Page 36 of Bottle Shock
The word tastes sour.
“He said if I didn’t sleep with him, he’d fire me.”
Her hand curls around the table’s edge, knuckles white.
“I said no. And he still tried.” I blink hard, staring at the table so I don’t have to look at the pity on her face. “He didn’t even touch me. I was quick. I got away.”
I take a second to collect my thoughts. “Afterward, I told myself it wasn’t what it was. That maybe I misunderstood. That maybe it was just a bad moment and I blew it up in my head.”
My voice breaks, just slightly.
“But when I came in the next day, I was removed from the show. And told not to come back.”
“So then what did you do?” she asks, and her voice is careful, like she’s afraid to push me too hard.
“I reported him,” I say. “I went to my union. But you know…it’s my word against his. And he’s ‘innocent until proven otherwise.’” I make air quotes, my hand shaking a little. “So now I’m here. Until—hopefully—this all blows over.”
There’s a beat where neither of us says anything.
Just heavy, aching air between us.
Then Elyse blinks, and tears slip free, silent and angry.
“Oh, Scottie.”
My chest caves inward.
I didn’t expectherto cry.
She stands up, fast, like her body can’t hold still under the weight of it, and rounds the table to me. I’m already rising, and then her arms are around me—tight, fierce, like she’s trying to hold me together with will alone.
“I’m fine. It’s the next girl I’m worried about. The one who won’t be as lucky as I was.”
“I’m going to kill him,” she whispers into my hair. It’s not a joke. Not really. But it makes something in me stutter, the smallest laugh punching out of my throat.
“Get in line,” I say, voice cracking. “I’ve got dibs.”
She pulls back just enough to look at me, eyes wet, her nose scrunched.
And God—now I’m crying.
We cling to each other on the patio in front of a smoothie shop, both of us red-eyed and blotchy, looking completely unhinged to every passerby.
I still feel shitty. But I also feel a little better too.
Like a weight’s been lifted.
CHAPTER 10
Gavin
A HARMLESS LIE
“How much are you planning to spend on this place? What’s your budget?” Ethan asks after being quiet for most of the drive to Wallula Lake.
Leave it to Ethan to only be interested in the financial aspects.
I shrug, staring out the window. “Don’t really have one.”
