Trihn laughed. “You’re serious?”
“Yeah. Gates laughed at me and said we’d talk about it later, but to me, we were over. When he got back to LA, he acted as if we weren’t over. Jude was a one-night stand that Gates knew about, and I decided he was kind of right. You can’t break up with a guy like Gates on the phone.”
“Okay…”
“Well, the reason Gates was okay with Jude was because he told me that, on the same night, he’d slept with someone else, too. And since we’d both done it with nobodies who we’d never talk to again, it didn’t matter,” Bryna said.
Trihn’s stomach knotted. She had a horrible feeling that she knew where this was going. “But it did matter?”
“Yeah, I found out later that the girl had been interested in him the whole time, and that night was just a culmination of all their flirtations. And that girl was Chloe Avana.”
Trihn sat very still, processing Bryna’s story. “So, that’s why you hate her.”
“Yes.”
“So, what you’re saying is, she’s biding her time until Damon and I are on the rocks to…what? Swoop in?”
“I’m not saying that history will repeat itself,” Bryna amended. “We were younger and dumber. I think that’s why Chloe was acting like a jealous maniac that night at the club after your fashion show. She and Gates have had a rocky relationship since then. I don’t really know what’s up with them. My guess is, she’s still pining for her first love in some way, despite her cool, confident girl exterior that she portrays to the press. But that’s neither here nor there with Damon.”
“This explains…a lot,” Trihn admitted. It made her feel a little better and a little worse.
She hadn’t thought she had anything to worry about because Chloe wasn’t the type of girl to do something like that, but now, Bryna was saying that Chloe was absolutely that girl.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. But with these photos coming out…I didn’t want you to go in completely blind.”
“You don’t think that they were on Damon’s phone, do you?”
Bryna cringed. “I want to say no because Damon seems like a good guy. But I’ve seen good guys corrupted before, so just be cautious.”
“Thank you for telling me, but I don’t think this changes much. Either he did or didn’t have these pictures. Either there’s an explanation for it or not. But Damon loves me, and I love him. He’s not into Chloe.”
Bryna looked at her with pitying eyes, and Trihn just wanted to scream. She wasn’t crazy for thinking like this. She would show everyone the truth.
“His LA show is tomorrow,” Trihn told her. “Let’s drive to the show and surprise him. You’ll see it for yourself.”
They all would.
CONVINCING HER FRIENDS to go to Chloe and Damon’s show in LA wasn’t as hard as Trihn had thought it would be. Eric and Maya both had to work, which also ruled out Drayton, but Bryna and Stacia were all in. And though Bryna had tried to argue for Pace not to join them, he was seated in the driver’s seat with Stacia in the passenger seat and Trihn and Bryna in the back of Stacia’s SUV as they headed south on I-15 toward Los Angeles.
Somehow, Bryna had managed to work her magic and get them killer seats in the second row. She had complained that it wasn’t first row or center, but Trihn thought second row on the left side of the stage was a lucky grab on the night before the show. But that was Bryna.
Trihn was excited to see Damon perform again. The girls had no idea what they were in for. It was nothing like him deejaying at Posse, and they hadn’t been to a show of him performing with Chloe yet. Trihn really thought that videos didn’t do it justice either.
“So, did you talk to Damon about this?” Stacia swiveled around in the passenger seat to look at Trihn and Bryna.
“About the show? No, it’s a surprise,” Trihn said. “I thought we were all in on that.”
“I mean, the pictures…of Chloe.”
“They weren’t from his phone.”
“You said that already,” Pace chimed in.
“I talked to him last night once he’d gotten into LA.”
Damon had called as soon as he could, but he hadn’t had that much free time before this show.
“Is there any reason those pictures could have been on his phone?” Stacia asked.
Pace chuckled. “Oh, there’s a reason.”
Stacia smacked his arm. “Not helping.”
“Damon isn’t like that. He’s in love with me. Why would he have suddenly changed his tune?”
“Because Chloe is hot?” Pace asked.
“She’s gorgeous,” Trihn said. “But Damon doesn’t see her like that. And if he did, then he wouldn’t be fighting for us to work out. I’m pretty sure he could have already had her if he wanted.” Trihn glanced over at Bryna. “You’re being awfully quiet about this.”
“I don’t like to be wrong, so I’m not chiming in.”
“Comforting.”
“If you believe him, then I’m sure it’s nothing,” Bryna said after a moment.
“Look, when I talked to him, he said that those photos were real. They weren’t Photoshopped.”