“Okay,” she quickly repeated. Though, part of her still clung to the small hope that a plot twist would pop up and Dash would tell her he’d just been kidding and they should absolutely continue to pursue this. But he didn’t say anything further.
As the car sped down the highway, she was numb from Dash’s words and the rumbling engine gently lulling her. For some reason, her conversation with Ned began to replay in her mind. You would slip into this idealized version of me. Had she just completely done the same thing with Dash? She’d fantasized so much about what they could be that now, when faced with the stark truth, she couldn’t accept it.
Her phone began to ring loudly. And when she looked down, Nina’s name was on the screen. She was close to shaking from her conversation with Dash, so she took in a deep breath before answering. “Hey, Nina, sorry I didn’t respond to the group chat. I’m fine. We’re heading back from Ojai now.”
“Yeah, okay, whatever.” Her sister’s voice was dismissive, which was...strange.
“What’s wrong?” Sophie asked.
“Did you tell Ned that I froze my eggs and am having IVF?” Nina said. “Celeb Weekly just posted an exclusive scoop about it, and he’s their source.”
“I... What?” Sophie sat forward, but the seat belt stopped her with a forceful tug. She remembered the conversation with Ned and Brittany from the night before, after she’d had a glass of wine. She’d told them about Nina’s experience, which wasn’t hers to tell, but she’d felt safe sharing it with them. Had he really betrayed her trust? Sophie had told Ned that if she could ever do anything to make it up to him, she would, and he’d said he’d think of something. Was this the something?
“You know how much bullshit I have to deal with around this.” Nina’s exhausted voice came through. “Now every question I’m going to be asked is if I’m pregnant. How could you do this?”
Sophie screamed inside. She wanted to turn the car around and go scream for real at Ned. Her hand gripped the armrest and her voice was shaky as she replied, “Nina, I’m so sorry.”
Then the line went dead.
14
DASH
“Do you want to talk about it?” Dash pulled his car into the driveway. He’d heard enough of her call to get the context: Ned had sold a story about her sister to a tabloid. “I can’t tell you how many times someone I thought I was close to sold a story about me to the press.”
This was true. He’d been betrayed by close friends, exes, and plenty of people he’d only interacted with briefly, including a Lyft driver who’d told a reporter that Dash “stole all of his free ginger chews.” Which was absolutely correct, but Dash had missed lunch and needed a snack was all.
“Ned won’t answer his phone.” Sophie opened the car door, got out, and slammed it shut. “Sorry, didn’t mean to slam that. I know he was mad about how I ended things in high school, but he grew up with me and Nina. I can’t believe he’d do something like this.”
“Money changes people.” Dash got out of the car and stood with his hands at his hips. He wasn’t happy either. He’d been through the same emotions before when a story leaked about him, but it was another thing entirely to watch someone else experience that level of betrayal.
“My sister is everything to me. She’s the only family I have.” Sophie’s voice started to choke up. She slid her phone back into her dress pocket and rested her palms on the frame of the car door. “She’s been through so much already, and she doesn’t deserve this. What if she never talks to me again?” She wiped a tear away from the corner of her eye.
Dash wasn’t sure he knew how to comfort her. His family wasn’t exactly cookie-cutter, and he wouldn’t say any of them—except maybe Poppy—were his everything. He also didn’t know Nina well enough to reassure her that she would talk to Sophie again. But as Sophie choked back tears, Dash found that he could no longer just stand and watch. So he moved around the car and wrapped her in a hug. She let her head fall against his shoulder, and they fit as closely as if their bodies were the nesting pottery bowls he sometimes made. He closed his eyes, and his hand brushed a strand of hair behind her ear as they stood together.
There was nothing to say in a situation like this. The damage was done. But with a sickening new realization, it dawned on him that if he hadn’t encouraged Sophie to try this TikTok thing in the first place, maybe she wouldn’t even be in this mess. She definitely wouldn’t have gone out of her way to see Ned. Perhaps Dash had made her life a bit worse by being in it.
“I never should’ve told you to lean in to TikTok. The internet is truly a trash heap.” He pulled away from her. “If you don’t want to work on the speech anymore, I would totally understand.” He did understand, but for some reason his grip on her shoulders tightened.
“Do you not want me to work on it?” She dabbed a tear away from her cheek.
“No, no, I’m—” His words evaporated like water on the burning concrete driveway. He didn’t love Los Angeles in the summer. It was too hot and too dry, and now he was starting to sweat around his hairline. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand as he tried again. “I want you to work on it. I just also want to make sure you’re okay, especially after...”
“You mean because we made out?” A little spark of playfulness flickered across her face, and while he was relieved, he also wondered if she was intentionally poking at him.
“Because of that, yes.” He rubbed at the longhorn tattoo on his bicep—a piece he’d gotten inked after leaving rehab—the forward-facing horns represented looking to the future, which is how he wanted the rest of his life to be.
The present, though, was Sophie, and a warm breeze brushed through her hair, whipping long tendrils along the side of her face. She was gorgeous: her cheeks had a flush, her breasts swelled as she breathed in and out, and those eyes—her absolutely dazzling almond eyes surrounded by thick lashes that focused solely on him. He was lucky she even bothered to look his way.
“You are a really great kisser, so I will miss that.” She chuckled, but he almost heard a sadness there. “But we’re okay, Dash. I totally understand. I mean, I don’t totally understand where you’re coming from, but I would do the same thing if I were in your situation. We’re okay.”
Sophie smirked, and Dash spotted her canine tooth—the one that had nibbled his neck the night before. And while he knew he needed to move forward and away from Sophie, there was an undeniable sense of loss that had settled in his throat.
He’d kissed so many women throughout his life—on set and off—forgetting her should’ve been easy. But Sophie said he was a great kisser—no, a really great kisser. And why did the thought of never getting to brush his lips against hers again hurt so damn much?