Sidecar Crush

“What?”

“Brock saves you at the end,” he said. “I’m looking at spoilers. He uses his win to keep you in the cabin.”

“This is a disaster. I’m screwed, Kelvin. I’m officially Leah Larkin, slutty homewrecker.”

“You’re overreacting.” He sounded distracted.

“God, why do you keep saying that?” I asked. “I’m not overreacting. The world is going to hate me, and I’ll never get a decent job again.”

“I keep telling you, leave that to me.”

“Your most recent suggestion was a dating show with six men and one woman. I’m not so sure about your judgment right now.”

“By tomorrow, the whole country is going to know the name Leah Larkin. You’re not going to be some dime-a-dozen pretty fashion model. You’re going to be the sexy blonde who was hot enough to distract Brock Winston from Maisie Miller. People are going to eat this up. It’s a great story. You can’t buy this kind of attention, babe.”

“It’s not the right kind of attention,” I said. “My reputation is shot.”

“Here’s what you’re going to do,” he said. “Lay low. Stay in Backwoods Springs or wherever you are. You’re off the grid. No one knows where you are. Disable the GPS on your phone and don’t post anything with your location. Post pictures of your breakfast and shit to Instagram like nothing is wrong. Let this simmer down while I work on what’s next. It’s going to be fine.”

I let out a breath. I had no confidence that he was right, but there wasn’t much else I could do. He was right that no one knew I was here. But I’d have to face the town tomorrow, knowing most of them had watched tonight’s episode. I hated that more than the prospect of what all the gossip columns were going to say. I desperately didn’t want my Bootleg neighbors to think the things in that episode were true. But it was no use talking to Kelvin about that. It wasn’t like he’d understand.

Or care.

“I have to go,” I said. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Night, babe.”

I hung up and sank down into my dad’s rocking chair. Against my better judgment, I brought up the Roughing It fan website. The headline read, Leah Seduces Brock! I knew I shouldn’t read the post, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself.

ON TONIGHT’S episode of Roughing It, the moment we’ve all been waiting for… or dreading as we cringed in front of our screens. Leah Larkin, that lanky blonde who’s been after Brock since episode one, finally got what she was after. With no respect for Brock’s relationship status, or apparent care for what it’s going to do to Maisie Miller, Brock’s wife, Leah coaxed Brock into a supply closet for some inappropriate contact. There is little doubt that Brock was helpless against Leah’s seduction. After all, what guy can resist what she was offering when he’s already in a position of weakness?

No doubt Leah Larkin is going to wake up tomorrow and find herself the most hated woman in America.

TEARS BLURRED MY VISION, so I stopped reading. Oh my god. The most hated woman in America? They were right. Everyone loved the Brock and Maisie story. They were annoyingly sweet, gushing over each other in public every chance they got. Their wedding had been the biggest celebrity news story of the year.

I wanted to post to all my social media accounts and deny everything. Tell the truth. But I stopped myself. I’d be violating my contract if I did. The studio would blacklist me. Maybe worse. They could sue me for breach of contract. Then what would I do? I didn’t have the money to fight a legal battle with a TV studio.

I’d been cast as the villain in this story, and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.

13

JAMESON

L eah Mae seemed to go into hiding. I texted her a few times to see how she was doing. Asked if she wanted to get together, maybe take her mind off things. But she said she was busy taking care of her dad. I happened to know from Betsy Stirling that Clay Larkin was doing better. Leah Mae was just using him as an excuse to hide out.

Not that I blamed her. There was a lot of gossip flying about with her name attached to it, and none of it was good.