Page 78 of Falling Off Script

“Come on,” he says, stepping in. “Do you know the kind of reach this could get? Viral potential? I could clip a single sentence and we’d be trending on TikTok in under four hours.”

“She’s not a campaign.”

“She’s an influencer,” he shoots back. “That is, an attention whore.”

I stand.

He doesn’t flinch.

But he doesn’t smirk either.

“Let me guess,” I say. “Still tracking your bet?”

That gets a twitch.

Just a little one, but it’s there.

“Of course I tracked it. I won.”

“You think this is about winning?”

“It’s always about winning. That was your rule, remember?”

My jaw locks. I don’t answer.

He studies me. Slowly. Too slowly.

“Wait,” he says. “You actually fucked her.”

No question mark.

“So it’s true,” Tyler says.

“And you’re already plotting how to use it!” I feel it heat behind my eyes. I breathe. Swallow it. “Of course you are.”

“You trained me to.”

That hangs there. Heavy. Ugly.

And true.

I sit back down, jaw tight.

“Then unlearn it.”

Tyler scoffs, turns toward the door, and mutters just loud enough for me to hear: “You’re making a mistake.”

Then he’s gone.

And I’m alone again.

With the folder.

With the memory.

With the fact that I have, in fact, forgotten the rules.

36. Emily

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