Chapter 16

Haley

I’m still in shock over Lexi’s visit when there’s a knock at the door. I stop doing laps around the living room and pulling at my hair to turn and look at it. There’s another knock. I step slowly towards it. When I open it, I can’t control myself. I leap onto Brando, bury my face into his neck, clutch his back as tightly as a lifesaver. For the past hour I’ve been wondering if I’ll ever see him again, if the one guy who can make me feel like he does is about to disappear from my life forever. The idea alone crushed me, chewed me up, made me feel like a ghost. Just seeing him again is enough to make me break down.

“Haley,” he says slowly, pushing me off him gently and closing the door behind him, “I’ve got some bad news.”

“No,” I say, shaking my head and feeling my heart grow heavy. I back away slowly. “No.”

His face is serious, unhappy. I pray he doesn’t speak, gathering every bit of strength in my body to tell him not to speak, and it’s still not enough. I bury my head in my hands.

“The label dropped you,” he says, bluntly and sadly.

I look up slowly, feeling like somebody put a hot towel on my face.

“And you chose Lexi.”

His face changes. “No, I didn’t. Rowland did. Majestic did. Not me.” He pauses, realization dawning. “You knew about the ultimatum?”

I nod, steeling myself for an answer I probably don’t want to hear. “So what did you choose?”

“Haley,” he says, rushing toward me and lifting my face in his hands, “why are you even asking me that? I chose you. Of course I did. I quit on them. Same as last time. Same as when we had to go it alone before.”

Something inside me cracks open, releasing a flood of happiness that flows into every fiber of my body. I pull Brando’s face to mine, as if the feeling’s too much for one person, and the only way I can share it is by pressing my lips against his. A kiss more intimate than erotic, but no less necessary.

When we pull away slowly, Brando gazes inquisitively into my eyes, brushing away a tear-track from my cheek.

“How could you even doubt that?” he asks gently.

“With Lexi back and the way things have been going with us, I just thought—”

“Don’t think,” he says, affectionately.

Brando drives us to his apartment like we’re racing a jet, only stopping to run into a coffee shop and come out a few minutes later with a carrier tray of coffees and a bag of donuts.

“Who is all of this for?” I ask, as he puts them in my lap and revs the car away.

“You’ll see.”

We get to his apartment and Brando bursts through the door like he’s about to perform a robbery. I follow behind and try not to be too surprised when a bunch of college students immediately crowd around me, grab the coffees, and then go back to sitting around the open laptops on Brando’s coffee table.

“What’s going on?” I ask as Brando stands in front of them. “It looks like you’re running a sweat shop in here.”

“Haley, this is Michelle, Simon, Ross, Steven, and Jessica. Guys, you know Haley.”

They mumble a distracted greeting in unison like an uncoordinated choir group. Still confused, I raise a hand weakly in response.

“So, what’s the situation?” Brando says, his voice turning authoritative.

“We can’t do anything,” Jessica says, shaking her ponytail. “Every time we post something about the sore throat we get a hundred replies – every one of them about Rex Bentley.”

“Same here,” Ross adds, “we’re commenting, but it’s getting lost in the mix. It’s a drop in the ocean compared to what’s going on. It seems like every two minutes another site posts the story. We can’t keep up.”

“No takers for the Mick Jagger story so far. Sorry,” Simon shrugs.

I glare at Brando with bewilderment at this last one. He shakes his head in a clear ‘don’t ask’ gesture.

“Shit,” he says, walking to the window. “Okay. The bottom-up approach isn’t going to work.”

“Why doesn’t Haley just do an interview?” Jessica says. “She doesn’t have to go in deep. Just deny it with a word and leave it at that.”

“This is the internet,” Brando says, turning around. “There are no ‘denials’ and ‘confirmations.’ There’s just ‘admitting’ and ‘ignoring.’ Haley’s got everything to lose, and everything to gain from this. If she goes on record and denies it, all that will happen is that this thing will get another boost. People expect her to deny it. The only time denying something works is if you’re too big, or respected, or have nothing to—”

Brando looks up suddenly, his mouth open and his eyes round as if he just caught sight of something amazing.

“What?” I say.

Brando walks over to me and puts his hands on my shoulders.

“Haley. Do you trust me?”

“Of course I do,” I reply, still confused, but able to answer that much.

“I’m going to do something you won’t like. But it’s our only option.”

Before I can say anything, he’s kissing me deeply, and then grabbing his keys as he makes for the door.