He sighed, but I could see he was trying not to laugh at me.
“Besides, I thought you were here because Blaire made you.”
“Eh, I’m not good at the dating thing. I’m out of practice.”
My eyes widened. “Are you saying you want to date me?”
He barked out the laugh he’d been holding in and pulled me out of the almost knee-deep water. “See? Not great. But there’s no need to look so surprised.”
“I’m not surprised. I’m shocked. I can be that.” Yep. I could be that. One hundred percent shocked.
“I’m really attracted to you, Elle,” he said quietly. “Have been since I saw you. I don’t know how long you’re gonna be here for, but for as long as you’re here, I’d like to spend time with you.”
Wow.
Wow.
I smiled shyly, pushing my hair back from my face, and turned to walk back to the house. “I don’t mind your company,” I admitted. “And as for being here… I sent you money for another week this morning. I meant to do it on Friday, but—”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“I wanted to extend for a month. I like it here. It’s quiet and calm and slow-paced. I think it might do me some good to get away from my normal life.” I peered over at him with a small smile. “Besides, I have no idea what’s going to happen when I eventually go back to New York, but for now, my sister is sending my belongings down to me.”
“Another month? On top of this week?”
“Sure. Why not? There are worse places I could hide.” I stepped on the bottom step of the deck and looked over at the beautiful beach with its golden sand and turquoise waters. “Worse places. Worse people.”
Theo stepped right up to me but stayed on the sand. Here, I was almost as tall as he was, and we were so close that our lips almost touched.
I breathed in sharply. Sure, we’d kissed before, but we’d been drunk. We were stone cold sober now, and he’d just admitted that he was attracted to me.
Would kissing him be the worst thing in the world?
I waited.
He didn’t make the move, just like last time. He just stared at me until he slowly reached up and trailed his fingers across my cheek, tucking a stray lock of hair behind my ear.
Still no kiss.
So I did it for him.
I braced my hands on his shoulders and pressed my lips against his. For someone who hadn’t kissed me, he responded enthusiastically. His arms wound around my waist and held me firmly against him, and I slipped mine over his shoulders and deepened the kiss.
It warmed my entire body, and even though this one didn’t last as long as the previous one, the ghost of it lingered on my lips for so much longer.
“Do you usually make the first move?” he teased.
I extracted myself from his grip and said, “Only when the guy has already told me he’s attracted to me and has asked for my number… then doesn’t.”
“Touché.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now let’s make you a video.”
I turned around and looked at him, lips parted. “You’re going to help me?”
Theo held out his hands. “What am I gonna do? Kiss and run?”
“You did a few days ago.”
“Ah, whatever. I needed to pee.”
I rolled my eyes as I unlocked the door. “And they said romance is dead.”
***
It didn’t matter how many times I saw it, it was always weird to see myself on the laptop screen talking at, well, myself.
Aside from cleaning up a few timing issues and removing some duplicate sentences, this video was completely unedited, and had been approved by both my agent and my publicist.
After our walk, I’d explained to Theo what Noelle had said to me on the phone—that I could use my platform for good in this situation. My team agreed it was the best option, and once the decision to not hide anything was made, the words had come pouring out of me.
Unscripted.
Now, it was uploading to YouTube, and my three-minute-long statement was about to go out into the world.
Where I knew my life really was about to blow up.
“I should watch it one more time,” I said, leaning forward and minimizing the window. “Make sure it’s right.”
“Elle, it’s fine,” Theo reassured me, putting a glass of wine on the coffee table. “We’ve watched it ten times. Your publicist has approved the same video three times. It’s perfect.”
“Just one more time.” I double-clicked the file and the video player loaded, filling the screen with my big face. A couple of seconds passed before screen-me started talking at us.
“Hey there, everyone,” Screen Elle said with a lame little wave. “I’m sure by now many of you are aware of why it’s been two weeks since I last uploaded a video. For those of you who aren’t, here’s why: a private tape of me was sold and made public without my knowledge or my consent. Until that moment, I had no idea of the tape’s existence. I was just as shocked as the rest of you.
“The moment I found out, I made the choice to leave my apartment in New York and go somewhere else. Because of that, I’ve been able to handle the situation privately, and I have now taken legal action.
“If there are any media outlets watching this, please consider this to be my formal statement on the matter, and you will find it in text form on my website, www dot life of Elle Evans dot com, and in a press release to those who have contacted my publicist.
“The tape was released without my knowledge or consent. I was not aware it existed, so not only was it released without my consent, it was also filmed without my consent. Neither I nor my team will be responding to any further requests for comments while legal action against necessary parties is in process. Thank you.
“For everyone else, I will be releasing new content this week. A new friend of mind said something that stuck with me, so I will be releasing videos discussing safety, online and otherwise. There are many dangers out there, especially on the internet, and you need to be aware of how quickly one moment can change your life.
“Until then, I hope you’re all safe and well. We will be disabling comments on my videos for a short time, and a small team will be monitoring my social media accounts while I continue to come to terms with this unexpected situation.
“Thank you to everyone who has sent love and support so far. I appreciate it more than you know, and hopefully we’ll be able to return to normal soon.”
Screen Elle blew a kiss at us and the video cut out.
“Do you think it’s too much? Too formal? Too…”
Theo leaned forward, shut down the video screen, and looked at the upload page.
Then he hit the button.
I gasped, covering my mouth with my hands. “Why did you do that?”
“Because you’re gonna sit here for three hours umming and ahhing over it if I didn’t!” He shut the laptop down and sat back on the sofa, propping his feet up on the coffee table. “Problem solved.”
I sagged back, staring at the closed laptop. “Shit.”
“Hey. It’s done. You had to do it, Elle. You had to have your say, and now it’s done. Now, you can move forward.”