Exposed
(Darcy)
I slept badly, again. When I finally did fall asleep, I woke up again at five. I tossed and turned, desperate for more sleep. Somehow I managed to turn off my brain long enough to doze off. I woke up again just after eight with a desperate need to pee.
In the bathroom I try to avoid looking in the mirror, but can’t. I look like shit. I don’t even think I brushed my hair yesterday, and my eyes are puffy and red. I pull on my housecoat and plod out of the bathroom and back into the comfort of my armchair.
My cell sits on the coffee table, in the same spot I’d put it after sending the last text to Liam. As soon as I’d hit send, I switched it off and haven’t turned it back on in the two days since.
And I never want to turn it back on. Whatever texts he’s sent will be too painful to read. Right now I need to focus on getting on with my life.
I need to figure out what to do about a job and my father. And my heart.
Except I’ve been thinking about those things all night. I need a break from my thoughts.
Pulling out my laptop from underneath the sofa, I click into YouTube. If anything can ease the pain, it’s cat videos. After five minutes of them, I’m able to find the motivation to make a coffee.
The hot drink in my hand, I settle back into my chair and lose myself in more cat videos. My home phone rings but I ignore it, instead focusing on the silly kitty who’s guarding his toy Minion.
About twenty minutes later, there’s a frantic pounding on my door and I jolt in my seat.
“Darcy,” Kirsten screams, followed by more pounding. “Darcy!”
My neighbors are going to kill me. I jump up and rush to the door. I fling it open and Kirsten pushes past me. Chase, stone faced, follows her into my apartment.
“What the fuck? Why don’t you answer your phone?” Kirsten asks, out of breath. “I had to run half the way here. Haven’t you seen?”
“Seen what?” I ask, my eyes flicking between Kirsten and Chase. Her face is lit up with a joyous smile, but he looks as confused as I do.
“Good Morning America? You have to see it. Here, I have it on my phone.”
I take the phone, but it fucks up and the tab on her browser is gone.
“There’s nothing here,” I say.
“Fuck. Where’s your laptop?”
I point to the armchair and she doesn’t even comment on the mountain of used tissues. My heart races, wondering what it is that has her, of all people, not caring about snot mountain.
Kirsten sits down and begins searching for whatever it is she’s looking for. Chase and I stand behind the chair, from where we’re able to see the screen.
“Do you know what this is about?” I ask Chase.
“No idea. She ran into the lobby and used me to get past the doorman and dragged me up here. I tried asking her in the elevator, but she wasn’t making any sense.”
“Here, I found it!”
Kirsten leans back in the chair, and props my laptop on the armrest so we can all see it better.
“What is this?” I ask, as the screen is taken over by an ad for the new iPhone.
“You have to wait for the ad to finish.”
I look at Chase and shrug.
“Give me my phone,” Kirsten says prying her phone from my hand. “I’m going to Google it.”
“Google what?”
“I can’t believe you,” she says. Her voice is exasperated and I wonder what I’ve done.
George Stephanopoulos appears smiling on the screen and says, “We’re here this morning with the until-now-unseen-billionaire William Bannerman.”
The camera pans out, and my heart is in my throat.
“Holy shit,” Chase says, as Liam appears in the frame.
“You didn’t know?” Kirsten asks him.
“I’ve known him six years, and no clue.”
“What about you, Darcy. Did you know?” She asks.
My chin hangs open as I focus on the screen and what Liam is doing. Kirsten pokes me, and I nod.
“I can’t believe you never told me!” she says, and smacks my hand.
“I couldn’t,” I say.
“Whatever. Let me forward it to the good part,” she says, and before I can stop her she jumps the video ahead.
“What made you decide to reveal your identity now?” George Stephanopoulos asks.
“Someone called me fundamentally untrustworthy because I keep myself a secret,” Liam says, his rich voice wrapping around me like a vortex.
“That someone being a business partner?”
“No, nothing like that. I run my businesses however I want, I have no need for partners.”
A smile springs across the interviewer’s face. “Did a woman make you do this?”
“No one makes me do anything. Ever.”
“But you’re coming forward now because of love.”
“Something like that,” Liam says, shrugging.
His eyes are vibrant, and the studio light catches in them. My pulse throbs in my ears, and I can barely hear what he’s saying.
“What can you tell us about her?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing at all? Surely you can tell us something about the woman who’s driven you to march in here this morning and reveal yourself to the world after keeping yourself such a closely guarded secret for so many years.”
“No, no. I can’t say anything about her. Other than that I love her, and that I don’t have any secrets to keep from her.” Every inch of my skin prickles at his words.
“Holy fuck, the internet is blowing up with you!” Kirsten squeals.
“Shh, I want to hear this,” I hiss.
“Listen to this,” she says, ignoring me. “It’s on Buzzfeed. It’s called ‘Mystery Billionaire Outs Himself Because of Mystery Woman.’ Ready?”
“No, shut up, I want to hear Liam,” I say, leaning over and hitting pause.
She ignores me and reads the article. “Until now, we never knew anything about the elusive billionaire. Already bloggers and websites have dubbed him the sexiest man alive, and William Bannerman is the most trending name in internet history.”
“I don’t care. I want to hear him on Good Morning America,” I say, my finger hovering over the play button.
“We’re scrambling to bring you his full profile. But good news, ladies, he appears to be single, though perhaps against his will.”
“Would you shut the fuck up,” I say and hit play on the Good Morning America video. I turn the volume up as high as it will go to make my point.
George Stephanopoulos laughs, and says, “That’s it? You’ve got to give America something.”
“I don’t really have anything to give America. All I can do is give myself to her. I need her to know that this is everything I am. If you know, then she knows too,” Liam says, staring straight into the camera. His eyes are intense, and penetrate me to my core.
“Holy shit, you’re the lead story on Perez Hilton.” Kirsten’s voice barely registers with me. I’m too busy processing what Liam’s done.
The video freezes, and the frame is Liam’s intense stare. The video darkens, before disappearing altogether. I hit reload, but nothing happens.
He’s spent his entire adult life trying to hide his identity, and whoosh, he wiped away all the secrecy in one fell swoop. All because of me.
Just to prove to me that I can trust him.
“This is unreal,” Chase says, shaking his head.
“It’s titled ‘Who is the Mystery Woman? The Nationwide Search.’ Holy shit,” Kirsten smacks my hand, “They’re offering a reward for information on you.”
Out of nowhere, I’m momentarily hit with Liam’s story about his mentor’s father, and am relieved Chase is here with me. The memory leaves my head just as quickly when Kirsten squeals.
“Right now, they think the mystery woman is most likely Jennifer Lawrence!”
The absurdity of the situation hits me, and I burst out laughing. I wonder what Liam is making of all this.
I walk around the armchair, and grab my phone from beside snot mountain. I try to turn it on to see if he’s texted me, but the battery is dead.