My Cover Model (A Love Like That #1) - R.L. Kenderson Page 0,81

would burst into tears. I had no idea if he’d told the world about our split, and I really didn’t want to know.

“I need to recheck my schedule. Some stuff has come up,” I told the group.

While we were friendly, these people were still my professional peers. I wasn’t going to tell them about my personal life.

The group called it a day, and I headed for home as I debated on what to do about the September signing. I could cancel, or I could still go and ask the event planners to put my table as far away from Angela’s as possible.

Once I got home, I got on my computer and messaged the event hosts to see if there was a wait list. I would be very surprised if there wasn’t one.

I got a response five minutes later, telling me there was a wait list. A huge sense of relief went through me. I put in notice that I was no longer going to attend. Then, I e-mailed Angela to let her know I would still split the costs with her. When attending a book signing, there was a table fee, an assistant fee, and a model fee, so it was nice to be able to share what one could.

Hey, Angela.

I’m no longer able to attend the book signing next month in Iowa. I know we agreed to split Travis’s costs, and I will still honor that. E-mail me the receipts, and I will send the money over to you right away.

I’m sad I won’t be seeing you again this year, but I hope you have fun.

Let me know if you need anything else.

Sydney

I didn’t explain much more since I figured that Angela already knew about Travis and me. He was pretty close to her, so I was sure he’d told her by now.

I texted Harper.

Me: I’m not going to the book signing next month. I’m sorry. I know you were looking forward to it.

Harper: Ha-ha. I figured you’d backed out a long time ago. No worries, Syd. I wasn’t expecting you to go.

Me: I’ll find another one for us to go to.

Harper: Sounds good to me.

I did a search for some other book signings. I knew it would be hard to get in, but I’d snuck in at the last minute before.

I found one in Wisconsin for the weekend following the Iowa event. It was a smaller, more intimate event, and it sounded perfect. I quickly filled out the form and messaged the coordinators to let them know I wanted to be put on the wait list.

Next, I went to my reader group and apologized for not being around much lately, and I told them the bad news about the book signing. I added that I was in the process of finding a new one to attend.

After that, I updated my website and actually wrote a thousand words without any breaks. It wasn’t my usual amount, but it was a start.

I was feeling very good about myself for taking charge of my life and moving forward even if they were little things, and I thought I deserved a break.

Maleficent jumped up onto my desk as I went to see if Angela had responded to my e-mail. She hadn’t, but I did get something from Robert Hahn.

I had no idea why the famous photographer would be e-mailing me, but it put a grin on my face.

But, the second I opened the e-mail, my smile fell.

Greetings, Sydney.

Here are the pictures I took of you and Travis that I promised to send to you. Apologies for the wait. I hope it was worth it.

Robert Hahn

I knew I shouldn’t, but I clicked on the link to his cloud drive.

And I immediately started crying.

The pictures of Travis and me were beautiful. The looks we were giving each other showed how much we liked each other. And I had thrown it all away.

I had tried to apologize to Travis several times after I left his house that awful night. But he’d told me that he couldn’t trust me anymore. It wasn’t so much that I’d read the messages, but it was the fact that I had done it behind his back. And because I had thought he’d cheated on me. I had really messed up.

I flipped through each picture, crying harder as I looked at them. I could barely see through my tears toward the end.

I couldn’t look at them anymore.

I shut down my computer and walked downstairs. I went straight to my freezer and