Just when we thought New York’s favorite playboy was cleaning up his act… Cam Meyers embroiled in seemingly accidental sex scandal, one of the new gossip headlines said.
Mystery girl in Meyers sex tape revealed as Anya Cruz – Cam’s STEPSISTER!! another headline screamed.
It hadn’t taken long for them to find out exactly who Anya was in relation to me. I had no idea how that had happened so quickly, but that was just how the internet was these days. It worked fast, and if you didn’t keep up, you’d be left behind in the dust. Luckily, because it worked so fast and people were constantly seeking new forms of entertainment, scandals didn’t usually last long. A few weeks from now, this would have died down too.
I damn well hoped so, anyway. I just needed to pray that my career hadn’t totally tanked as a result of this.
Anya finished stashing some sweaters in a duffel bag, and then she looked over at me. “What about you?” she asked. “You don’t have anything with you. It’s freezing; you’ll need some coats, scarves, and so on.”
“Shit. My building will probably be crawling with paparazzi. Um…does your best friend know about us?”
“She knew I was going to talk to you tonight, yeah.”
“Could you ask her if she’d quickly go over to my apartment and grab some stuff for me?” I asked.
I hated to put her friend in such a crappy position, but I needed clothes and toiletries if Anya and I were going to leave town for a few days, and we could hardly risk going shopping anytime soon unless we wanted to be mobbed.
“I’ll ask,” Anya replied. “She’s only a few doors down.”
She sent a quick text, and ten minutes later, there was a knock at the door. “Hey! It’s just me!” a feminine voice said from the other side of it.
Anya quickly opened up. “Thanks for coming,” she said, welcoming in a tall blonde girl before closing the door. “Kara, this is Cam.”
“Hi, Cam,” Kara said. “Glad to finally meet you. So what’s going on? I’ve been zoned out on this assignment all night.”
We filled her in on what had happened, and her eyes widened so far I thought they might actually pop out of her head.
“Are you serious? You two…you did that?” she said. “Oh, man…this is bad. I mean, I’m happy that you guys are finally together, but this is super-bad.”
“I know,” Anya said, her face grim. “My Mom is gonna murder me.”
“Yeah. I think Cam’s right,” Kara replied. “You guys should skip town for a few days until things die down a bit, as cowardly as it sounds. I’ve seen your Mom mad, and that was just for little things, like when you accidentally broke some of her antique china a few months ago. I’d hate to see how she’d react to this. So yeah, give her some time to calm down. Just send her a text first, saying that you’re okay and that you’ll talk to her soon.”
“Okay. Good idea,” Anya replied.
“Kara, I hate to ask, but would you be able go to my apartment and grab me some clothes?” I asked. “We’re worried the paps will be all over the place. But they don’t know you—no offence—so you could easily go in there without them bothering you.”
Kara smiled. “No offence taken. And sure, I’ll help. Just give me your keys or whatever you need to get it, and I’ll head over there now.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks so much. I’ll text my doorman to tell him to expect you.”
“No problem,” she said. “I’ll be back soon. Don’t answer your phone or door to anyone else, Anya.”
She left, and I turned to Anya. “You’re lucky you have such good friends. I can’t think of a single person I know who wouldn’t sell me out to the media.”
I hadn’t realized how true that was until I’d spoken the words aloud. The kind of friends I’d made with my party-hard lifestyle weren’t exactly the most trustworthy people. Right now, Anya was the only person I trusted, and if she trusted Kara, then I knew she wouldn’t screw us over.
We sat in silence while we waited for Kara to return, periodically checking the gossip sites. The media was in a frenzy, even though it was quite late at night by this stage, and soon, my phone began lighting up with texts, calls and emails. My Dad tried calling a few times, but I let the calls go to voicemail along with the rest.
“I’m back!” Kara called out from the door, and Anya quietly let her in again.
