Zach nodded. His face was pinched with worry. “We need to tell Alex, too.” He gestured to the computer. “She’s plastered on the Internet.” Nausea churned in my gut. I was going to throw up.
“Who’s plastered on the Internet?”
We looked over, and Alex was standing in the doorway. My chest warmed like it did whenever I saw her, and especially since we’d been so busy that this week, it was like she hadn’t been around at all. I had to think about the last time I actually saw her. It had been at least three days. My stomach dropped into my knees. I didn’t like that. “What are you doing here?” Jake asked, harsher than he meant to be. “I thought you had study group today.”
“I did,” she said. “I canceled.”
“Why?” I asked. “I thought you had a test you were going to go over.”Please, don’t let her have seen TMZ without us, I begged. She didn’t look upset, but it was impossible to guess how she would take the news.
She let out a deflated kind of chuckle. “I had a little bit more pressing matters,” she said. “I need to tell you—”
“You saw TMZ,” I guessed. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it.”
Alex blinked. “What are you talking about? What’s on TMZ?” She hadn’t seen it. Holy Mary, Mother of God, she hadn’t seen it... and I just dropped a fucking bomb on her lap.
“Good going, dumbass,” Zach hissed at me.
Alex looked at him. He was normally the weak link of the three of us, and she knew it. “Zach, what is going on?”
He couldn’t bring himself to say it, so he gestured for her to come join us at the computer. Once he had her wrapped in his arms, he looked at me. “Show her,” he told me.
I didn’t want to, but I pulled up the TMZ website and showed her the article. She read the headline, but it took a few seconds for her to comprehend what, exactly, she was seeing. “Are those pictures of us at Thanksgiving?” she asked numbly.
Jake nodded. His face was still doing that painful thing. He was either going to cry or punch something. If he cried, he would do it until he was dehydrated. I’d seen him do this. If he punched something, he could end up breaking something vital in his hands, or he could end up in prison if the cops decided that today was not the day. “There are pictures of me... nude on the Internet,” she said slowly, as if trying to comprehend it.
“Alex, I’m so—”
She held up a hand, cutting Zach off. “I’m processing,” she said. “I don’t need an apology. I just need a minute.” Her eyes hadn’t left the screen. I could almost see her brain turning things over and over.
The phone on Jake’s desk began to ring. And ring. And ring. Annoyed, I reached for the phone. “Jacobs’s office,” I barked into the receiver.
“Mr. Porter.” It was Don England, the head of the Board. “Is Mr. Jacobs there with you?”
I looked at Jake and Alex. “It’s... not really a good time, sir,” I said.
“Put him on.” The man’s tone left no room for refusal.
I held out the phone to Jake, who eyed me with annoyance. “Mr. England wants to speak with you.”
The color drained from his face, and he took the phone from my hand. “Hello? Yes, sir. Yes, sir.” Whatever Don was telling him, we could see Jake’s shoulders getting tighter and tighter. Alex tore her eyes away from the screen to look at him, but when she reached for him, he stepped out of her reach. The rejection echoed like a slap in the quiet room. Since we started dating Alex, I had never seen him not want her to touch him.
Shit. This was bad.
After too many long, tense minutes, Jake hung up the phone. “The TMZ article was reported to the Board before Hunter ever showed up here. They didn’t know he’d seen it until he charged upstairs. They’ve made the decision to report me to the bar association and put me on suspension, effective immediately.” He let out a groan and rubbed at his face. “I need to call Ryan. That article named him.”
“Take a breath, man,” I said. “That call can wait a few minutes, right?”
Jake’s eyes were like knives against my skin. If he could have stricken me dead with a glance, he would have. “That’s my son,” he said. “I might have ruinedhiscareer on top of mine with this shit, so no, it can’t wait a few minutes.”
Alex flinched hard at his words, but she didn’t say anything to him. I wanted to defend her, to defend the relationship that we’d been building with her, but it was hard to do that in the face of his panic and anger.
Instead, we watched as he called Ryan. “Ry, have you seen—” I couldn’t hear his son’s response, but Jake flushed bright red. “I know. I know. It was stupid, but it wasn’t like I meant to—” His eyes widened. “You’re almost here? I don’t think... okay, okay, we’ll see you in a few minutes.” He hung up. “Ryan and Tinsley are parking right now,” he said.
I had met Jake’s son a handful of times over the years, Thanksgiving being the most extended time that I’ve spent with him, but I knew they weren’t close until very recently. I found myself holding my breath as we waited for the celebrity to arrive. What would he say? Would he blame Jake for potentially ruining his career?
When Natalia showed them in, visibly shell-shocked by the appearance of an A-list celebrity, I was able to breathe out again. Ryan went straight to his father and drew the older man into a hug. Tinsley did the same to Alex, who promptly burst into tears and hung onto her friend. “It’s okay,” Tinsley said, rocking her. “It’s going to be okay.”
“You don’t understand—”