“What the fuck is that?” I’m pointing at Ken’s MacBook like it’s offended me greatly, which essentially, it has.
Avery taps her foot. “You’re officially an amateur porn star now. This is all over the internet.”
My mouth gapes. It’s not often I find myself speechless but I couldn’t piece together a sentence right now to save my life. My brain is too busy flashing high-def images of me fucking Gabbie against the wall in her dressing room. Thankfully, we were both almost completely clothed, with the exception of my ass hanging out, but with the clarity and the angle, there’s absolutely no way to deny that we’re the two people in that video. Or what we’re doing.
Avery waits me out and after a minute or so, I finally find my voice. “How in the hell did they get this? You’ve got to get them to take it down, Avery!”
She shakes her head. “I’ve already sent cease and desist orders, Ethan. Give me some fucking credit. The problem is that, as you know, once something’s on the internet, it’s never truly gone.” She picks up a manila folder off Ken’s desk and removes a stack of photos, laying them out across the wooden surface. “In addition to the video, these are out there.”
I assess each picture, getting more irate by the second. It’s a series of shots taken of Gabbie and Luke Warner, clearly from last night because she’s wearing the same dress. Every one of them depicts some act of intimacy. He’s cradling her face, holding her in his arms, kissing her fucking lips.
“What is this shit?” I roar.
Ken raises his hands in a placating gesture. “Ethan, calm down.”
I kick the fucking chair across the room. “How the hell am I supposed to calm down? One of you needs to explain what’s happening before I drive to that fucker’s house and knock his pretty boy teeth out.”
“That’s the last thing you will do!” Avery shouts. “Now, sit the hell down and I will explain.”
I turn the chair upright and sit down. “Make it fast, Avery. My patience is pretty much nonexistent right now.”
I’ll give her this. I’m a big guy, and while I’d never hurt a woman, I must look scary as hell right now. At maybe five-foot-two, Avery is tiny and she looks ready to go a few rounds with me, not intimidated in the least.
Avery takes the seat beside me. “In short, you’ve been played.”
My jaw tics. “Care to elaborate?”
“Look, Ethan, I know you like her, but Gabriela Martinez is behind all of this. Considering your history with Warner, I’d say they planned this together.”
“There’s no fucking way,” I scoff. “And I more than fucking like her, Ave. I’m in goddamn love with her!”
Sympathy crosses her face. “Ethan, listen to me. I got ahold of the pap that sold these pictures. He flat out admitted that she set up a hidden camera in her dressing room and gave the footage to him.”
I shake my head in disbelief. “Why would she do that? She’s under contract, too. And it’s not like I planned on fucking her in there. We’ve never had sex in her dressing room before last night. It was completely spontaneous. And she just met Warner yesterday!”
She lifts a perfectly sculpted brow. “Are you sure about that?” Avery fingers the corner of the photo where Luke is kissing my girl. “Don’t you think it’s possible you’ve been set up? Look at these pictures, Ethan. There’s familiarity between them. This does not look like two people who just met, which is exactly how the gossip rags are spinning it. They’ve made a fool out of you.”
I fold my arms across my chest. “Again, Gabbie could be sued for breach of contract just the same as I can. Why in the fuck would she risk that?”
She shrugs. “My best guess is that she’s trying to get her fifteen minutes of fame.”
“She’s already famous!”
Avery shakes her head. “Hardly. And my sources tell me she’s being offered another position at the Food Channel, so burning bridges with the Cooking Network isn’t an issue for her. As for any potential lawsuits, the network just says that to scare you. I’ve already spoken with them and they’re modifying your contracts to remove the clause so they don’t lose any more sponsors.
“With your ratings being so high, they’re not going to pull the last season right before it goes live. Plus, we’re all fairly certain this scandal will make the numbers go through the roof. The world will be watching, just waiting for the drama to unfold between the judges.”
“This is bullshit! I need to talk to Gabbie. She’ll clear this up.”
Ken shakes his head. “You can’t do that, Ethan. The pap is willing to go on record saying she was the source. If you’re linked with her right now, in any way, you’re fucked. Let Avery do her job. She’s going to spin this to make Gabriela look like the fame whore she is, and you’ll look like the guy who had his heart broken. The public will be eating out of your hands and Gabriela’s career will be flushed down the drain.”
“You can’t vilify her,” I insist.
“And why the hell not?” Avery throws her hands up. “She is the villain in this! She and Luke Warner fucked you over. How can you not want justice for that?”
I pull my phone out of my pocket and scroll through my contacts. “I’m calling her.”
Avery’s arm lashes out like a viper and snatches the phone away from me. “No. You won’t. Listen to me very carefully, Ethan. If you want to come out of this with your reputation and career intact, you will let me handle this. I’ve already reached out to her PR team. As of right now, they have no comment. That’s very telling, don’t you think? If she was innocent, they’d want to work with me to clear this up.”
“Give me my fucking phone back, Avery. You can’t tell me what to do.”