“I just grabbed a bunch of stuff from your drawers and wardrobe,” she said, dumping a suitcase at my feet. “Sorry, I had to go through your underwear drawer to grab some stuff. I tried to close my eyes, though.”
I chuckled. “That’s fine. Thanks again for doing this.”
“It’s cool. It’s kind of exciting helping you guys hide out. Can you tell me where you’re going, in case there’s some sort of emergency and I need to get in contact?”
I hesitated before answering. “There’s a cabin in the woods upstate. It used to belong to my Mom. We’re going there.”
Anya flashed me a surprised look. I’d never mentioned my mother to her before, with good reason. I’d been planning on telling her all about that part of my life someday, but I hadn’t planned on doing it so soon.
The cabin was in the middle of nowhere, so I drew Kara a little map and wrote down some directions. She took a photo of it with her phone and then tore the map to shreds. “That way no one will find the hard copy in my drawer or anything,” she said with a wink.
“Are you secretly a spy?” Anya asked. “I didn’t even think of that.”
Kara stuck her tongue out. “I guess I’m not your typical dumb blonde. By the way, remember that guy from League who I thought was a bit crazy?”
“Yeah?” Anya replied.
“Well, he’s settled down now, but we decided to just be friends. Anyway, he’s some sort of genius hacker. I’m going to ask him to look into taking your sex tape off the internet.”
“Can you even do that?” I asked. “I thought it was impossible to erase stuff entirely once it’s out there.”
She shrugged. “It’s at least worth a try. Even if it isn’t taken down entirely, he should still be able to make it as difficult as possible to access it. You can also file takedown notices to any site that has it, threatening legal action if they don’t comply. I’m gonna go start doing that now. The quicker it gets taken down, the quicker everyone will forget about it.”
Anya began to tear up as Kara spoke. “Thank you,” she managed to choke out. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Kara smiled. “It’s cool. I’ll just need two things in return…”
“What’s that?” Anya asked.
“Firstly, you know that legendary weapon you won a couple of months ago in Warcraft? I want it,” Kara replied, her grin growing wider.
Anya began to laugh through her tears. “It’s yours.”
“I also want a selfie with Cam,” Kara continued. “And he has to kiss me on the cheek.”
I chuckled, and Anya raised an eyebrow.
“C’mon!” Kara said. “You get to date the guy! I just want one picture being kissed by a famous person.”
Anya’s tears had stopped entirely now, and she grabbed Kara’s phone and smiled. “Fine. I’ll take the picture,” she said. “Cam…kiss her on the cheek!”
I did as she said, and Anya took the photo before returning the phone to Kara.
“Well, I’ll head off now,” Kara said. “Good luck, guys. And Anya—if your Mom calls me, I’ll tell her I have no idea where you are, okay?”
Anya nodded and hugged her, and I picked up our bags.
“Well,” I said as they finally broke apart. “Looks like it’s time for our very first road trip…”
I’d kept telling myself the only reason I was taking her and running was so I could spare her the pain of media savagery and parental rage for a few days, but that wasn’t entirely true.
Honestly, I was afraid she’d think that being with me after something like this was too much for her to handle. I was used
to being stalked and harassed by the media, and I was used to having my day-to-day life plastered all over the gossip sites…but she wasn’t. I wouldn’t blame her if it was too much for her, and I wouldn’t blame her if she wanted to end things with me before they went further because of it.
I just wanted a few more days alone with her before she made that sort of decision about us. Even if she ended up deciding that this sort of high-profile, constantly scrutinized life wasn’t for her, I’d still have these next few days to remember, and it’d be worth it just for those memories.
As I considered that, a stark realization dawned on me.
Shit. I was totally, completely and utterly in love with her…and maybe a tiny part of me always had been.
