Elsie

What the hell just happened? My entire body is shaking as the adrenaline courses through me.

“That was great when you smashed his phone in,” Xander says and throws his suitcase in the trunk.

“It didn’t do much good since he said he has the video on his computer already,” I say and sigh. Although it did feel damn good.

“Doesn’t matter, that was good teamwork,” Xander says with his megawatt smile.

“I guess it was.” His smile is almost enough to calm my nerves. Almost. But he’s right, we worked together as a perfect team.

I slam the passenger door shut and frantically do up the buttons of my shirt, but my hands are still trembling and I struggle to get the buttons through the holes. I don’t know what happened to my bra. It must be in the house but I’m not sure where.

Xander starts the car and peels down the driveway. I abandon the remaining buttons to do up my seatbelt and hold on to the door handle.

“Where are we going to go?” I ask. I keep trying to block the drone from my mind. I thought the photograph was bad enough but the idea of a sex video starring me being shown to the world is too overwhelming to contemplate.

“Somewhere they won’t find us. Which means nowhere Luna knows. What about your family?” Xander turns left out of the driveway and retraces our earlier route.

“My family? You really want to meet my family right now? Why, hello, Mom, this is Xander, you may recognize him from the sex tape of your daughter that’s circulating on the internet.”

Xander chuckles and says, “Fair enough. What about one of your friends?”

“There’s always Isabel, she only has a small apartment, but she lives for this sort of thing.”

I could ask her for anything and she’d say yes, and I love her for it. Rummaging through my purse, I pull out my phone and text Isabel.

Hey, Xander and I need a place to hide out for a few days. On our way to your place, see you in a couple of hours.

My little car flies around a corner, sending my body against the door. “Easy,” I say.

“This car is actually fun to drive, like I’m driving on the edge whereas my Aston Martin rides along effortlessly.”

“It’s good you can have fun at a time like this.”

“Gotta take every chance you can to enjoy yourself,” Xander says and pats the wheel.

Don’t I know it.

My phone beeps. Isabel has texted back.

Of course, babe, anything I can do for my famous sex goddess friend.

My heart sinks, famous? Sex goddess? I flick into my phone’s browser and Google “Xander Whitman.”

“Grab my phone and call my lawyer, we need to stop the drone footage from coming out,” Xander says, his eyes narrowed at the road.

“I’m trying to find out what happened with the photo.”

“Tell him about that, too. I think that photographer’s about to have a very big lawsuit on her hands.”

I retrieve Xander’s phone from the central console and follow his instructions to dial his lawyer’s number. I put the phone on speaker and hold it up in my left hand while I go back to my own phone with my right hand.

The lawyer answers and I tune them out in my desperate attempt to find out what’s happened in the news.

I click on the top search result, TMZ. The boudoir photo fills half my screen, underneath the title, “Who is Elsie Cushing?”

My heart completely stops as I stare at my name. Xander said they would know who I was but it didn’t seem real until now. I scroll down and I meet with several photographs that I recognize from my Facebook account. I really should’ve paid more attention to the security settings.

It goes on to give a biography about me, complete with my parents’ names and jobs and some details about my brother, the school I went to and how long I’ve been working at the Good Rest Inn.

At the bottom in bold is the question: Why did Xander cheat on Luna for this girl?

Cheat? My shoulders sink. Of course people think he cheated with me. All of a sudden I’m the homewrecker, the other woman.

I stupidly start reading the comments.

I always loved Xander but now I know he’s a cheating scumbag.

What was Xander thinking? He had the most beautiful woman in the world and then he goes and cheats on her with that ugly whore.

I hope she pegged him, the douchebag deserves it.

What a bitch, I hope she rots in hell for doing this to Luna.

Xander’s phone falls out of my hand and crashes around the center console and I startle.

“You still there, Xander?” the lawyer asks.

“Call you back, Brent.”

“Sorry, I was reading the comments about us on the TMZ website,” I say and swallow.

“I told you not to look. People are cruel and evil and it’s better if you pretend it isn’t going on, otherwise it’ll eat you up inside.” His voice is gentle, and he looks over at me and takes my hand in his.

“You are right, I wish we were still in that house and closed off from the world.”

“It was good when it was just the two of us, wasn’t it?”

“It was better than good. I wish we could freeze that time and relive it over and over,” I say, my voice wavering.

“You know what? This is going to pass, and it will be long forgotten and then every day can be a day like today,” Xander says, squeezing my hand.

A lump forms in my throat. Until today I never thought I’d have an issue with not wanting a boyfriend, but with Xander I have no choice. My heart is demanding that I cling to his words and make them come true.

And why wouldn’t they come true? We fit too well together. It’s like the universe threw us together and who am I to deny what’s meant to be?

“How long can it go on? I get the feeling that I will always be known as the woman who broke up Xander and Luna.”

“Until everyone gets bored or a bigger story comes along. Let’s hope that’s soon.” Xander lets go of my hand and grips the steering wheel as we merge onto the I-95. He floors the gas pedal and maneuvers my little car straight into the inside lane.

“Or we die in a car crash.”

“You’re so cute.”

“Maybe the coroner will think so too,” I say, stopping myself from looking at the speedometer.

“Baby, wait till I get you in my car then I’ll show you what fast really is.”

“Remind me never to go in your car.” I pause for a second and add, “Or let you drive my car again.”

“You need to get used to life in the fast lane.”

“You’re getting real, remember? You need to get used to life in the slow lane.”

“Right now, slow would mean that paparazzi asshole would be able to follow us.”

“I know, which is why I’m not demanding that we pull over.” Although I feel completely safe going this fast with Xander at the wheel. I trust him completely. And we do have a very good reason for having to speed.

We pass a line of three transport trucks as if they are standing still and Xander asks, “Did Luna do her retraction?”

“Didn’t see any mention of one.”