Page 74 of The Love Rematch
It’s Trish.
“Fuck,” he mutters before launching to his feet and pulling her with him. “Coming!”
His hold is firm but never painful, gentle even if coercing. It’s clear he’s innately aware of what lines can and can’t be crossed. How did she never notice how carefully he always handled her? It’s so obvious now that he’s restraining himself, that he could so easily overpower her but never would. Emily goes along with his obvious plan and huddles in the closet, hiding between a few of his suit jackets. The smell of him overwhelms her, comforting as an old blanket. Jake meets her eyes once before sliding the door closed.
“Don’t say anything.”
Then she’s in the dark, barely able to see him through a sliver in the sliding door. He steps out of sight for a moment. The hinges creak as the door swings open. He’s back in view by the time it clicks closed.
“Give me an explanation right now or you’re fired,” Trish says, her tone ominous. Emily can’t see her, but she can imagine the hard lines along her porcelain face. The executive producer is fearsome to behold even under the most mundane circumstances.
Jake shifts his weight, obviously uncomfortable, then straightens his shoulders when his decision is made.
“My father was abusive,” he says, tone firm but detached in a way maybe no one but Emily would ever notice. His fingers curl into a fist by his side, clenching once before flexing. It’s the only indication that this topic is so very difficult for him to discuss that the mere mention is cutting him up inside. Does Trish notice? Does she care? “When I saw Ethan’s elbow connect with Emily’s face, I just reacted,” he continues. “I honestly don’t even remember getting from point A to point B. One second I was with the crew, and the next he was on the ground. I’m not proud of what happened. I’m actually horrified by it. So you can trust me when I say, please fire me if you feel like that’s what you need to do. I understand. My behavior was indefensible.”
He stops talking and waits.
The silence stretches from one second into two.
Emily tries to hold perfectly still in her hiding spot, but her every breath sounds like roaring thunder in the quiet. Her heart pounds. Her palms start to sweat. There was a reason Jake was always the one sneaking into her house in the middle of the night. She wasn’t made for this. Already, her muscles are beginning to cramp as adrenaline floods her system.
Finally, Trish sighs.
“Thank you for your honesty.” It’s the warmest Emily has ever heard the executive producer sound, which is to say, a few degrees above freezing. But still. “Don’t beat yourself up. I’ve seen worse punches, and you got lucky this time. We convinced Ethan to sign an NDA as well as an agreement not to sue so long as we delete the footage of everything that happened after Frank’s punch. He thinks he’ll come out the victor to the viewers, which is exactly what we want him to think anyway. Nina didn’t have time to get a read on Emily before Rita escorted her out, but my gut feeling is that if he apologizes profusely enough, she’ll keep him.”
Jake’s face turns dark. “You want him to stay?”
“Want him to stay?” Trish scoffs.
Emily leans a little closer, fully absorbed in the conversation. It’s the first time she’s heard the producers speak as if she’s not there, because, well, as far as Trish knows, she’s not. It’s a tantalizing peek behind the curtain.
“He’s our season,” Trish continues. “You know that. We haven’t had a villain win in years. The viewers will eat it up.”
Villain?Emily thinks. All the hours she’s spent chatting with Nina run through her mind. Never once has her handler had a bad thing to say about Ethan. She’s always been encouraging, talking about how attractive he is, how romantic their dates are. On some level, Emily knew it was bullshit, but to hear it out loud is something else. All the man’s red flags flash before her eyes like a billboard in Times Square, suddenly so obvious she can’t believe she didn’t notice them until tonight. He’s self-involved. He’s not there for the right reasons. He wants to be famous. He doesn’t care one iota about her. He’s using her to climb the Hollywood ladder. He’s manipulative and deceitful and a con.
He’s the villain.
Of course he’s the freaking villain—and she was playing right into their hands!
Dammit!
“What if Emily doesn’t forgive him?” Jake finally asks. He knows she’s right there listening, and he’s trying to give her an out. “What if she sends him home?”
“Then it’s your ass on the line, Jake, for messing up my storyline.”
He juts his chin forward, about to speak, but she cuts in.
“My room. Five minutes. Nina and Fred are already on their way there, setting up a video conference with Nick and network execs. It’s ultimately not my call if you get to keep your job, so I’d come prepared with answers for the hell Legal is about to put you through. You can tell them what you told me or not. That’s up to you. But you’ll need to tell them something. And I’ll do what I can to help you.”
“Thanks, Trish.”
“Don’t thank me yet.”
Awhooshfollowed by a solidthudindicates the door has opened and closed. Not a moment later, the closet slides open.
Before Jake has time to say anything, Emily emerges from his suit jackets and stands before him. She stares into his unreadable eyes. This is the moment she’s been waiting for since finding him standing outside her window in a suit and headset like some nightmare made to haunt her. This is her revenge. All she has to do is rightfully send Ethan home, and Jake will lose his job. She can make him pay the ultimate price for leaving her seven years ago, for choosing this life over the one they could have had, for throwing everything away. In the back of her mind, Sam chants.
Do it. Do it. Do it.
