Without You: A Friends-to-Lovers Small Town Romance

by Jennifer Van Wyk

  “Finally you picked up! I’m on my way to you. You need to stay on the phone with me until I get there, okay?”

  “What the hell, man? I’m in the middle of something here,” I tell him, about to hang up.

  “Don’t hang up. I mean it. Chad should be there soon. Do you know where Katie is?”

  I make eye contact with Katie and she turns her head in question, mouthing the word ‘what’. I stand up, alert and nervous. “She’s here with me. What the hell is going on?”

  “Good. Good. Just… stay on the line. I’ll be there in two minutes.”

  “Johnny, you’re seriously pissing me off. Would you just tell me what you’re freaking out about? Is it my parents? Are they okay?”

  “They’re okay, as far as I know.”

  I hear Chad’s pickup pulling up to the shop so I tell Johnny that I’m letting him go. I watch through the window of the office as Chad hops out of his pickup and storms inside the office. “Johnny call you?”

  “What the fuck is going on, Chad?”

  “Johnny called you,” he murmurs. “Hand me your phone?”

  “Fuck off.”

  “Yours too, Katie. I’m being real here.”

  Johnny pulls up, slamming his truck into park before it’s even come to a complete stop and runs to the door, flinging it open.

  “You get ‘em?”

  “No. He’s being a little irritable about the whole thing.”

  “Because no one’s telling us what the hell is going on!” I shout.

  Johnny approaches me slowly, like I’m a wounded animal about to strike. “Hand me your phones and we’ll explain.”

  I look at Katie and nod. They’ve never led me astray before now, so it’s best that I trust them. Katie walks over to her jacket and pulls her phone out, handing it to Chad. I follow suit, handing mine to Johnny. They both pocket them immediately then motion for us to sit down.

  “There’re a couple pictures online. They’re not… good.”

  “Okay? Of what?” Katie asks.

  Johnny and Chad share a look and then direct their eyes on Katie. Johnny’s the one who speaks up. “You.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Brody

  Katie looks like she’s going to be sick. “Of me? Why? What kind of pictures?”

  “Pictures that shouldn’t be online.”

  “Like… weird pictures of me that look ugly or something worse like… naked pictures?” she whispers. She looks at a spot on the wall and her eyebrows furrow. “But wait. How would there be naked pictures of me online?” she asks herself a good fucking question.

  Johnny and Chad share another look that tells me naked pictures is exactly what they found of my girl and I come unglued. “Are you fucking kidding me?!” I shout, kicking a chair across the floor.

  Chad winces. “Not naked, but the pictures are... you shouldn’t look. There’s something else, too, that’s where the nudity…”

  Rage burns within me and I interrupt him, growling, “I need to see.”

  “No, you don’t, man,” Johnny says, placing a hand on my arm. “You really don’t.”

  “Well, I do! If they’re pictures of me, I need to see what’s going on!”

  “Not you, either.”

  “Cut the shit,” I growl. “Give me a phone now.”

  Katie looks shocked, irritated, and definitely more than a little scared at what we’ll find. I’m settling on anger. It’s working for me and I haven’t even seen the photos yet.

  “Hand to God, if one of you two sons of bitches don’t hand over a phone and show me what the fuck is going on, I’ll beat both your asses.”

  Chad gestures to Johnny who sighs heavily. “You realize your reluctance to hand it over only makes me more on edge, right?”

  Johnny nods but looks intently, wanting me to see their side of why they’re holding back. “You gotta understand we’re trying to protect you.”

  “Got that. But you gotta understand I’m trying to protect my girl but I can’t protect her if I don’t know what I’m protecting her from.”

  “I want it on record that we warned you. It’s paparazzi and they’re notorious for being asshats.”

  “Why would paparazzi be taking pictures of me?” Katie asks in a shaky voice.

  Johnny finally relents, dropping my phone in my outstretched hand. “You’ll see.”

  “What am I searching?”