She raises her eyebrows. “It’s my job to tell you what to do when you’re in deep shit like this, Ethan. And if you can’t follow my directions to clean this up, I’ll drop you as my client faster than you can blink. Then where will you be? You know we need to take action immediately. You know I’m your best hope. Just let me deal with it and, whatever you do, do not talk to Gabriela Martinez.” She scrolls through my phone and punches the screen a few times. “There. She’s blocked from calling you.”
“Not talking to her will be rather hard when we still have a month’s left of filming.”
Avery and Ken share a look before she turns back to me and sighs. “I’m dead serious, Ethan. Think with the right head here. The only time you talk to her is when you’re filming. The second the director yells cut, your lips are sealed. You got it?”
“Yeah, I fucking got it,” I mutter.
15
Now
GABBIE
Great, this is exactly what I don’t need right now.
As I pull into my parking spot behind Sweet Temptations, I see Ethan leaning against my back door, blocking my entry. I could let myself in through the front but knowing Ethan, he’d follow me. He’d obviously like to continue our conversation from last night, which is the absolute last thing I want to do at five in the morning.
I barely slept and my head is killing me from crying for hours on end. I was already dreading another slow day. Starting it off with a reminder of why I’m in this predicament in the first place, is just about the worst way to launch into the workday.
I take a deep breath and get out of my car, ready to face the firing squad.
When I reach the door, I jingle my keys, gesturing for him to step aside. “Could you move, please? I need to get to work.”
Ethan steps aside, but only marginally. “Go right ahead.”
I freeze as I insert the key into the lock. Ethan’s large frame is pressed against my back. I can feel every muscle in his body and if I’m not mistaken, his growing erection. Oh, who am I kidding? Unless he has a cucumber stuffed in his pocket, I know exactly what that is. I have to suppress a shiver when he presses his lips against my ear.
“We need to talk, Gabbie.”
I squeeze my eyes shut and bite my tongue, hoping the sharp pain will snap m
e out of my lust-induced stupor. I hate that despite everything that’s happened between us, my body still responds to him like this.
I open the door with so much force, I practically smack myself in the face with it. “We have nothing to talk about, Ethan. Don’t you need to get inside your own bakery? I’m sure you have quite the workload to prepare for all your customers.”
He completely ignores my snarky comment and follows me inside, waiting as I disarm the alarm system. He locks the door behind him and casually leans against the wall beside it.
I need coffee for this shit.
I walk to the front without a word, fire up the espresso machine, and take my sweet time making a latte. My mamá’s voice is screaming inside my head to mind my manners and offer my guest a drink, but I ignore it. The less comfortable he is, the sooner he’ll leave.
I hope.
Ethan rests his shoulder in the small doorway connected to the kitchen, watching me in complete silence.
I set my cup on the counter. “Oh, for fuck’s sake! What, Ethan? What could you possibly want?”
The bastard smirks. “Glad to see the fire’s back. I much prefer this to the crying.”
I glare. “Get to the point.”
He takes a step forward. “Gab—”
I hold my hand up. “Stay right there. I can’t think when you’re within touching distance.”
He stays in the same spot but his bright blue eyes roam over my body so thoroughly, I can practically feel his hands dancing over my skin. Damn it, I need to get him out of here.
I raise my eyebrows. “Well?”
Ethan clears his throat. “I need you to explain what you meant about me screwing you over.”
“Why? You were there. You know exactly what happened.”
He shakes his head. “Here’s the problem with that: I thought I knew what happened. But now, I’m not so sure. Things aren’t adding up, Gabbie. I think I need to hear it directly from you. I’m two years too fucking late in asking, but I need to get your perspective.”
I sigh. “What will that accomplish? What’s done is done. I really don’t want to relive the past. That period in time wasn’t exactly fun for me.”
His spine stiffens. “You think it was fun for me? Seeing you with him fucking crushed me!”
“Luke and I were just friends!” I shout back.
Ethan scoffs. “Fucking friends. Right. It didn’t look that way to me. If you two were supposedly just friends, one would think you’d try mitigating the rumors. Spending every waking moment together does the opposite. Kissing him does the opposite!”
My fists clench. “Well, it’s the truth! While I was being crucified by the media—for no reason whatsoever—he was there for me! We didn’t spend every waking moment together, but you of all people should know how the media likes to sensationalize things. As for the kissing, Luke and I didn’t get involved until six months after shit hit the fan. What was I supposed to do, Ethan? I know how bad it looked, but you couldn’t even afford me the courtesy of explaining my side of the story. You just automatically assumed the worst and completely wrote me off.
“You made me feel loved one minute and in the next, you treated me like dog shit stuck on the bottom of your shoe! It doesn’t matter what the truth is anymore. The fact that you thought I was capable of doing something so heinous tells me all I need to know. You think you were crushed? If any part of you was actually crushed, it was your goddamn ego. You’d have to actually love someone to have your heart broken.”
His eyes are lit with fire. “You think I didn’t love you?”
I laugh humorlessly. “I know you didn’t.”
Ethan’s nostrils flare. “Fuck that.” His long legs eat up the space between us and before I know it, he’s kissing me. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I link my fingers behind his neck and kiss him back with everything I have.
He pulls back, biting my lip as he goes, and rests his forehead against mine. “Does that feel like I didn’t love you? That I don’t still love you?”
