Page 112 of At the Heart of It
“Don’t play me!” he slammed his fist down in the water, splashing himself and his beer and getting nothing on Viv. Of course. That was probably planned, too. “How long have you known about this?”
Viv pressed her lips together. “I found out a few days ago.”
A few. That could mean two or three, or it could mean several weeks. Viv had always been vague in her concept of time.
Did it matter at this point?
He tore his gaze off her and looked straight at the camera. It was something he’d been instructed not to do, at least not in this scene. Doing it now felt like a rebellion of sorts.
“This is fucking bullshit,” he said, aware that he sounded like one of the couples they’d been counseling. Like an angry, impetuous, scorned lover.
But that’s what this felt like. Like he’d been lied to by someone he’d cared about, slept with, laughed with, loved.
Only in this case, it wasn’t his ex-wife.
As he turned and found Kate in the crowd, he focused on her again. She met his gaze, not blinking at all. Her face might seem expressionless to anyone who didn’t know her well, but Jonah knew her a helluva lot better than well.
At least he thought he had.
Maybe he’d been kidding himself. Maybe the remorse in her eyes was all for show. For the show—this goddamn, stupid reality-TV show.
He watched as she twisted her hands in the ruffled hem of her coat. She was blinking hard, and he wondered if it was the lights or the chlorine or some real show of emotion.
It couldn’t be real. None of this was real.
Her mouth moved then, but no sound came out. Even so, Jonah could make out the words.
“I’m sorry.”
He shook his head, so tired all of a sudden that he couldn’t bring himself to respond. To even look at Kate anymore. He closed his eyes, inhaling the scent of wet stones and crushed fern while anger pounded so hard in his brain that he felt his teeth clack together.
“Fuck you,” he muttered.
In that moment, he didn’t know who he hated more. Kate? Viv?
Himself?
“Fuck you,” he said again, tossing the dark net of sentiment over all three of them. “I’m done.”
Chapter 19
“Jonah, wait!”
Kate scrambled down the hall after him, slipping in the wet puddles of his footsteps. She regained her balance and kept after him, watching as he stormed toward the powder room just off the foyer. She felt the floor shake as he pushed 0pen the door.
“Leave me alone, Kate!”
“Jonah, please?—”
He slammed the door in her face.
A noise behind her made Kate turn. At the end of the hall, Pete stood with his camera trained on her. On the whole scene that had just transpired.
Of course.
The dramatic, impassioned exit of a reality show superstar. It was the biggest ratings-grabber on the planet.
“Pete,” Kate said calmly. “I’m going to ask you nicely to shut the camera off and leave the room.”
