“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for bringing down the house tonight here in the ATL. I’m Chloe Avana, and this is Damon Stone. And we love you!”
Chloe blew a kiss at the crowd, then at Damon, and then back at the crowd. She hoisted his hand in the air, and the room erupted all over again.
This time, when he ran back offstage, Damon scooped Trihn right off the ground, pulling her against his chest. Trihn tightly held on to him. She slid down his body, and he planted a kiss on her lips.
“I want you at every show.”
She laughed. “I wish.”
“Let’s make it happen.”
“Damon…”
“We can try.”
“I have the fashion show,” she reminded him.
“It’s better when you’re here.”
“I think so, too, but I have work.”
“You’re right,” he said, leaning toward her. “I’m just on a high from the show, and I want you here for everything.”
“Mr. Stone, we should move this to the dressing room,” Mateo said. “People will be backstage any minute.”
“Sure,” Damon said. He pulled Trihn forward and back into the dressing room.
He stripped out of his shirt and toweled off before changing into a new shirt.
“Chloe was pretty…affectionate after the show ended,” Trihn said. Then, she quickly added, “Not that I think anything is going on.”
“Well, good. There are just a lot of endorphins and so much excitement by the end. It’s hard not to want to celebrate when you come offstage. Plus, she’s not normally this high-stress, so it’s easier to want to celebrate with her.”
She thought Chloe was a little touchy, but it was innocent, so it really didn’t matter. Trihn didn’t want to stress about it when it was clear that Damon was into her and only her. He had told her that time and time again.
“I believe you.”
Damon leaned down and kissed her on the lips. “I’m going to go meet some fans, and then we can go back to the hotel and repeat this afternoon.”
Trihn laughed and pulled him in for another kiss. “Deal.”
THE NEXT DAY, Trihn had to forcibly remove herself from the hotel premises.
She and Damon had spent all night in his room, and to say that she didn’t want to leave would be the understatement of the century.
The idea that he’d had after the show kept ringing through her mind the entire plane ride home.
She wanted to stay. She wanted to join him on tour. She wanted to be with him for every concert and every different city. She didn’t want to miss a moment of it.
But reality crashed back in, and she knew it wasn’t possible. If she didn’t have the fashion show to worry about, she might have made it work for a little while. But what would happen when school starts? She couldn’t leave school. That would never be an option.
By the time Trihn landed back in Las Vegas, she felt more confident about her departure.
But when she switched her phone off Airplane Mode, the slew of messages didn’t help anything.
The first few were from Bryna.
Are you with Damon?
Bitch, answer your phone.
Your face is showing up online. Tabloids are kind of going crazy. When you get this, don’t check the news.
Trihn frowned and kept reading. The next message was from Stacia.
Hey! Answer your phone! We’ve all been calling you! Bri is flipping her shit, and now I’m worried.
Then, there was one from Damon.
I know you’re on the plane, love, but Chloe was right. Paps took pictures of us together in ATL. The story is that you’re a homewrecker. Working on the details of what our statement is going to be to the press or if we should just let it blow over. Call me, so I know you’re okay. I hate not being with you during all of this.
Trihn took a deep breath. They’d been expecting this, begrudgingly accepting that Chloe was right about the paparazzi. It must have been pretty widespread for it to have completely freaked out everyone she knew in the time it had taken her to get to Las Vegas.
As soon as she was off the plane, she called Damon back. She was glad that she only had a carry-on and could hurry out of the airport and into a cab.
“Hey, love,” Damon said.
“Hey. So…I’m a homewrecker. That’s a new one. It’s usually the other way around.”
“Yeah, sorry. I guess I was completely unprepared for this sort of thing. I thought we could hang out anywhere we wanted, unmolested.”
“Guess not anymore. Am I free to walk around without people following me?” Trihn asked, only half-joking.
“Yeah. I mean…I don’t think anyone is going to bother you if I’m not with you, but if they do, just say, No comment, and walk away. Hey, hold on.”
Through the muffled phone, Trihn could hear him yelling something to Chloe.
“Miss Paranoid over here says you’ll be fine but to be on alert until it dies down,” he said.
“This feels absurd, Damon.”
He laughed. “It really does. I don’t think it’s a big deal. No one actually believes tabloid bullshit.”
Trihn didn’t think that was true, but as long as no one in her real life thought what the press had been spinning was true, then it wouldn’t matter to her.