Page 31 of My Infatuation with Isabella

I shrug.“What? I wanna know.”

“It worked! Let’s just say the plane ride wasn’t the only ride I got out of him.”

“Oh, my God! I am so getting fired.”Tommy swiftly ends that call. “You’ve been a blast, Charlene, but we have to love and leave you. Have a good one.” He still sounds fine, even though the anxiety gushing through him makes him look like he’s on the verge of throwing up.“I literally want to die.”

“Me, too.”

The calls don’t stop there. We get a few more empathizing with my heartbreak. One guy calls in to say I wasn’t stupid to get the tattoo. He did the same thing after his breakup. A mom calls in to tell us she reacted the same way Tommy’s mom reacted to her son coming out, and Tom made her realize how ignorant she was, so she wanted advice on how to make amends. Tommy takes that call very seriously and talks her through some of the very complicated emotions he experienced when he came out to his mother and how her rejection made him feel. The whole talk is truly enlightening, but it only causes more lights and more flashing.

Eventually, we give up trying to find the OFF button and entertain calls until eleven o’clock finally arrives. I just sit there, putting on my most upbeat voice even though in reality I’m rubbing my temples, trying not to die of embarrassment every time a caller reminds me of how much of myself I’ve revealed to them. All I can taste is the bile rising in my throat, and I just want the ground to crack open and swallow me whole.

Shonay, who does the eleven to two slot, walks into the studio and shakes her head at us. Walking over to all the gadgets, she flips a switch, and the light for the ON AIR sign finally goes off.

“So, that’s the switch,” Tommy says with a breath of relief. “Melanie must’ve forgotten to switch it off when she left because we didn’t touchanything...or maybe I accidentally flipped it while I was dusting. I don’t know.”

Shonay’s eyes move between the two of us. “I don’t know who’s going to get fired? You or Jason. All I know is that one or both of you are going to be jobless soon. Heads are going to roll.”

Tommy and I are reeling from shock, so the possibility of him losing this job doesn’t even faze us. He can get another job. At this moment, the task that seems unattainable is getting our pride back. We leave without saying another word.

“I can’t believe so many people know all that stuff about us,” I say as we step into the elevators, and I still sound so shaken.

“At least it’s not a viral video,” Tommy reassures me. “No one saw our faces, so no one knows it’s us. Those people will forget about it in a few days.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

The elevator doors open, and I’m surprised to see Scott sitting in the lobby. His foot taps rapidly on the floor. I’m not sure if he’s nervous or impatient...or both.

“Scotty, what are you doing here?” Tommy asks as we move through the security checkpoint.

He immediately stands up and walks toward us. “I was at home grading papers. I put on the show because it helps me concentrate...and I heard you guys on the radio. I tried to call to tell you...because it didn’t sound like you guys knew you were on air.”

“We didn’t. We found that out the hard way.” I take my phone out of my purse and see eighteen missed calls from Scott. “Thanks for trying to warn us. We didn’t hear it, though. We put our phones on silent when we went into the studio.”

“Yeah, about that.” His elevated breathing shows that he’s even more nervous now. “I wasn’t calling to warn you about that. I was calling to warn you that I...shit...I mean, I was calling you to tell you to stop talking because...fuck...”

Scott is a well-composed guy, but I have never seen him so flustered. His face is red, and he’s shaking.

“I broke the pact,” he blurts out suddenly. “Dylan...he’s my boy, you know...and he didn’t handle the breakup well. He thought you didn’t care about him, so...so when I heard you talking...about your relationship with him...I thought maybe...maybe it would give him some closure about how you really felt...and?”

“Scott, what did you do?” I am so panicked that it comes out as a high-pitched shriek.

“I sent him the live-streaming link.”

“What!” I scream in horror. My blood pressure shoots through the roof. I didn’t think I could feel more embarrassed, more hysterical, more overwhelmed. I was wrong.

Tommy starts pacing again. “Scotty, what were you thinking?”

“I’m sorry. Isa, I’m so sorry. I didn’t think you were gonna say all of that other stuff. When you started talking about? Shit, I tried to call you.”

There’s a space between murderous and abject mortification, and that’s where I am right now. “I know you have blind loyalty when it comes to your friend, but we made the pact for a reason!”

The remorse he feels is written all over his face. “I know. I’m sorry. I promise I will never break the pact again. No matter how dire the circumstances, come hell or high water, I willneverbreak the pact again.”

“It’s a little late for a promise like that, don’t you think?” My voice is still coming out in uneven waves, and I’m trying my best to stay calm. “Well...maybe he didn’t hear it. You just sent him the link. Maybe he was busy and didn’t listen to it.”

Scott freezes, becoming anxious again. “No, he heard it.”

“How do you know?”

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