Page 59 of Scandalous Lover

“But he’s going to find out,” Fran adds.

“What do you mean?”

Fran just laughs. “Everyone’s going to find out. It’s hard to keep a secret here.”

I bite my lip and try to pretend I hadn’t already come to a similar conclusion the second I set foot in that resort.

“The secret is really important,” I say. “To Sam.”

Fran’s eyebrows lift. “But not to you?”

I shrug. “I don’t have to live here and work with a pissed off Dom every day.”

Fran nods thoughtfully. “But you could. Live here, I mean.”

I let my eyes wander around the airy, Spanish tiled kitchen while I consider. “I guess. My Instagram is really Austin-based, so that would be a transition.” I shake my head. “No. It would be starting over.”

“Maybe a fresh start is what you need. It doesn’t sound like things were exactly sunshine and rainbows in your old community.”

It’s certainly not the first time I’ve considered what she’s suggesting. How could I not consider wiping the slate clean and starting over after such a huge blow? But it just feels like letting them win. If I disappear, tail between my legs, the bullies will have gotten their way. And I will have let them get away with it.

“Don’t want to let them win?” Fran asks, reading my mind.

When I glance back up at her, I’m surprised to feel a rush of emotions that mist my eyes. I nod. “They shouldn’t have done what they did. It wasn’t fair. And if I never come back, if I disappear, they will have gotten exactly what they wanted. It almost seems like an admission of guilt.”

“I get that. But you can’t live your life trying to prove things to other people. How would that even work with your job? Can you truly create content from your heart if you’re only doing it to spite a couple of mean girls?”

This woman is wise beyond her years. I suddenly feel even luckier to have landed here when my life crashed and burned. “I’ve thought about that for sure. And whether it’s ever going to feel the same to hit publish on a post when I’m constantly worrying about whether it’s going to be taken down by trolls.” Idrag my hands down my face. “The PR people told me to get a few posts ready to go for next week, but I can’t even imagine what they’ll be. All I can think about is how people could react poorly to whatever it is I choose to post. You’re right. It’s not going to work if that’s how I feel.”

Fran lays her hand on mine sympathetically. “That doesn’t sound like a sustainable way to go on.”

I close my eyes as the tears rise to the surface.

“But,” she goes on, giving my hand a squeeze, “maybe it won’t be like that. Maybe time will do its job and settle this mess into the past where it belongs.”

I nod, not looking up. “Maybe.”

“Until then, you’re here, and you may as well make the best of it.” Her tone brightens, andI lift my head to see her smiling encouragingly at me.

I wipe my eyes. “It feels great to be here. I feel safe, which is not how I felt in the city for the last week I was there.”

“And we’ve got an absolutely insane wedding next week to help with the distraction.”

I’m finally able to return her smile. “Tell me everything.”

She wasn’t kidding about the insanity. The couple has pulled out all the stops planning a lavish party fit for royalty. From the armored vehicles carrying vintage wines being brought over on barges, to the African tiger refuge that’s having ten years of operating costs covered in exchange for bringing a few cubs to the island for pictures, the wedding plans Fran lays out for me are unreal.

“This is a content creator’s dream come true.”

She’s grinning at me. “So you’ll do it?”

“Oh, yeah. You couldn’t keep me away from this party if you tried.”

“Fantastic. I’ve never had someone specifically looking for ways to capture a wedding as content, so you’llreally be on your own. There will be a Sands photographer, and the couple has their own photographers, of course, but my thought was that you could just put on a party dress and let your inspiration guide you. I’ll share some of the stuff you shoot with the couple, as a bonus, but they signed a waiver allowing us to use the images from their celebration in our own promotional materials, so I’ll be holding back the best of the best for our own socials.”

“Sounds like a blast.”

“Anything you need? Camera-wise or anything else?”

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