Page 99 of Without You

Country Music Star Chase Stanton visits new girlfriend.

This picture shows Chase driving through Benton. A place ‘he would obviously not be in had it not been for his small town girlfriend’. The story is pretty boring otherwise. In other words, I like this one the best, aside from naming Chase as Katie’s boyfriend.

Looks like Katie isn’t a one man woman.

Oh, look. I made an appearance, too. Kissing Katie outside of the grocery store a few nights ago. It’s a nice picture of us. Very clear. I’d hang it on my wall if I wasn’t so fucking pissed as I read the article claiming that Katie is a serial cheater and apparently has several guys on the hook, is known around town to really get around, and is only leading Chase on for her day in the spotlight. ‘Boy is she getting it now.’

Katie Landers: Cheater?

Nothing different in this article than there was in the one above it, but this is a picture of Katie and me holding hands and laughing. I can’t make out where we’re at because the background is blurry.

“Brody?” Katie whispers and I look up at her, kiss her on the lips, and reply with my own whisper, “It’ll be all right, you hear me? We’ll make this all right.”

“How?”

“I don’t know,” I tell her honestly, looking back down at my phone and continuing to scroll through the posts.

“There’s more?”

“Yeah, babe. There’s more. Just hang tight, okay?”

She starts crying again and I tuck her against my side, one arm wrapped around her shoulders, careful to keep my phone angled so she can’t see the screen.

Chase Stanton appears heartbroken leaving his new girlfriend’s workplace.

I scoff. Heartbroken? Hardly. Chase is walking out of the salon just this afternoon. How the hell do they get these pictures and stories so quickly? Sources tell the author of this particular article that Chase had a major change in emotions from when he walked into the salon and left an hour later. There’s not much else to the story aside from painting Katie as the heartbreaker she appears to the world to be.

Sources confirmed Katie Landers is a home wrecker.

The picture they’ve conjured up here makes me wonder who this “source” is that all these articles keep citing. Yet, I now have my suspicions. This picture is of Hannah’s new husband Cameron looking, and there’s clearly no other way to describe it, longingly at Katie and seemingly ignoring his new bride who stands beside him on the other side. I’m not sure what about this picture makes Katie the bad guy here, but the paparazzi has obviously already given her that label so they’re going to keep running with it.

The next headline I read, though? It makes my heart sink.

Katie Landers Sex Tape

I struggle with whether or not to read on, but I can see my shop in the thumbnail of the video so I open it anyway.

And right there, for the entire world to see, is a video of Katie and me having sex in my office. The angle of the video makes it obvious that it was recorded from outside of the window. The entire video is ten minutes thirty-two seconds long. And lucky for me, there’s a view counter that shows how many people have viewed the video of Katie and me having sex. One would be too many. Over a thousand is beyond a nightmare.

“What. The. Fuck.”

“Is it that bad?”

I’m not about to lie to her. “Yeah, it’s that bad.”

I look at the video again and…

“What the fuck! This was thirty minutes ago!”

“What was? Brody! You’re freaking me out more by not telling me.”

“I know, babe, I know. Just… Johnny? Chad? Explain how this happened.”

“We have no idea. I saw it just by chance.”

“How?”

Johnny looks like he could throw up, which I understand completely because that’s exactly how I feel right in this moment. “Know how that Elijah guy picked up that spare tire today? Well, it was actually Chase Stanton.”

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