Page 76 of All the Drama from New York

“Thank you,” she sighed.

In her rush to get out of the apartment, Karl’s store was the only logical place she’d thought to go. There was comfort to be found in a familiar environment.

“You my girl, look like a friend who is in need,” said Karl.

“You have no idea.”

Karl cleared his throat. “Actually I have a pretty good idea. Ryan called me in a bit of a panic not five minutes ago, said you might be coming here.”

When had Ryan learned to read her mind so well?

About the same time he stole my heart.

“Did he tell you that people have been following us and taking photos for weeks, and we didn’t have a clue? And now it has blown up all over social media. A major NYC dailynewspaper ran a spiteful story about us this morning. They said Ryan was my toyboy. And…” Camille put a hand to her mouth.

How could she tell Karl that her greatest fear wasn’t that someone had sold their story to the papers? It was that from the very first day she’d met Ryan, their relationship had been under secret scrutiny. Someone had not only stopped to video that first moment in the street, but had taken the time to load it up to the internet.

My whole life has now become a public spectacle. Open to scrutiny and criticism.

All I want to do is make a Prince Charming jacket.

“I didn’t come here just to lay my worries on you Karl. I wanted to see how the order for the new lining fabric was going. Though hiding in the dark recesses of your warehouse and curling up into a tiny ball for a few hours also sounds very appealing.”

Karl held out his arms; and a tearful Camille let him embrace her. “Let’s hop on a zoom chat with my print designer and see how they are going with your custom order. After that I’ll break open my emergency stash of snickerdoodles; and you can tell me all your toyboy troubles.”

He nodded toward a nearby table where a small laptop sat.

“He’s not my toyboy,” protested Camille.

“I know sweetheart. But you do love him. Which means you’ll have to get past the bit where people are throwing shade about you being his boss.”

Is the way I feel about Ryan so obvious?

She stepped away from Karl and wiped at her tears. “Thanks for your support, Karl—it means the world to me. Good friends support one another. Which means you’ll understand why I’ll will be taking your unopened packet of snickerdoodles with me when I leave.”

“Remind me not to offer you sanctuary again in your time of need,” grumbled Karl, as he opened his laptop.

“She was pretty upset when she left, and I just want to make sure she is ok. Call me if there’s anything I can do,” said Ryan. He hung up the call with Karl, and slumped back into his chair. He wasn’t sure where she had gone, but seeing that Karl had been on Camille’s to do list for today, it had made sense to check with him.

This morning was turning into the mother of all clusterfucks. He’d gotten out of bed to go and make coffee for them both. His plan was for them to sit up in bed, drink their morning brew, while organizing the day ahead.

As he’d waited for the coffee machine to heat up, he’d decided to check his phone. Having it onDo Not Disturbat night meant he’d missed dozens of texts, one hundred and twenty five emails, and countless social media notifications.

Racing upstairs to the studio, Ryan had turned on his laptop. The second he’d logged into Instagram, his world had exploded. He was still doom scrolling through endless comments and posts when Camille appeared a little while later.

And now she was gone. Spooked by the social media storm and that spiteful newspaper article. How could people do such a thing.

He was her lover. Her confidante. Not her fuckboy.

Someone had been following them. All the times they’d thought they were alone, and their lives kept private, there hadbeen people stalking them. As soon as he found Camille, he’d be asking her to have a word with her so-called security team.

None of this made sense. Why the sudden interest in them?

Ryan sat forward, and clicked on the newspaper article again. The posts on the various social media platforms had mostly centered around the video which had been taken when he and Camille had collided in the street. He’d known that the guy in the suit had been filming. But this was New York. Nothing happened without someone taking a picture.

But for the mainstream media to have shown any sort of interest they would have needed more than just a short video and some photos. They would have wanted exclusive content.

Ryan Collins who was the runner up on the reality tv show Bachelors on the Beach has been romancing Camille Royal. Camille, a wannabe fashion designer, is the runaway daughter of one of the billionaire members of the international Royal family.

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