Page 131 of Loved

Penny’s face turned bright red. “Does that mean youhavepaid for it? James, are you selling sex tapes of us?!”

“What? No. Rob, cut it out.”

“This isn’t Rob’s fault! He’s not the one filming me.”

“It’s for security reasons…”

“James, you haven’t answered my question. Are you the only one watching it?”

Rob laughed again. “You’re in so much trouble, man.”

Stop it!He was making this all sound so much worse than it was. I was about to open my mouth and tell her about Ian when a ring sounded through the apartment, letting me know we had a visitor.Thank God.I needed to figure out a better way to word this because she was clearly most upset about other people watching it.

“Saved by the bell,” Rob said.

I opened up the elevator doors and Ian stepped out.

What the hell? Hadn’t he been watching?! This wasn’t exactly a good time.

“This is spectacular timing, Ian,” Rob said. “Couldn’t be better.”

I looked over at Penny. Her cheeks were still flushed and she just looked…confused. Which made sense. Because this whole situation was fucked. “Um…hey, Ian,” I said. “Despite what Rob just said, it’s not a great time. We’ll be down in a few minutes.”

“I saw what was going on,” he whispered. “I’m here to help.”

How?“I don’t think you can help with this. Just give me a minute to tell her about you.”

He shook his head. “You’re floundering. I’ve got this.” He walked past me. “Hi, you must be Penny,” Ian said and stuck his hand out for her. “I’m Ian.”

“Hi,” Penny said and shook his hand. “I’m sorry, you walked in at a really weird moment.” She shook her head like she was trying to shake away all the questions she still had for me. “You said your name was Ian? How do you know James?”

“I was just about to tell you,” I said. “Ian is…”

“I’m his driver,” Ian said. “Just his driver. That’s my job description.”

Sorry…what?

“You’re James’ driver?” Penny looked back and forth between us.

“Yup,” Ian said. “That’s my job. I’m a normal driver person.”

What the fuck is he doing?

“He’s never mentioned having a driver,” Penny said.

“Ah, yeah, well he didn’t need my services since moving here. But he called me up and said that the two of you are moving to New York. So I came down for just the day to drive you two to the city…”

“And me,” Rob said. “I’m coming too.”

“To drive thethreeof you to the city, yeah.”

Wow.Lies on top of lies. I was trying to be honest here…

“So you worked for James while he was living in the city?” Penny asked. “And he just hired you back?”

“Yup. Because you’ll need a driver again there. Trust me, navigating the subway or taxis is a nightmare.”

She really shouldn’t trust him because he was lying through his teeth.

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