisted. “Oh my God.”
“Come on.” Gus grabbed his hand. “We’re going to find him.”
“I can’t leave the store! Only Jodie is here. What if this blows up and press comes to the store and mobs her?”
“Shut the place down! This is an emergency.”
It took them a few minutes to chase everyone out, but then they were in Gus’s car and racing to the university.
“I can’t believe he doesn’t have his phone on him,” Gus grumbled as they headed for the parking lot. “He has his smartphone back from his agent. Why doesn’t he use that?”
“He doesn’t want to, he says. It’s upstairs in his bedside drawer. He keeps talking about selling it.” Jacob grabbed his coat and his keys. “If we’d been thinking, we’d have called Evan or Christopher or Ram to intercept him.”
Gus blinked. “Damn, I didn’t think of that.”
“We’re here now. But we can text them in case.”
They both texted madly as they crossed campus, and Gus got the first answer. “Christopher said he just saw Rasul walk across campus toward the Scheman Building. That’s where his class is.”
“Damn it, there are two ways to get to that from the administration building.”
“I know. You take the main path, and I’ll go around the back in case he used the shortcut. One of us should be able to catch him.”
Jacob didn’t exactly run once Gus let him off, but he did proceed with purpose down the tree-lined walkway to the building where the humanities classes were held. Heart beating in his ears, he scanned the sidewalk, looking for the familiar head of curly hair and dark beard.
As he rounded the corner, there was Rasul, surrounded by a group of people, most of them with cameras. Two of them seemed to be professional news crews.
“Mr. Youssef, what comment do you have to make about the emergence of an alleged sex tape with you and your girlfriend Adina?”
Jacob stopped walking, heart sinking. It was too late. He was already too late. Though clearly he wouldn’t have ever been able to stop this train in the first place.
As his gaze met Rasul’s, his heart broke. Rasul looked blindsided. Sick. Humiliated.
Jacob hadn’t been able to protect him at all. And he had the horrible, terrible premonition that he might well have made things worse.
Chapter Fourteen
ONE SECOND Rasul had been walking down the sidewalk, excitedly telling one of his students about the gift basket for Moore Books, and the next he was surrounded by reporters shoving cameras in his face and asking him to respond to the revelation of his sex tape.
Sex tape.
All he could do was stand there and blink, too stunned to respond.
Ben Vargas was with him. Ben Vargas, twenty-one years old with stars in his eyes because he thought Rasul was so amazing. So amazing he had five boom mics in his face and a horde of hungry paparazzi.