I spray my favorite perfume on, and I’m ready to go.
I look at my reflection in the mirror.
My cheeks are flush. I look happy.
That’s because I am.
I’m going out dancing with the man I love, and I’ve just gotten a new job. There’s a lot to be happy about right now.
I smooth my hands down the front of my dress. Grab my clutch and head out of my room to Gabe. Gucci trots along behind me.
When I walk into the living room, my heart nearly trips over itself.
Gabe is standing at the window, his back to me. He’s wearing a gunmetal-gray suit. His hands are pushed into the pockets of the pants.
“Hey.” I smile.
But he doesn’t reply. Doesn’t move. Doesn’t turn around.
“Gabe?” I step closer, my heels clicking against the floor, suddenly loud in the silence.
“Why?” That one word, whispered with a serious intensity, confuses me but sends a warning signal to my brain that something’s definitely not right.
“Why what? What’s wrong, Gabe?” I take another step closer, putting my clutch down on the arm of the sofa.
Finally, he turns. And I wish he hadn’t. His face is like stone.
My brow furrows. “What’s happened?”
His hands drop from his pockets. He balls them at his sides. “Why did you do it, Ava?”
“Do what? You’re going to have to help me out here because I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play fucking stupid!” he roars, surprising the hell out of me. “I know, Ava. I fucking know. Just tell me why you did it.”
I frown. “Don’t yell at me like that, Gabriel. And I honestly don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. What did I supposedly do?”
“You know exactly what you did. You sold me out. You fucking sold me out, Ava.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Gil called me.” Gil is Gabriel’s manager. “Bradford Digby’s fucking lawyers called Gil to notify him that a story on me is going live on Digby’s trashy fucking news site in an hour.”
“What?”
“Don’t play dumb. It doesn’t suit you. Did they not tell you that it’d be going live so soon? What were you going to do? Just up and disappear before I found out it was you?”
“Jesus, Gabe!” I tug on my ponytail, frustrated. “I honestly don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. I didn’t sell any story to anyone. I haven’t spoken to anyone. I don’t know what’s going on here, but it doesn’t have anything to do with me.”
He advances across the room so quickly, it forces me back a step.
He looms over me, face taut with anger. “You recorded our conversation. When I told you about my parents being in prison, about me fucking women for money, you got it all on tape, and then you sold it to Bradford fucking Digby!”
“No!” I gasp. “No, I didn’t!”
“Liar,” he hisses. Then, he laughs an empty sound. “Well, you sure got lucky with that conversation. I bet you couldn’t believe your fucking luck. No wonder you were pushing me to be honest with you. I bet you weren’t expecting what came out of my mouth though. It was probably as close to winning the lottery for you, hearing all that. Did you record all our conversations? Or just that one?”
My hands ball into fists at my sides. “I’ve never recorded any of our conversations.”
“Liar.”
“I’m not lying!”
“Just fucking stop, Ava. The lawyers sent Gil the interview that you signed off on and a copy of the recording of our conversation.”
He pulls his cell from his pocket and presses the screen. A second later, the room is filled with the sound of Gabe’s and my voices.
“I used to sleep with women for money.”
“What?”
“And my parents are in prison for drug trafficking, racketeering, and murder.”
He presses stop on the recording.
“Gabe…I don’t know how our conversation was recorded, but it wasn’t me.”
He swipes the screen on his phone and turns it to me. “It’s all there, in black and white, Ava. Every single thing I told you. As quoted by you.”
I grab the phone from him and scan the words in front of me. I catch sight of my name.
…details from the woman who knows him best. His live-in lover, Ava Simms.
“No,” I gasp, my eyes flying to Gabe. “No, I didn’t do this. This wasn’t me, I swear.” My heart is pounding in my chest, my mind reeling with confusion.
“Stop fucking lying to me!” he yells.
“I’m not lying! It wasn’t me! Someone else recorded our conversation because it wasn’t me.”