  “Her name.”

  My head flies up and I pierce him with a hard look. “They know Katie’s name?”

  Chad rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah. I have a theory but…”

  I type in Katie Landers into my search history and the results that pop up are confusing at first but quickly shift to disturbing and scary as hell.

  “Brody?” Katie says in a quiet voice that breaks my heart. “What’s going on?”

  I cup her cheek with my hand and thread my fingers through her silky hair, leaning down to give her a soft kiss. “Let me look first, okay? I don’t want…” I don’t even know how to finish that sentence. What don’t I want? Right now? A lot of things. Starting with this problem not even existing.

  Chase Stanton off the market?

  There’s a picture of Chase kissing Katie in front of a café. I assume this is the day that he changed her tire. I can’t even see Katie’s face in this one, but Chase’s is visible as he bends low, hovering over Katie. Included with the photo is a small article about how the “couple” was spotted having breakfast together but left in separate vehicles after an “intimate encounter”. Her name is added as an edit two days after the original post, adding that sources have confirmed the woman in the photo is Katie Landers of Benton, Tennessee.

  Chase Stanton’s new love interest looks to be a hometown girl.

  A picture of Katie walking into the salon, a cup of coffee in her hand, completely oblivious to the fact that someone was taking a picture of her. The article that followed explained that Katie Landers is a massage therapist in Benton, Tennessee, and whoever wrote the article wonders if that means Chase gets personal massages NSFW (not safe for work). Asshats.

  Country Music Star Chase Stanton visits new girlfriend.

  This picture shows Chase driving through Benton. A place ‘he would obviously not be in had it not been for his small town girlfriend’. The story is pretty boring otherwise. In other words, I like this one the best, aside from naming Chase as Katie’s boyfriend.

  Looks like Katie isn’t a one man woman.

  Oh, look. I made an appearance, too. Kissing Katie outside of the grocery store a few nights ago. It’s a nice picture of us. Very clear. I’d hang it on my wall if I wasn’t so fucking pissed as I read the article claiming that Katie is a serial cheater and apparently has several guys on the hook, is known around town to really get around, and is only leading Chase on for her day in the spotlight. ‘Boy is she getting it now.’

  Katie Landers: Cheater?

  Nothing different in this article than there was in the one above it, but this is a picture of Katie and me holding hands and laughing. I can’t make out where we’re at because the background is blurry.

  “Brody?” Katie whispers and I look up at her, kiss her on the lips, and reply with my own whisper, “It’ll be all right, you hear me? We’ll make this all right.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know,” I tell her honestly, looking back down at my phone and continuing to scroll through the posts.

  “There’s more?”

  “Yeah, babe. There’s more. Just hang tight, okay?”

  She starts crying again and I tuck her against my side, one arm wrapped around her shoulders, careful to keep my phone angled so she can’t see the screen.

  Chase Stanton appears heartbroken leaving his new girlfriend’s workplace.

  I scoff. Heartbroken? Hardly. Chase is walking out of the salon just this afternoon. How the hell do they get these pictures and stories so quickly? Sources tell the author of this particular article that Chase had a m
ajor change in emotions from when he walked into the salon and left an hour later. There’s not much else to the story aside from painting Katie as the heartbreaker she appears to the world to be.

  Sources confirmed Katie Landers is a home wrecker.

  The picture they’ve conjured up here makes me wonder who this “source” is that all these articles keep citing. Yet, I now have my suspicions. This picture is of Hannah’s new husband Cameron looking, and there’s clearly no other way to describe it, longingly at Katie and seemingly ignoring his new bride who stands beside him on the other side. I’m not sure what about this picture makes Katie the bad guy here, but the paparazzi has obviously already given her that label so they’re going to keep running with it.

  The next headline I read, though? It makes my heart sink.

  Katie Landers Sex Tape

  I struggle with whether or not to read on, but I can see my shop in the thumbnail of the video so I open it anyway.

