I can't believe I pulled it off. I kept looking over my shoulder each time I came to a stop light, my heart racing and fear threatening to choke me, but the angst was more than acceptable, given the alternative. I'd felt like a sitting duck back in L.A., waiting for someone to break down the door to that shitty little motel room and shoot me every other second.Between that fear and the image in that photo playing through my head on a loop, I barely slept a wink. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the two of them together and suffered a pain worse than death.It was a remembered pain; one I was very familiar with from back in the day when they were a couple, and I had to watch them together on screen. It was debilitating to be thrown back to that time after all the work I had put in to change things.But this time, it was even worst because I'd tried and failed to gain his love for myself. He'd always have this way of looking at her that anyone with eyes could see the love and admirati

"Whoa! What the hell is all this?" I got onto the service elevator in her building that the guys had somehow found and brought me to and pulled out my phone to call her, but there were over a thousand notifications on my phone; at least, that's what it looked like.I was expecting it to be more fallout from Janie's little meltdown since that's all I'd been seeing on my timeline for the past few days, but instead, I got the shock of my life when an image of Elena and me popped up on the screen.I started to panic at first, wondering who had been spying on us and how they'd gotten so close, and then I saw that it was she who had posted it. The smile on my face could not be contained. This could only mean one thing; she was ready to go all in. No one else might understand the significance of her posting that herself, but I did.I know she didn't do it for any clout; she was sending a message that she was ready to let the world know we were back together again, something I thought would ta

This impromptu date night idea turned out to be easier said than done; I soon found out. I thought I was ready, and I still am to some extent, but I'd underestimated the amount of attention our outing would garner. Since it was already so late at night, I foolishly thought that no one would be around, but I'd forgotten about the staff at the restaurant.Since I'd been coming here for a while now, ever since I started shooting my series in the city, and no one had ever bothered me, and neither was there ever a write-up about my visits to this place, I thought things would remain the same. That's one of the reasons I'd grown so fond of the place, that and the fact that the food was nothing to sneeze at, and it was one of the only places open so late at night. But I guess it was too much to ask for them to overlook the shock of seeing Ryder and me together after everything that had been going on in the press lately. It would've been hard to miss the looks of surprise and the questioning

Dinner was amazing, but everything that came after, not so much. Ryder had gone above and beyond to make me forget our unwanted audience, and it worked to some extent, and after a time, I really did forget that they were even there. We didn’t pretend to be two old friends playing catch up, but neither did we go crazy with the PDA.It turned out to be just the perfect end to a crappy day, and by the time we left the restaurant, I was beyond happy that we’d got our first outing since getting back together out of the way. We were mobbed by fans on the way out, none of whom had been there when we arrived, so it was obvious that something had been posted about us on social media to get all of them there.Now, in the past, something like this would’ve soured Ryder’s mood. It was always a toss-up what kind of response he’d have to being bombarded like this out of left field, and I felt myself tense up. Old habits die hard, I guess.As if guessing my thoughts, he wrapped his arm around me, pul

“What’s all this? Did you know about this stuff? Not that I find it hard to believe, but wow, that Mary really is a piece of work. I wonder what this all means about her and the kids. What do you think that was about?”Too close! She was getting too close to the things I wanted to keep hidden from her. When we switched to our tablets as soon as we made it into the apartment to watch the drama unfold, I had no idea things would take this turn.I was secretly enjoying the dumpster fire as my ex-wife struggled for her life in the comments and wishing I could add some of my own home truths but thought better of it. She was doing a better job all on her own than I ever could. I’m not sure why the nieces were using a different handle, but I was almost certain this Themis person was them or someone acquainted with them.I was just as curious about some of the revelations as Elena was, though, since some of it was news to me. There was some of what I’d learned from Lyon, and the Squad mentione