my kitchen to make myself a sandwich.
It’s been rough transitioning from the weekend back to real life. After we left the club on Saturday night, Candace came home with me. She slept in my bed, nestled against me, and then I made her breakfast Sunday morning. She ate just about anything I put on her plate, grinning up at me when she’d finished. After that, we tugged on hats and sunglasses, exited through the back entrance of my building, and went on a walk. It was nice for the first half hour, but then the press spotted us, so I called Pat and he came to get us so he could drive us back to my apartment. It wasn’t all bad. Hiding out at my place all day meant we had a lot of time to ourselves. I put on a movie, which we mostly ignored in favor of having sex on my couch. God, just thinking about it makes my blood heat up. Candace is as crazy in bed as she is anywhere else, funny and passionate and sexy. I barely let her out of my clutches all day, but then she groaned and convinced me she had to go back to sleep at her place for the night. She needed to shower and do some lesson planning for the week. I relented, but now I regret it. I haven’t seen her since last night.
I look at my phone again, but there’s still nothing from her, no text or call.
I head back into the living room and flip on the TV. I never watch gossip shows, ever, but I had the news on earlier so I catch a glimpse of Entertainment Tonight. Candace is on the screen, laughing with Kat out on the sidewalk. The news story is about Candace—not about us and our relationship, but about her and her life and how a “regular” girl like her could have caught my attention.
They mention her job at The Day School and at District. Jesus fuck. They show a picture of her parents they must have pulled from her social media, and there’s more: speculation about how we met, a tip from an anonymous source saying I’m not that into her and just wanted a distraction after my breakup with Melody.
I guess Rosie was right. I haven’t confirmed anything, so they’re saying whatever they want.
I turn off the TV and grab my phone to call Candace.
When she answers, she’s out of breath. “Hey Lo.”
The tension in my head eases a bit at the sound of her voice. “Hey, you said you’d call after you finished cleaning that house.”
“I know—we haven’t finished yet.” Then she laughs. “It’s been a wild day. There were photographers outside The Day School when I went in and they wouldn’t leave, so my boss had to call the police to corral them all. I mean the kids couldn’t even get in—can you imagine? Then, as I was leaving, I expected them to be cleared out, but they weren’t. I had to hide out for a bit until Kat showed up with these ridiculous disguises, black wigs and huge sunglasses. Surprisingly, they worked, but we were late getting started at the house so we’re still here.”
“Crap. I’m sorry.”
“What? No worries. I mean, it’s different, yeah? Being in the spotlight like that.”
“Yeah. It is. I just saw you on the TV, actually.”
“Are you serious?” She sounds like it’s too wild to believe.
“They were talking about your jobs and your parents. You need to make sure all your social media accounts are set to private. They somehow got a photo of your mom and dad.”
“Oh bugger. I didn’t even think of that. I’m a total novice with all this.”
“It’s not your fault. This isn’t exactly normal.”
I feel horrible for dragging her into the fray like this, but it’s inevitable. To bring her in closer, I’ll only be exposing her more. There’s no way around it.
“Right. Yeah. Logan, I’ve got to go. I need to finish up here and phone my mum. She’ll probably have heard about everything on the news, and I still haven’t really told her about us. I feel bad. I hope they’re not worried or anything.”
“Yeah, of course. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Right, phone you later.”
And then there’s a pregnant pause because neither of us hangs up. This is the part where if you loved someone, you’d say it. It’s like we’re both thinking it, and she even laughs, breaking the tension.
“Okay, well, bye then!”
She ends