I scroll on my phone. My sales…they’re up by ten percent so far. The little ads that cut to the commercials must be helping. They say, Purchase the clothes worn by the Calloway sisters right now! And they show the links to the CC website.
I wish my body didn’t soar by the small success. A part of me wishes this reality show was a failure so I could easily choose my sisters’ welfare over my dream. I should do it. Two years ago, I think I would have. But I wonder if Lily would ever forgive herself for driving my company to the ground. I think she needs to know that my company is okay too—that she didn’t destroy everything with her addiction.
Daisy’s phone slips between her fingers and clatters to the floor. She bends down to pick it up, forgetting that she’s in a black backless dress I designed, short on her thighs. The dress immediately rides up, showing half her ass since she wears cut-off boy-short underwear.
My little sister has sufficiently mooned the crowd.
Ryke is the closest to Daisy. “Fuck,” he curses, quickly standing behind her. He grabs the hem of her dress and tugs down.
The three guys look over their shoulders at the nearest camera.
“Did they see her…？” Lo trails off, not able to talk about Daisy’s ass without cringing.
“That one did.” Connor motions to a photographer with horned-rimmed glasses, gesturing for him to come over to us. As the photographer nods and approaches, Connor pulls out his phone and makes a quick call.
Daisy struggles to pick up her cell.
“Daisy, grab the fucking thing,” Ryke tells her, having to literally tug her dress down three more times as she moves.
She finally snatches the phone and spins towards him with a large smile. “Got it!”
Ryke stares at the hem of her dress, making sure it’s not riding up. I should be the one doing it, but I’m slightly tipsy, and I fear moving the wrong direction in my four-inch heels. I already sway a little. If it wasn’t for Connor’s hand protectively on my waist, I would have stumbled by now.
“Are you checking out my ass?” Daisy asks with the raise of her eyebrows
“Yeah, so did the rest of the fucking party.”
“So what’d you think? On a scale of one to ten.” She grins playfully.
“I’m not rating your ass.”
“Will you ride it then?”
“Daisy,” I interject. Stop, I mouth. She pushes Ryke too far, and he’s not one to back down from these kinds of conversations.
Daisy’s smile fades. “Sorry…I was just messing around.” She flips her phone in her hand. “I’m going to go…mingle.”
Now I feel bad.
“No,” I tell her sharply. “You’re staying.”
“No, it’s cool. I need to go talk to Mom anyway.” She avoids Ryke who stares down at her with a strong gaze—filled with this unadulterated concern. It’s strange for such a hard-lined guy to have such potent empathy for others. But I’ve seen it come out on more than one occasion.
Connor speaks into the receiver of his phone. “Greg, you see this photographer nearing me?”
So he called my father.
Connor continues, “He has a picture of your daughter’s ass. I’m going to take the camera if you don’t send someone to do it.”
I hear my father say, “Which daughter? And I have someone on the way. Thank you.”
“Daisy.”
My father lets out a large sigh. “That one’s going to kill me.”
Connor’s lips slowly upturn, and his eyes glimmer with this unbridled longing. It’s powerful but barely visible. Fleeting. Like an eclipse of the sun.
He truly wants children.
He wants the challenges that each one brings.
He smiles as though he can’t wait for that day where he has to deal with the hard parental choices, the dilemmas, the chaotic situations he must calm.
He does want it all.
But I’m afraid I may not be able to give it to him.
CHAPTER 18
CONNOR COBALT
The screening party has been going relatively fine until I watched Samantha Calloway fawn over every bullshit line that came out of Scott’s mouth. He complimented her brown hair three fucking times, and Rose’s mother was close to melting at his feet. At least her father is on my side.
He texted me: I don’t like him. – Greg
To the point, a heart with good intentions. No bullshitting around. That’s Greg Calloway. His wife isn’t as benevolent, intelligent or non-judgmental. She has a WASP elitist mentality that would make my mother internally roll her eyes.
It’s mostly Rose’s parents that have my stomach in knots. Because even though I’ve appeared only twice in the show, edited to look disinterested in my own girlfriend, it’s their opinions that matter to me, not the public, not strangers—just people that I need to impress. Because one fucking day, I plan to marry that girl, and I want them to realize that I’m the best man for Rose. And that no one else can come even marginally close.
Rose’s anxiety is sedated with five glasses of champagne, and she relaxes into my chest while I hold her around the waist. Since the aired footage has been mostly about the “love triangle” for the past fifteen minutes, Lily bottles her emotions and finally emerges from Lo’s shirt, her cheeks tear-streaked and pink. I have a feeling Lo will be carrying her out of the venue. Most likely in a front piggy-back.
We’re nearing the last five minutes. I think they’ll end with a Lo and Lily clip, but as soon as Scott Van Wright’s face fills every big screen with the caption—Heartthrob. Rose’s ex-boyfriend—I realize they’re going to continue to capitalize on the love triangle.
So here we go, Scott. What do you have left for me?
“I think about her all the time,” he says with an insincere, wistful smile. “She’s a firestorm that I won’t ever smother. I’m the one who inflames her, who riles her to a new, confounding degree. She’s my perfect match.”
My face falls. And I unwillingly let everyone see my shock. I can’t hold it in this time.
Because those last lines are mine. I said them in an interview.
And he stole them from me.
“I hate him,” Rose says under her breath, her eyes narrowed. She can’t see my reaction since she stands in front of my body while I hold her from behind.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“He plagiarized you.”
I let out a breath. “Comment peux-tu le dire?” How can you tell?
“Who riles her to a new, confounding degree?” she repeats. “Only you would say that…and maybe me.”
I kiss her cheek and wrap my arms tighter around her waist. She eases back into me. He can’t come between us.
“I’m still in love with her,” Scott says. “And I can’t help what I feel, but it’s there. I love Rose the way she deserves to be loved. I just…” He shakes his head like he’s filled with worry. “I just don’t see Connor being the best thing for her. He’s too self-absorbed to care for that girl the way I do. And I hope, over the course of living with her again, she’ll realize that we’re meant to be.”
“Murder is still illegal in Pennsylvania, right?” Rose asks.