Chapter 16
Anya
An hour later, we were well on our way to the cabin Cam had promised to take me to. I knew running away was the coward’s way out of our situation, but I just couldn’t face up to everything right now. It had been stressful and humiliating enough simply telling Kara about the accidental sex tape, even though I’d known she’d understand. I couldn’t even imagine how my Mom and Pierce would react…let alone everyone else in the world. Burying my head in the sand might not be the right choice, but it was all I wanted to do for the next few days.
I turned to Cam. “Where did you say this cabin was again?” I asked.
He kept his eyes on the road. “In the Adirondacks. It’s pretty rustic. No landline or internet, although we’ll still get cell signal. But don’t worry, I have this app that can stop our phones being tracked by GPS. I’ll download it onto your phone when we stop to stretch our legs.”
“Okay. Does the cabin have electricity?”
“Yeah, it’s not that off the grid,” he said with a grin. “Don’t worry.”
“So did your Mom give it to you?”
His smile faded. “Sort of.”
“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it,” I said, sensing that my mention of his mother might’ve upset him. All I knew about her was what my Mom had told me; that she’d left Pierce when Cam was only a baby.
He sighed. “It’s okay. It’ll probably do me some good to talk about it, and there’s no one else I’d rather talk about it with.”
I reached over and put my hand on his thigh, and he continued.
“She left my Dad when I was only five months old. When I was growing up, he never really told me why. He just said she was sick and she had to leave. Now I know why he was so vague about it. He didn’t want to make her look like a bad person and tell me the real reason, in case that upset me.”
“What was the real reason?”
“She had…problems,” he replied. “She was pretty wild and crazy when she was young, and eventually she developed a problem with drugs. She kept it hidden from my Dad for ages, but not long after I was born, she spiraled into an even worse state, and he figured it out. He tried to make her go to rehab, but she refused. She said she simply didn’t want to have a baby and wasn’t ready to look after one. She said I’d been a mistake. Then she left, and my Dad didn’t even know where she’d gone.”
“That’s awful,” I said softly.
“Yeah. It always bothered me that he was so vague about what had happened to her, and one day when I was eighteen, I made him sit down and tell me the truth. So he did. Despite everything he’d told me, I wanted to find her, just so I could look her in the eyes and ask her if she was happy after abandoning us.”
“Did you find her?”
“No. I found her family. They told me that she’d died five years before I’d gone to see them. They’d tried to get in touch with me earlier to let me know, but they couldn’t get through to me seeing as Dad had blocked all contact with them so he wouldn’t ever be reminded of her. He actually didn’t even know she was dead.”
“Oh…god. That’s horrible.”
My heart ached for Cam as he continued with his story. I’d never had any idea he’d suffered through so much emotional pain. He always seemed so happy and was always quick to respond to anything with a joke, when in reality, he’d been hiding this secret heartache the whole time.
“Yeah. I was just about to start college at the time. I was pretty fucked up for a while after finding out. Started partying heaps, ended up dropping out of college a few weeks after it started. I just couldn’t face anything for a while. Dad was pissed that I’d dropped out, but I think he understood what I was going through. He’s always been good like that.”
He took a deep breath and then continued. “He helped me out as much as he could. Asked me what else I wanted to do, if I didn’t want to go back to college, and he helped me get the racing gig. I’ve always liked driving. The faster I go, the calmer I feel, as weird as it sounds.”
“Did he get you the modeling jobs too?”
He shook his head. “No, I did that on my own.”
“Oh. So what about the cabin? How did that happen?”
“My Mom’s family said she’d been living there for the last few years trying to get clean and sort herself out. Apparently she’d finally realized how awful it was to abandon me and Dad, and she’d been planning on finding us and apologizing. Before she could, she got sick with pneumonia and died. I guess her immune system was kinda fucked up from all the years of drugs.”
“And that’s why you’re so against drugs.”
“Yeah. Anyway, they said they wanted me to have the cabin. They said it would’ve been what my Mom wanted. It’s a nice spot, so sometimes I go up there to relax and clear my head.”
“Won’t your Dad know where we are, then?”
