The Revenge Games Duet

There’s a pot of coffee beside me—cold and stale from when I made it earlier this morning.

“You know where to reach me?”

“I have your number,” I remind him, staring at this impossible equation on my screen.

“Will you be okay by yourself?”

I can hear the worry in his voice. This isn’t the first time he’s gone away for the weekend, but after what happened in London, he’s been extra protective watching my every move. He’s even made Jimmy, our bodyguard, follow me around town.

The stalker has been arrested, but nothing else can be done. He hasn’t breached any laws and the guy just needed a visit to the looney bin to regroup. Nina held bits of information from me so as to not stress me out.

“I’ll be fine. Tayla flies in tomorrow morning so we’re gonna hang out.”

“You never told me Tayla would be in town.”

I sigh, shutting the lid of my laptop to give him my full attention. “Mom was supposed to come but had something last minute pop up, so she’s sent Tayla instead. I didn’t tell you because I figured you didn’t care.”

“I care, Emerson.” He moves closer to me, resting his hand on my cheek.

Without hurting his feelings, I turn my face away allowing him to pull back. Since we got back from London last week, our schedules have been busy with no time to unwind. We have two more shows to film before final edits. We did a round of interviews, appeared as guests on talk shows, and had meetings with our business partners. Each night I’ve come home utterly exhausted, fitting in small workouts here and there then crashing as soon as I hit the pillow.

It leaves little time to think about Logan and how we left things off, despite the thousands of texts he sends each day which I continue to ignore.

“I should go.”

“Have fun.”

“Do you really mean that?” he asks in a civil tone, a small smile appearing on his tired face.

“I do.” I offer a small smile in return, hoping to reconcile our constant fighting. “We’ll get through this, okay? Just have fun with the boys.”

“I never meant to hurt you, Em. I don’t know what happened that night,” he admits quietly. “I know we’re not together, but it doesn’t stop me from loving you.”

Letting out a sigh, my eyes meet his with forgiveness. “It’s done, Wes. We need to move on with our lives. We have two episodes left to film. Cliff said they’ll show our argument at Scarlett’s party. The cracks are already there for those who want to read between the lines.”

“I know. But you know that season won’t air until the fall. In the meantime, the network doesn’t want to show any cracks in our relationship. They want it to be a surprise. Ratings soar higher that way.”

Of course, they would.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, I fight the urge to start another argument and remain tight-lipped. Wes pulls out his cell and stands behind me, leaning down and kissing my cheek as the camera clicks.

“Let’s ease the rumors.”

He types away, then places his cell in his back pocket. “We both have committed ourselves to the show. Just do this for me, Em. Finish it off with high ratings and then you can walk away.” He says goodbye and disappears, closing the door behind him as I move to the balcony and watch Wes drive off.

With my cell in hand, I log on and see the photo he’s posted on Instagram.

How beautiful is my fiancée? Love this woman so much, and can’t wait to make her my wife. #Beautiful #FutureBabyMama

Great. That last comment will start the rumor mill. It feels like it’s one thing after another, never time to relax without drama.

As predicted, the comments go nuts and Nina’s number flashes on my screen within minutes.

“Are you pregnant?”

“No,” I tell her. “Wes posted that to ease the rumors about us splitting up.”

“Jesus fucking Christ.” I hear the relief in her voice. “Thank God. My phone’s blowing up.”