What am I doing? I can’t fall into this trap again. I barely survived the first time.
I press my open palms against his chest, pushing him away. “Please leave, Ethan.”
He straightens to his full height. “You want me to leave? Right now?”
I blink back the tears that are threatening to fall. “Yes. And I don’t want you to come back. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to stay here, but as long as we’re neighbors, I’d appreciate it if you would pretend we weren’t. Better yet, pretend that we never met.”
Ethan shakes his head. “I can’t do that, Gabbie.”
I unlock the front door and hold it open. “Please go.”
He steps toward the exit but stops over the threshold. “I’ll leave, because I need to sort through some shit, but I’m not going anywhere. You get what I’m saying?”
I have to bite my tongue to avoid responding. Instead, my eyes flash to the sidewalk, silently dismissing him. The moment he steps outside, I lock the door but make the mistake of looking up. Ethan’s eyes are boring into mine from the other side of the glass, as if searching for something. I manage to hold his stare for only a few seconds before I run to the back so he can’t see me cry again.
16
Then
GABBIE
“What is going on, Margo? The paparazzi are surrounding my house!”
Over the phone line, my publicist sighs. “I take it you haven’t spoken with Ethan Baldwin yet?”
I shake my head but then realize she can’t see me. “No. I tried calling him as soon as I saw the photographers out front but something’s wrong with his phone. I keep getting a recorded message saying my call can’t go through.”
“They’ve probably blocked your number. Listen, the official statement we have out right now is, ‘no comment’. I wanted to get your side of it before I said anything else.”
“No comment about what? I don’t understand what’s happening right now.”
I can hear her fingers tapping along a keyboard. “You were followed on your date last night. Which would’ve been fine, if the video hadn’t been leaked.”
I pace in circles around my living room and peek through the curtains to see if the photographers are gone yet. No such luck. “What video? What are you talking about?”
“Check your email, Gabbie. I just sent you something.”
“Hold on a sec.”
I switch my phone to speaker and open my inbox. Holy shit, I have over two hundred new messages, mostly from addresses I don’t recognize. What the hell? I click on the email from my PR firm and open the attachment. I gasp in shock the moment it starts playing. On my screen is a crystal-clear video of me and Ethan having sex last night. Where did this come from? And how did my publicist get it?
“Wha...what is this, Margo?”
“Gabriela, I need you to be honest with me or I can’t do my job. Is that you and Ethan Baldwin in that video?”
“Yes...but I don’t understand. We weren’t filming ourselves. Where did you get this?”
She sighs even louder this time. I swear I just heard her thunk her head against a hard surface. “Click on the link I sent you.”
I’m taken to Celebrity Gossip Central, the internet’s leading tabloid website. At the top of the page in bold red print are the words, “Baking Masters Judges Caught With Their Pants Down.” Below that is a pixelated version of the video, blocking out Ethan’s ass but showing everything else. Farther down the page, they have a sequence of pictures from my date with Luke Warner.
Those slimy bastards.
With just the right angle, they managed to make a purely innocent moment look salacious. Well, except for the very brief kiss we had, but even that looks much worse than it was. From this, it looks like we were making out.
* * *
I quickly read through the article that accuses me of having affairs with both men. It suggests that I may have seduced Ethan away from his ex-girlfriend, an A-
list actress named Natasha. It speculates that I was using both Ethan and Luke to elevate my own fame and secure a more lucrative contract with the Food Channel. They conveniently failed to mention that I turned down that network’s offer.
“What the fuck?” I shout when I get to the statement from Ethan’s publicist.
Ethan Baldwin was under the impression that he was in a monogamous relationship with Ms. Martinez, a woman whom he loves deeply. These photos clearly indicate that the exclusivity was on his end only. I assure you he did not begin his relationship with Ms. Martinez while still attached to Natasha Kozlov. Mr. Baldwin is understandably upset; therefore, we ask that you respect his privacy during this difficult time.
The article concludes by stating that there is no comment from me, Luke, or the network at this time.
I’m so angry I’m shaking. I have to sit down on my couch and set the phone on the coffee table in front of me.
“How did this happen, Margo? What do we do now?”
“Gabbie, the man who sold the video went on record saying that he received the footage from you.”
“What?!”
“Are you saying that isn’t accurate?”
“Of course that isn’t accurate! I don’t even know how someone could’ve set up a camera in my dressing room!”
“The studio has postponed production for the day. The producers are demanding a meeting with both you and Ethan. They’ve agreed to remove the no fraternization clause in your contracts but they want to discuss things with you first. I’ve already called your agent and lawyer and they’ll be there to represent you, just in case.”
“Then what?”
“Then, we go from there, depending on what they say. As you know, I also represent Luke so I’m sure you can imagine how many things I have on my plate right now. I’m meeting with him in an hour to discuss what we’d like his official statement to be. I’ll meet with you to do the same as soon as your meeting lets out. For now, head to network’s corporate building downtown, and do not speak to anyone unless it’s someone from the show or your team. Understand?”
Sweetest Obsessions - Anthology Page 255