Cam shook his head. “No. He doesn’t know about the cabin. When I told him that I’d gone looking for her, he didn’t want anything to do with it. I don’t blame him for that. But yeah…he knows that she’s dead now, because I told him that much, and that’s it. He didn’t want to know where she’d been, he didn’t want to speak to her family…nothing. So he has no idea about the cabin.”
“I see. I’m so sorry, Cam. I wish you could’ve found your Mom and talked to her before she died.”
“Yeah, same. I think about it a lot. I picture her in my head and make up conversations between us. I pretend she did apologize to me for it all, and that I forgave her. But obviously I never had the chance.”
“So you wanted to forgive her?”
He nodded. “Yeah. It affected me growing up; not having a Mom and all. I was mad as hell at her at first when I found out why she’d left, but in the end, I was willing to let it go if she was truly remorseful, just so I could just have some sort of relationship with her.”
“Wherever she is now, I’m sure she knows you forgive her for what she did,” I said. Cam grunted in response.
We fell into silence for a while, neither of us knowing quite what to say on the subject anymore. Cam’s story had been so sad that I’d momentarily forgotten the reason we were on our way to the cabin in the first place, but snippets of my earlier mistake began to flash through my mind within a few seconds of being silent.
I couldn’t believe what an idiot I’d been. How could I have forgotten to turn my webcam off? I cringed at the thought of over a million people watching me sleep with my stepbrother, and I cringed even more at the thought of what I’d possibly done to Cam’s image.
I guess I could safely say I was a terrible career manager.
Somewhere around half past two in the morning, Cam turned his car into a narrow, tree-lined road that came off the main road we’d been on, and two minutes later, we pulled to a stop in front of an old wooden cabin. His earlier description of the cabin as rustic was definitely apt; the place looked like it had been built over a hundred years ago.
It was still nice, though, and I was willing to bet it would look even nicer in the light of day. Either way, it was the perfect place to escape to for a few days while we were waiting for our step-scandal to die down a bit.
I thought back to the Maddy Carver cousin scandal and cringed even
more. That had gone on for months…and here I was hoping our scandal would only last a few days.
“Can you get the door?” Cam said before tossing me a key.
I walked over to the cabin’s front door and unlocked it as Cam hauled our bags in from the car, and I fumbled in the dark for a light switch.
“Wow,” I said, gazing around as light flooded the cabin.
It was small but cozy, and it had a surprisingly modern-looking interior. A fireplace sat on one end of the place in what appeared to be a small lounge room adjacent to a kitchen, and a short passageway led to what I soon discovered was a bedroom and bathroom.
“This is pretty much it,” Cam said, putting our bags down at the end of the bed. “It’s tiny, but hopefully you think it’s good enough.”
“It’s perfect,” I said softly, taking his hand and squeezing it in mine. “As long as you’re here, it’s perfect.”
He smiled. “Do you want to go straight to bed, or should I light a fire first? I know it’s late, but after the day we’ve had, a drink in front of the fire might be nice. I have some wine here somewhere.”
“That sounds great,” I said. “It reminds me of how in all those old, romantic movies, the couple always ends up together on a bearskin rug in front of a fire.”
“Well, I don’t have a bearskin rug, but the rug that’s there is still soft enough,” he said with a wink.
I changed into warm pajamas as he got a fire going and poured us some wine, and fifteen minutes later, we were curled up together by the fireplace.
“Cam,” I said in a soft voice, averting my eyes from his in shame. “I know I already said this, but I’m really sorry about what I did. I’ve wrecked everything.”
“You haven’t,” he replied. “I have you here with me. That’s the most important thing right now. Screw everything else.”
He was so sweet, so understanding. After all the stupid and bitchy things I’d done since he walked back into my life, I really didn’t feel that I deserved him treating me so well.
After finishing his drink, Cam lay back on the soft white rug in front of the fire, and I joined him.
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