  And right there, for the entire world to see, is a video of Katie and me having sex in my office. The angle of the video makes it obvious that it was recorded from outside of the window. The entire video is ten minutes thirty-two seconds long. And lucky for me, there’s a view counter that shows how many people have viewed the video of Katie and me having sex. One would be too many. Over a thousand is beyond a nightmare.

  “What. The. Fuck.”

  “Is it that bad?”

  I’m not about to lie to her. “Yeah, it’s that bad.”

  I look at the video again and…

  “What the fuck! This was thirty minutes ago!”

  “What was? Brody! You’re freaking me out more by not telling me.”

  “I know, babe, I know. Just… Johnny? Chad? Explain how this happened.”

  “We have no idea. I saw it just by chance.”

  “How?”

  Johnny looks like he could throw up, which I understand completely because that’s exactly how I feel right in this moment. “Know how that Elijah guy picked up that spare tire today? Well, it was actually Chase Stanton.”

  “We know. Another long story,” I say.

  “What a day. Anyway, I thought he looked familiar and then it hit me that it was him but I still couldn’t really believe that it was him so I googled his name to see a picture and then I saw the pictures and everything else.”

  “What is it? What kind of pictures could be that bad? Why are there pictures of me? And what about Elijah… I mean, Chase?”

  Maybe it will be best if we start at the beginning and build up from there. “Someone took a picture of the two of you kissing at the café and your “relationship” went viral from there,” I growl.

  “We never kissed!” she shouts. “I promise! He kissed my cheek before I could stop him but that was it.”

  “I believe you.”

  “You do?”

  “Yeah. I don’t know why I would think otherwise, quite honestly. I have quite a bit of faith in the way you feel about me and I don’t think you’d cheat.”

  She blows out a breath and hugs me tight. I toss my phone on the table and wish it would break and somehow simultaneously break the internet so we could remove everything that’s been posted, saved, screen shot… all of it.

  I sit down with her on my lap in my office chair and Johnny moves to the fridge, grabbing a beer for each of us and handing them out. He takes the bottle opener off the side of the fridge, pops the top off then takes a long guzzle of his own. The rest of us follow suit, including Katie, who isn’t a big drinker, especially of beer. But today’s news calls for more than a little alcohol.

  “What else? I know there’s more. If it was just the one picture, you wouldn’t be this upset.”

  I meet Chad’s eyes over her shoulder and he nods once, encouraging me to tell her what she needs to know.

  “Brody?”

  “It’s not good, baby. There’s pictures and a video.”

  “What kind of pictures?”

  “The kind that you don’t want in public. The kind that paint you as Chase’s girlfriend who’s cheating on him with me.”

  “What in the world! How is that even possible? That makes no sense at all. We are nothing!”

  “I know that. But the pictures and articles say differently.”

  She nods against my chest then sits up, looking at me with wide eyes. “Wait. You said there’s a video? What video? The one of you and me the other night?”

  I swallow down the lump in my throat. If it wasn’t public, I’d probably like watching that video of the two of us together. Now, though, that night’s been tainted by someone standing outside the office window, recording every sensual second of our encounter. It’s beyond fucked up and it makes me want to find the person who was watching us and beat the living shit out of them. “Of us. In the office… but not the other night.”

  “What?” she asks, her voice barely above a whisper. She looks around the room and points at the table. “You mean earlier when we…?”

  “Yeah.” I lick my lips. “It’s clear. You can see it’s us. There’s no doubt who we are. Our faces are visible. I didn’t turn up the volume so I have no idea if you can hear anything. It’s about ten minutes long.”

  On my lap, I can feel her entire body quaking. “How did that happen? I don’t get it. That was less than an hour ago, Brody. I am so confused.”

  I rub up and down her back, trying to soothe her and take away some of the fear that’s no doubt settling in. “Someone outside must have been watching,” I admit. “It looks like you’ve been followed around. Not sure if it’s because of the initial picture of you and Chase that sparked interest or what.”

