Page 48 of (La)Crosse My Heart

I push her back just enough to see her face. “They fired you? You’ve done nothing but work your tail off since you’ve been here. What reasoning did they give?”

She leans forward and logs into her own social media account, pulling up a picture of us kissing in the green room.

“You can’t tell that’s us,” I say, waving to the picture. I mean, I’m happy we look that good together, but I don’t want to show it because of what she’s going through.

She swipes to the left and I see another picture of us, only inches apart. You can definitely see it’s us.

“What’s wrong with that?” I ask, trying not to gloat.

She slumps back against the pillows, and I have to turn to see her face.

“She specifically told me not to get into a relationship with you.”

And now I’m speechless.

It takes several moments for my brain to restart. “Your boss told you the day you started you couldn’t date me?”

Her eyes are closed, but she nods, another tear slipping down her cheek.

“Why would she do that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe to avoid any scandals?”

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

She sits up, a sudden fire in her eyes as she says, “Really? I’m just repeating what I assume is the reason for it.”

Leaning back, I say, “Jessa, I didn’t mean that about you.”

Something about my words helps her relax somewhat. I reach over to tug her toward me gently, waiting for her to decide if she wants to accept my hug or not.

“If you want, I can go talk to her. Try to get your job back,” I say.

She shakes her head. “No, it’s no good.”

I’m not sure what else to do to help her. “I could say it was my fault. I’m the one who kissed you.”

She gives a mirthless laugh and says, “I didn’t pull away though, did I?”

“Do you want to fight for this job? Or do something else?”

“I don’t know.” She sits up again and starts folding her blanket. “I think I’m going to go to bed.”

“No, Jessa. Stay a bit. I don’t want you to be alone.”

She gives me a flicker of a smile before she waves and heads out the door.

I’m frozen, looking at the wall for several moments. Who was on set and had access to take those photos?

I might have to do some digging.

22

Jessa

Ithink I only got twenty minutes of decent sleep last night.

The panic of moving into my rental and now having to figure out how to pay for that or break the lease and head back home had me reeling.

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