Page 62 of Curveball
“Oh, wait! Let me guess,” she interrupts.
I pop up my eyebrow.
“There’s no way in hell you’re getting mixed up with that family again?”
“Ding, ding!” I pretend I’m ringing a bell.
“Does Dylan know what’s going on?”
“Yeah. Not only is he reaching out to Dylan directly”—I have to pause for Priya to recover from her gasp and her string of not-so-muttered curses, then I continue—“He walked in on a phone conversation between me and his grandfather not long ago. It wasn’t pretty.”
“The poor kid. And?”
“He’s upset, of course. We’ll get through it.”
“You should contact an attorney.”
“That’s what Max says, too.”
Once again, she pops up straight in her seat.
“Max knows about what happened?”
I pause for a heartbeat.
“It came up. He was . . . upset.”
“Why? Was he affected? Did he get caught in Alex’s scheme?”
And Jesus, I am so thankful there are a couple of people I can be totally open with. Not many know the whole truth and love me anyway.
“No, not that I know of. He didn’t mention it when we discussed the whole thing, and I think he would have.”
“I guess that’s good, right? It makes it easier to be around him at school events.”
And though I gave her the news Ineedto share with her, I avert my attention to the group coming in through the bright pink door, and then the frenetic activity at the subtly lit bar. Anywhere but to my friend sitting across from me, patiently waiting, and not at all expecting what I’m about to say.
“Pree, we’ve sort of been . . . seeing each other.”
Priya flops back in her seat, her eyes widened.
“Palmer,” she whispers, and I nod, worry and optimism warring in my chest.
This announcement wouldn’t normally seem like a big deal,except it is a pretty big deal.She knows how hard I’ve worked to live my life low-key, under the radar. No social media, no large footprint in the world.
“I know,” I whisper back. “He’s got a big life, famous friends, the whole nine yards. Or, all bases covered, as it were,” I joke in another one of those baseball analogies, but it falls flat. She doesn’t laugh.
“Palmer, he’s in the news, like, every week. How are you going to deal with that?”
Her voice is still low, urgent. I get it. I’ve worked myself into this relationship with Max little by little, baby steps. She’s hearing about a fait accompli.
“Mostly, I’ve only had to deal with Alejandro. He’s really been putting on the pressure.”
“Ugh, that’s an ugly mess. And such a blatant case of libel, I can’t believe anyone would believe it, much less publish it.”
“Yeah, Max contacted his attorney and they’re on it.”
“But Alejandro. What can you do to get him to stop?”