  “Fuck this.” Johnny slams his bottle on the counter. “And fuck her.”

  “Me? This isn’t my fault!” Katie yells, quickly standing up.

  “Not you, her. Her her,” he snarls. “That bitch is the one who spread this. I know it.”

  I nod, agreeing with all of it. The fact that Hannah’s a bitch. The fact that she’s the one who spread it. She had lunch with my mother. I wouldn’t put it past my mother to ignore my wishes and continue meeting with her. I also wouldn’t put it past my mother to tell her about Katie and me.

  “Who?”

  I stand, too, place a hand on Katie’s back and murmur, “Hannah, babe. One of the pictures is at her wedding and Cameron’s looking at you.”

  “That whore!” Katie shouts, stepping away from me, making all of us chuckle. “I’m gonna rip her shitty-ass synthetic extensions out of her whore head then shove them up her whore ass!”

  “It appears whore is the word of the day,” Johnny says, laughing.

  Her head whips in Johnny’s direction. “This isn’t funny,” Katie snaps.

  She’s right. It really isn’t. But if we don’t laugh, we’ll cry or do something that we can’t take back, like commit a major crime.

  “We need a plan,” Chad states.

  “Ruin her,” Katie offers. It’s so unlike her and out of character that it causes the rest of us to laugh. “I’m serious. If it is Hannah who leaked this story and made up lies about me, she needs to be in jail. This can’t be legal, right?”

  “The part of someone taking video of us, no, that’s not legal. Whoever did that definitely broke a law or two. The rest? I don’t know, baby. I’m not a lawyer or a cop. I have no idea what’s legal and what isn’t when it comes to selling stories to the press.”

  Johnny opens up another beer. “Anyone else want another?”

  Chad and I nod but Katie, who’s only taken a few drinks, shakes her head. He hands out another to us then speaks up again. “I agree that Hannah had something to do with this. We know it. Is there any way that Chase did, too? For press?”

  No one says anything for a few minutes, until Katie speaks up. “I don’t think it was Chase.”

  “Why do you think that?” Chad asks. “You know him that well?”

  She pauses for a few seconds. “Well, no,” Katie admits. “But it’s a fe
eling I get.”

  “You’d imagine Hannah stooping to this level, though?” I’d be surprised if she says yes to my question because even though I think Hannah’s capable of a lot, this is extreme.

  “Honestly? I’d be shocked but I don’t know. Maybe? Then again, I said I didn’t think Chase would do something like this so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about.”

  My anger begins to spike again. “I need some air.”

  I storm out of the office and into the cool early evening wondering how the day turned to complete shit.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Katie

  My butt hits the chair and I stare blankly at the table.

  “You okay?” Chad asks tentatively.

  I shake my head. I’m really not. Just the thought of a video out there of Brody and me having sex is awful. I’ve never even dreamed. “I need to see.”

  Johnny is quick to shoot me down. “No way.”

  I glare at him. “Yes. It’s about me so either you hand me back my phone now so I can look or I’ll do it later. Either way, I’m going to see and I need to know what I’m dealing with here.”

  “Brody should be with you when you look, then,” Johnny explains. “It’s… not good, Katie. It’s not just the articles or the pictures and video. It’s also what random people are saying.”

  “I hate people,” I grumble.

  “Yeah,” Chad agrees. “In this case, especially, I’d say that’s fair.”

  “You guys really think it was Hannah?” I look between Chad and Johnny and see them share a look again. They’ve been doing a lot of that since they arrived with the great news. “What? Just come out with it. I can tell that you’re hiding something.”

  “Brody missed something in one of the articles.”

  “What is it?”

  “They didn’t name sources, and said the typical ‘source close to the couple’ however, a vehicle is in the background of one.”

  “Whose?” I demand.

  Johnny huffs and grumps, “His fucking mother.”

  “Okay? What does that have to do with anything, though?”